Go Furness

Better than Chocolate

modelling competitions

I walked into Kells Exclusive Images Ltd. at the end of a long and busy day feeling tired and wanting to be at home. I left feeling enthusiastic, inspired, excited and full of energy. This was no ordinary photography studio.

The business was originally started by Mike who has always liked the creative and cutting edge side of photography, but never quite managed to translate that into a business. He had a very respectable professional ‘bread and butter’ production with plenty of ‘on the edge ideas’. That was, until his daughter Dawn got involved.

Dawn is a powerhouse of ideas, with solid business sense, stunning people skills and is a fearless entrepreneur. Mike says that she has made it possible for him to spend his time doing what he loves whilst she runs the business. It has freed up his time and his creativity and a whole new business concept has hit the ground running.

Now, ‘running the business’ to most people would mean marketing, selling, book-keeping and making appointments. And she does do all those things exceptionally well. But to Dawn it could mean anything from covering 50–60 year old women in 45 kg of chocolate for a group shoot, to taking young models off to foreign countries to celebrate winning one of her modelling competitions, to doing all the make-up for a bridal party to donating £10,000 to her favourite local charity. Today she heard that the Sun Newspaper is featuring some of their photographs. Whatever Dawn does, she does big and she does well.

Mike says she has an amazing ability to turn his ideas into reality and she obviously has plenty of her own as well. She is very methodical in her processes, and uses conventional strategies to unveil her very unconventional ideas. For instance the idea to set up the modelling competitions powered by public votes came from following current media trends. She was aware that reality voting is epidemic and people want to be involved in projects in real time. She thought it would be a side-line, but it is now a full time job. This year, the competition will be done in the style of Next Top Model. Her final shows sell out in 12 hours! She was also aware of the increasing trend towards interactive art and she and her Dad invite people to be part of an artistic experience. Dawn has also taken advantage of Bebo and Facebook and says that her online social networking is more beneficial than her actual website. Smart girl.

At certain points in their partnership, Dawn and Mike have been advised that their ideas won’t work, that ‘Barrow isn’t like that’ or that people in Barrow won’t pay for posh services. But with Dawn’s determination, they have proved them very wrong.

The secrets of their success?

• Keeping up the momentum without getting burned out
• Keeping it fresh and new and moving all the time
• Staying aware of social changes, advances in technology and the business context
• Working very hard-forget about time off and sleeping!
• Employing the right team
• Recognising their own strengths and weaknesses and employing people to do the bits they are weak at
• Seeing hidden solutions rather than problems
• Being brave enough to take risks
• Staying very positive and focussed even when things go wrong
• Believing in themselves and their ideas “There isn’t anything that you can’t achieve, just keep setting your sights”
• Being ok with change
• “The only thing that is failure is not taking a chance”
• Remembering that not all rewards are financial
• Having ideas and acting on them
• And most of all….having lots and lots of fun!

I really enjoyed my visit to Kells and have a funny feeling it won’t be the last I hear of those two mavericks!

Posted by Kay Hebbourn on 9th July.