Test Town - Meet Our Perth Entrepreneurs!

You may have seen or heard the phrase ‘TestTown ‘ being knocked around a bit just now and if you are as curious as I am (which is as curious as Alice was) then you’ll be wondering what it is and why all the fuss.  

First up, it’s not a test for the town.  Nor is it run by the town. Or tested by the town! Once you accept this, the confusion lifts, the whole thing becomes much easier to understand and you can open yourself up to the genius of the idea and realise the motivation behind what is undoubtedly a great initiative.

So what is it?  The TestTown project was started three years ago by The Carnegie Trust and is set up to give innovative young people the chance to test out great business ideas for real, in town centres all around the UK. (Test Town… get it?!)

The idea is that there are ten towns across the UK and Ireland involved in the project and they are each given funding and support to develop opportunities for new start entrepreneurs within their town centres.

In the last two years, the project has helped to inject £200k into start-ups and has supported 150 entrepreneurs get 45 new local businesses off the ground. The sad truth is that official unemployment figures show that the number of young people out of work is proportionately much higher than us older generations.

I am all for this. The world is a very different place now and I believe there are many, many ways that a person can shape their career and find a job that offers the glorious satisfaction that comes from loving what you do.  I have been self-employed for thirteen years now and along the way I have created great success stories (you’re reading this after all!) AND experienced a few steep learning curves along the way! For the record, it has all been worth it and I wouldn’t change a single thing.

By encouraging business ideas and showing that it’s possible to create your own path and control your own destiny, TestTown looks to give bold young people a chance to showcase what their made of and to put their product, service or idea in front of their town.  It is a helping hand while you take that shaky uncertain step into self-employment.

The ten towns selected will invite their local entrepreneurs into the city centre and a panel of judges will select a regional winner who will go on to represent their area in the TestTown Grand Final taking place in early 2016.  The overall prize is a whopping £10,000 for the winner to invest in their business so it really is an amazing opportunity and one that I’m sure we’d all like to see going to a dynamic Small City new start!

This is where you come in!

The Perth heats are on now and you’ll find our seven potential businesses showcasing their ideas in St John’s Shopping Centre over the month of October.  The Test Town unit in the South Street leg of the mall has been set up to allow these brave and creative individuals the chance to chat to the public, get feedback and  maybe even sell a few products or services. 

Eva Christie – Trading 5^th October to 11^th October

You may have read about Eva a few weeks ago on Small City Stop Press and we were delighted to hear she has decided to take part in this great project.  Eva creates unique wearable pieces of art and specialises in hand knitted contemporary accessories using traditional stitches. She likes to draw inspiration from her childhood among the glens and sea lochs of the West Coast of Scotland and works primarily with luxurious natural, limited edition and vintage yarns which support her environmental values and commitment to the Slow Fashion movement. 

Within Eva's already established pop-up events, you will find a glorious range of local and hand-dyed yarns, knitting kits, ready to wear items, as well as vintage fabrics, buttons and notions. As well as finished products Eva also gives tuition in therapeutic knitting, workshops, yarn parties and consultation on community art projects are all available.

Nepal Beauty Salon – Trading 5th October to 1st November

Sarita Murray is 25 years old and comes from Pokhara in Nepal. She married a Scotsman and has been here in Perth since December last year. 

Sarita worked in her sister's beauty parlour in Nepal for 3 years during and during this time she learned threading and tinting, facial treatments, head massage, waxing, eyelash extensions and of course, great customer service.

She has worked in two salons since arriving but has hopes to set up on her own delivering her unique threading technique which is very gentle, leaving the customer with less skin irritation than usual.

Sarita will be offering treatments for the full month and looks forward to meeting you all!

Arcadian City – Trading Tuesday 13th October Only

Arcadiancity was founded by Danielle Douglas in 2014, initially starting out as a 'mood board' inspired project using her faithful phone camera - you will usually find Danielle admiring dogs, mopeds or on her phone editing photographs.

