“After 31 years in this business I have made so many mistakes – some bad ones, some strange ones and some good ones – it feels right now to ‘pay it back’ and share some of what I have learnt with others,” David Hicks, founder and owner of Really Good and Soul summing up the rationale behind a programme of events and engagements.
These include a Design Competition, which was open to all artists and designers tasked to come up with a creative concept that could be translated onto greeting cards and gifts – with the winner receiving £1,000 as well as seeing their designs being brought to life on actual products.
Drawing on the expertise of PR maestro Jessica Huie, the competition attracted over 50 entries. These were judged last week at PG Live by a panel comprising WHSmith buyer Claire Castle; Alan Harnik, president of US distributor Notes & Queries; Jenny Cummins, md of Australian distributor Macmillan Cards; Postmark’s managing director, Mark Janson-Smith and PG’s editor Jakki Brown whose votes were aggregated to arrive at the final four finalists.
“Although all the judges voted independently there was a strong cross over in their choices which resulted in four clear finalists,” commented David Hicks.
The finalists are Harrison Howard for a quirky vintage travel concept; Sanna Kallio’s for Girl Power; The Birdy Collection by Randa Magid and Vicky Yorke for her animal print collection.
The ultimate winner will be revealed in July with the plan to launch actual greeting cards featuring the winning designs under Really Good/Soul at the start of next year.
Last Thursday (June 7) David Hicks joined other notable entrepreneurs on stage at The Venue in the former Battersea Powerstation, as one of the speakers in the ‘Secrets of CEOs: How to build a brand you believe in’ event, which forms part of the Festival of Entrepreneurship 2018.
The other panelists were: David Kosky, co-founder of Work.Life; Pippa Murray, founder of Pip & Nut; Steve Moore, founder of Flight Club; Adam Sopher, founder of Joe & Seph’s and Olivia Wollenberg, founder of Livia’s Kitchen.
Among the ‘golden nuggets’ of advice David shared were:
- “Always employ people who are smarter than you are.”
- “Never make a mistake you can’t afford.”
- “When you do make a mistake, dust yourself down and then move onto the next thing.”
- “Set the tone of your business and employ people with the same empathy.”
- “It’s your responsibility to work yourself out of the business.”
