Dublin City Enterprise News Talks To...Angela Carr

In the second part of ‘Dublin City Enterprise News Talks To’, we meet Angela Carr, a qualified Architect and member of the Dublin City Enterprise Network for Women.

Angela set up a unique ‘first steps’ service for the housing market back in 2008 called Living:Room and we’ve asked Anglea to tell us about her experiences of setting up a business.

About Living:Room
With the housing market on the slide, Angela saw that homeowners would be concerned about their current homes meeting their long term needs, and focused on providing advice on how to make the most of their homes in an economical way. Living:room  offers a two hour design consultation service to help homeowners or buyers discover hidden potential, test ideas and assess options before committing to changes, as well as advising on planning matters, energy efficiency, optimizing space and offering a full architectural design service.

QUESTION-TIME
How did you decide to start your own business?
I was made redundant in 2008 and decided it was time to strike out on my own. The idea for the business came about as I considered selling my own home and realised there was so much potential there to be explored by a buyer looking for a property they could adapt to meet their needs.

With the market already starting to slow down it seemed to me there would be a need for someone who could spot that potential, whether it was for homeowners who couldn’t afford to move and needed the space or those looking to buy a house with real long-term value in the falling market.


What was the greatest stumbling block?
Well, two months after the launch of the business and a feature in the Irish Independent, the economy went into freefall!

This not only rocked the construction industry, as we’ve seen, but left many people vulnerable financially and how they felt about their homes changed drastically. Where previously we had viewed a home as security, for many it became their main source of worry – I felt I couldn’t market taking a positive approach to their homes until people were ready to hear that message.

How did you overcome this?
Instead of ‘selling’ a product or service, I focused on communication, on helping people understand how good design choices add value, not just in financial terms but in quality of life. I’ve been aware for a long time that architects have not done a good job of explaining what we do – as an industry we have effectively been marketing ourselves to other architects, instead of to the people who will benefit most from our skills.

I started writing for home improvement magazine, ‘Decorate & Improve Your Home’, and also started my own regular blog round this time – www.livingroomblog.ie – where I focused on home design issues, planning advice, energy improvement and ideas for making better use of space.

I also started using social media to help spread the word ‘Good Design Works’  - I tweet regularly and post a great example of housing design every day on the business Facebook page. One of my tweets was even picked up by Channel 4 Homes and featured on their blog!

As a result, I was nominated for inclusion in Plan Magazine’s, ‘Future Leaders’ issue in April, which features architects and others in the building industry who are doing things differently in response to the recession.

How did you decide to contact DCEB and what supports have they given you?
My first contact was through the ‘Women Entering Business’ programme, which gave me the courage to go ahead and start my own business. Through this I was also introduced to the Dublin City Enterprise Network for Women – I’ve been a member for the past two years and find it a great way of staying motivated, touching base with others facing the same challenges and experiences and spreading the word about the business.

I also found the ‘Running a Small Business Web-site’ course to be incredibly helpful, as well as numerous half-day workshops and seminars. These are great value as you get advice from people at the forefront of their field for a fraction of the cost of a public workshop, like Krishna De’s ‘Tune Up Your Marketing’ – this was not only a great session but Krishna has been very supportive of the business since and always has new ideas for me whenever we meet. She’s a fantastic role model and it easy to see why she was chosen to be a Female Ambassador for Entrepreneurship by Enterprise Europe.


Our thanks to Angela for being this month’s guest on ‘Dublin City Enterprise News Talks To.’

If you’d like to get in touch with Angela Carr at Living:Room:
Visit www.livingroom.ie    E-mail: info@livingroom.ie    Phone: 087 6780895

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