By means of social media, Arcadiancity became a popular go-to location for Scottish landscapes and rustic portraiture and thanks to the intricate balance Danielle finds between nature and object, her photography and fans increased rapidly within a few short months.  A featured user on Instagram, @arcadiancity was circulated voluntarily by this social media giant for several weeks, allowing Danielle’s followers to grow and expand into a new and specifically catered worldwide audience.

Based in Perth, Danielle has travelled across Scotland to photograph businesses, services and scenic locations. Her work has been featured by the likes of Linlingua Edinburgh, Lou Lou's Vintage Fair, Visit Oban's website and STV.

Now with a DSLR in hand, she is expanding her venture by combining her love of photographs with helping small businesses and giving people creative and memorable engagement and wedding photography. Be it landscape, wedding or event, Douglas' work is conducted and executed in the most professional of ways and with the most relaxing of settings. 

Salon & Spa Angels – Trading 12th to 18th October

Rana has been developing her business as recruitment agency specialising in the salon and spa industry since being made redundant last year. While looking for work as a therapist that would give flexibility and allow her to fit in other commitments she discovered a niche in the market.

After doing some research she found other people out there looking for a similar work opportunity all of whom were keen to register with an agency that could deliver the flexibility they needed for their particular work-life balance.  From an employer point of view, her idea allows cover for holidays, sickness and maternity periods and guarantees qualified and reliable therapists. It also allows employers and employees to try each other out before committing to a permanent position.

Salon And Spa Angels therefore, provides a bespoke, personalised service to the Salon and Spa industry and Rana personally deals with her clients face to face, visiting the salons and spas and getting to know their needs. This ensures she is supplying fully qualified Beauty, Massage and Holistic therapists, hand-picked for their specialist skills and tailored to suit individual salons.

Adventure Circus - Trading 13th to 18th October

Tuesday 13th - Friday 16th - 8.30am - 5.45pm each day
Saturday 17th - 8.30am - 3.00pm
Sunday 18th - 10.30am - 5.15pm

Adventure Circus is an aerial acrobatics company in Perth which was founded in January 2015 by Gemma Simpson and saw classes established from April this year at Perth Gymnastics Club. Stephen Armour joined as Co-Director and instructor in June and since then they have grown to become a much talked about activity in the Small City.

Gemma and Stephen met 4 years ago at Spinal Chord in Glasgow, when they were training aerial as a hobby. While Gemma established Adventure Circus, Stephen moved to London where he trained professionally with Gravity Circus Centre under world famous aerialists, Leo Hedman and Yam Doyev. Since returning he has completed a teacher training course with Paper Doll Militia. 

Classes include aerial silks, rope, hoop and trapeze for both children and adults, with their aim being to eventually include other disciplines like juggling and hula hoop -  this will allow them to offer a full variety of circus skills.  

Holy Shake – Trading all week 19th to 25th October

Holy Shake is run by local entrepreneur, Izi Ulhaq, who currently owns Lazeez fastfood outlet located in Bridgend.  His new business venture along with Lazeez is 'Holy Shake'.  These dfelicous shakes are rich, creamy goodness in a cup and are both healthy and delicious. Izi uses only top quality branded confectionary products as ingredients in his freshly prepared milkshake range and sources milk from local suppliers to create his huge variety of flavours. 

The Perth Gift Card – Trading 19th October to 1^st November

The Perth Gift Card is being operated by Miconex,  a Perth based Digital Marketing Agency. The Perth Card is a gift card designed to help retain consumer spend in Perth and provide a promotional vehicle for Perth’s businesses. 

Locals will be able to purchase the Visa cards as presents for friends and family who will then be able to spend their cards at local cafes, restaurants, shops, leisure and entertainment businesses. This will provide a local alternative to existing gift cards such as Amazon, Google Play and iTunes cards. A great solution this Christmas for those that are difficult to buy for. 

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So there we have it, seven great local businesses all in line for that £10,000 prize. Go on in and support them, offer your feedback and have a chat. Its a brave step when you put yourself out there and we can all make it easier by simply showing interest and letting them all know we're rooting for them with a little of the #PerthLoveFest spirit.