Growing as an Art Entrepreneur

​What started out as a social neighbourhood project, turned into a self-sustainable organization that won the 2015 award for being the greatest start up in Leiden, the Netherlands. Together with her team, Simone van Olst (48) offers sculptures, as well as sculpting classes and workshops for every age, group, and level. Through this, she has seen her business grow a lot over the past ten years since becoming independent. In the interview we had, we discovered the enormous drive and commitment that made Simone shape her business along the lines of her personal values, while simultaneously being able to discover and create opportunities for growth and development.

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​Atmosphere and social values: The welcoming atmosphere of the Atelier has been very important in making the company so successful. Simone says: ‘’People come from far and wide to take our classes because they like it so much here. This must mean we are doing something right.’’ Taking sculptor classes at Simone myself, I experience the same thing: the minute you walk in you feel welcome. The atelier is a place where people can be themselves, come together, and get inspired. During the classes there is no distinction made between young and old, or even between beginners and more advanced sculptors. This creates a very lively dynamic in which people have the opportunity to learn from each other. Perhaps the best example of the great atmosphere she has created is the fact that it were students who signed her up for the award she won for greatest start-up of Leiden in 2015. Furthermore, Simone really complies with her motto: Everyone is able to sculpt. Attention is given to people that face physical or mental problems. Simone tells about one of her clients who was turned away from clay lessons because she was not able to knead due to a thumb injury. She found her place at Simone where the focus is on what she is still able to do instead of what not. Another example of this is the stamp card, which she introduced so that people only pay for the classes they take. With this initiative Simone manages to reach healthcare workers who have a different working schedule every week. These examples are very typical for Simone’ s approach. The inclusive and flexible character of her business is what makes her unique, and what makes people want to come back.

Mastering the art of entrepreneurship: The social nature of the business can be traced back to the beginning when the studio was still part of the foundation. Together with her neighbours, Simone was asked to set up a foundation in her neighbourhood. They did a lot of art projects for the community and Simone became frontrunner of the sculpt studio. After a few years, however, it started to itch to start her own business. Simone saw all this great potential in the atelier, but because she was part of a foundation, growing and developing was only possible to a minimal extent. In agreement with the other members, Simone took the atelier out of the foundation and set up her own business. By having her own business Simone was able to let her entrepreneurial spirit run free. She says that when she went to school, you either focused on skills to become an entrepreneur or to become an artist. In today’s world, however, she believes that it is very important that you are able ​to combine these two skillsets. Being successful as an artist means you also have to engage in activities like social media and bookkeeping. From the interview, it became clear that Simone really likes this part of her business as well. She enjoys the entrepreneurial side and keeps looking for opportunities to grow. As she said herself:  ‘’I think I am more commercially minded than other artists. I have always seen the advantages of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, making sure that you can sell your sculptures, developing secondary activities…’  In the beginning, all the money she earned (minus costs and btw) she invested back into the company, which enabled her to grow fast. In only a small period of time, she already had a mini-shop, a website and webshop. Of course, a growing business also comes with challenges. The expansion meant that as she was not able to teach all the classes herself anymore, so she had to hire instructors. As her name is attached to the atelier, she experienced that some of the ’old’ clients had to get used to her not being around all the time.  

​The right mindset: For Simone, an important part of her being a creative entrepreneur can be related to her ADHD. She started off with various jobs, among others design for Ikea in Delft, but getting higher up would mean being less involved in the creative aspects of the business. This creative aspect was the most important trigger in getting a lot of work done, so she decided to quit and figure out what could be the next step for her. Only three weeks later, a local government official was on her doorstep to ask her if she was interested in the project from which her atelier came forth. Being able to direct herself while also having the opportunity to be creative seemed an almost ideal fit, so she was very eager to take the offer. Simone’s restlessness is also one of the main driving forces behind the growth of the company.
​Currently, a possible expansion of her atelier is on the planning.
A fair bit of the decisions she makes for her company are based on intuition. Simone says she trusts her guts a lot and when she makes a decision this motivates her to really go all-in to make it work. Accordingly, she says: “being a creative entrepreneur, you are even more involved with where your heart lies, so making these decisions and making them work makes you extremely motivated.” Simone, however, also describes the downside of this, by being so emotionally invested in your business, a burn-out can become a problem at a certain point.

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The future… As mentioned, there are plans for expanding the atelier, as well as starting an online academy. “In order to set up the academy, however, you need a lot of time, money, and technical know-how, which are exactly the three things I am lacking at the moment,” Simone laughingly points out. The second point being mostly due to the corona crisis. However, corona seemed to have opened the door to different opportunities as well. Just before the pandemic started, it just so happened to be that Simone ended her partnership with the person that ran her webshop. She decided to offer a broader assortment rather than only what is made in her atelier. As a result, she quickly went from offering 50 products to almost 7000, which offered her a means to keep her business afloat during the pandemic. To use Simone’s words: ‘’I think part of being a creative entrepreneurs is taking risks and just doing it sometimes. It is impossible to reason everything you do. This is actually kind of similar in sculpting: You have to take risks, otherwise there will be no sculpture.’’

Dit interview is gemaakt door Ilse Romeijn en Cas de Bootder voor hun studie aan de Erasmus University Rotterdam Cultural entrepreneurship and growing organizations.

This research is being conducted by Cas and Ilse. We are inviting you to participate in this research project about cultural entrepreneurship. The purpose of this research project is understanding how artisan entrepreneurs discover and/or create opportunities for growth and development .