What it was like to run an arts and crafts studio in 2019 — M.Y.O

A year of creativity in and out of our creative studio

Ever wanted to set up your own arts and crafts studio? I set one up with my girlfrience Diana in 2017 and this is an update on how it went in 2019.

M.Y.O is an arts and crafts / creative studio for adults in Borough, London, where you can ‘Make Your Own’ creative ideas come to life. We host 100s of guests every week for arts and crafts based creative workshops, hen parties, birthdays and team building days. Make creative content for the public and brands, help launch brands, bring creativity to retail outlets, events, festivals and do tonnes more. Need something creative? Drop us a message, if we can’t do it, we’ll more than likely know someone who will.

We’re self-funded and on a mission to bring a creative outlet to the world! Below is a summary of how 2019 went in the world of creativity. Lots of learning and fun opportunities.

• In summary, went well, but time to crank it up in 2020! This bootstrapping takes time, but we’re getting there!
• Hosted over 4,500 guests for creative classes, hen parties, member socials, client networking, birthdays, baby showers and team building days
• Left our 2nd studio (in Peckham Levels), to focus on making the Borough studio busier than ever and working on other opportunities. The space wasn’t the right one for us, but lots of lessons learned

• Were constantly amazed at how creative EVERYONE is
• Welcomed tonnes of great organisations to the studio like Google, BCG, IBM, Virgin Galactic, The Premier Inn, NHS, Lily’s Kitchen, Monzo, Deutsche Bank, Lloyd’s Bank and more

Companies M.Y.O has hosted for creative team building

• Brought creativity on the road, a lot. Hosted 100s of freshers over UCL freshers week, went to music and boat festivals
• Worked with great brands like Diageo and Adidas’ Oxford Street store to bring their brands to life through creative sessions
• Trialed a creative membership — we may trial it again in the future!
• Hired in a general manager to cover for Diana who returned to full-time work (so we could get a mortgage to buy a house), the wonderful Kirsty Poole, and remain very lucky to have an all-round great team of hosts who help run our creative classes. Thank you Charley, Abby, Polly, Jamie, Alex, Ros, Georgie, Martha for being on the journey with us and well done on all your other creative missions!

• Launched a M.Y.O YouTube channel and filmed how-to videos to help you make at home, whilst working with film studios to bring how-to creative content to their apps
• Launched new classes (we now have over 14 — freshest one being Macrame), regular competitions and a loyalty card
• Started monthly ‘hustle days’, where creatives from the M.Y.O team and (now) elsewhere can use the studio for a day to share ideas and help each other grow their creative businesses. Let’s help each other grow together
• Launched new products (maker kits) and a creative shop showcasing some of the creative makes from the team, with plenty more to come!
• Were featured in lots of places like Mollie Makes, Southwark Business Today, Balance Magazine, Stylist Loves, South London Club, Short Stuff Media, Visit London, Enterprise Nation, and more
• Met new friends in places like Openmind Wellbeing (wellbeing platform) and VidiCrew (a great app to crowdsource your own wedding video, check it out) and in the studio every day :)
• Hosted collaborative events with Studio Bagru, The Sewcial Circle and Daniel Heath

• Donated creative vouchers and cash to great charities like Macmillan Cancer Support, BackUp, Cancer Research UK, Breast Cancer Now and many more
• Won / got nominated for a couple of awards — Travel & Hospitality Awards 2020 and art school of the year at the Corporate Prestige Awards. We’ll take any and all awards we get :)

• Celebrated existing for over 2 years, woop woop. Is 2.5 now.
• Survived the hottest day in London, ever! 40 degrees
• Continue to be grateful to platforms that we list our classes, like Obby, Funzing and Virgin Experience Days
• Glazed, glazed, glazed and kiln fired!
• Hosted rehearsals and saw exhibitions and shows from many of the talented team
• Got tonnes of positive reviews, thanks so much!
• Had a barn storming Christmas to round of the year
• Started hosting events with partners, just getting started with Queen of Hoxton, working with Better Bankside to host creative sessions with local businesses, speaking at the Festival of Enterprise, will be at the Miss Jones PA summit and lots more bubbling — watch this space!

As always, feels like we’re just getting started on our journey of running this arts and crafts studio. Thanks for being a part of our creative journey. Now, less talk, more action from us. We got this!

Hope to see you in the studio soon and that your year is colourful, creative and fun!

If you’d like to find out more about what we do for companies and in general, take a look here and here.

Thanks for reading and have a colourful week, Sam

I’m co-creater (with Diana) of M.Y.O, a creative studio for adults in London, where you can make things, have fun and enjoy the mindfulness benefits of being creative through arts and crafts.If you’re interested to find out more about M.Y.O and our journey, be sure to follow me on Linkedin / Medium, subscribe to the M.Y.O newsletter here and follow us on Facebook or Instagram.