How Zibah created a business that lets her teach on her own terms
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Introducing Hephzibah Kilbride, artist and founder of Linlithgow Pottery in Scotland
51-year-old Zibah began her journey as an independent business owner in 2017. After closing one studio and opening another, she's grateful for the support she's received to make a success of her "second attempt".
As a ceramic artist, Zibah creates both functional and sculptural works, inspired by the movement, textures and creatures found in nature. She loves running pottery classes from a studio she has leased using her Start Up Loan.
As part of our focus on female founders in March 2023, we asked Zibah about her motivations for becoming self-employed and how she's turned her passion into her main source of income.
About me….
I’m different! I am a Ceramics and Printmaking artist living just outside Edinburgh. I teach pottery classes and offer one-off taster classes on the potter’s wheel.
I absolutely love what I do and who I am when I’m making and sharing my passion.
I know that being creative, even just an hour spent splashing about on a wheel, takes your mind away from all life's stresses. I want everyone who comes into my studio to enjoy that feeling of letting go of their worries about everyday life, so they can walk away feeling a little lighter.
About my business…
Six years ago I started my first attempt at setting up my business. I opened The Creative Workshop, offering pottery classes and workshops as well as selling my work in the gallery shop. But it turned out not to be viable.
Four years ago I tried again, and in 2021 I applied for a Start Up Loan from Transmit Startups.
Transmit Startups not only offered me a loan with great rates and flexibility but also set me up with so much startup support.
This time, I had an advisor who helped me build my business plan and also helped me go through all of my numbers. This support enable me to figure out what amount would help me get set up properly.
The soft opening has been great! Being on the high street proper is a game changer. I’m in love with my new space!
"I started my own business as a way to earn more money. I was sick of working for people who undervalued my work ethic.
But my main reason for starting my business was to be able to be in my studio full time. At first, offering classes was just a way to make that happen, but I’ve fallen in love with teaching on my own terms."
Being a full-time artist has been the most amazing change in my life, I get up every morning looking forward to the day ahead.
Why female business owners need to stick together...
I feel like negotiating terms became much easier if my husband stepped in with his voice. I think when you're a woman, people can be bullies. It’s frustrating to experience a lack of power in negotiations and have to hand things over to the man in my life.
Linlithgow has a strong and unique high street and the majority of the small businesses here are owned by couples, or women
We wholeheartedly support one another and have a high street traders group. The group is very much held together by Sally Pattle who owns our amazing independent book shop Far from the Madding Crowd.
As a group, we run window competitions and take part in the national Fiver Fest campaigns, among other things, to bring business to our town.
"I love sharing the act of being creative. Sometimes it’s messy. Sometimes it’s beautiful. It’s always - every time - a moment to let the sound and the weight of the busy world around us to be quiet and to jump off of our shoulders.
Now I am growing into my new space and looking forward to hiring some staff."
What women need to start their own business...
A dream, belief in that dream, and courses to learn how to make those dreams reality.
I took a ton of the free classes offered through our Business Gateway.
Everyone needs help finding out what support is available and how best to use it, how to budget and how to manage the expenses of starting up a business. These are all things that can be learned for free!
About barriers and bullies...
The fear of failure holds us back at the beginning. Then it can be the odd bully who can make you feel like it can never happen.
I learned a lot through my first attempt at starting my business. I never quit. I paused and started again, smaller. I treated all of my mistakes as lessons, and with those under my belt, I am now growing.
I hope to continue to grow my businesses into an even larger space in three years, which will be able to offer even more to my community.
The biggest lesson I've learned is that I can’t do everything! No one can. Budget for those things and get help.
My hopes for future female founders…
My biggest wish for the next generation of female entrepreneurs would be that they find something that they love and turn it into a business.
The thing that makes you the happiest you can be: make that your business and share that passion!
When you find the thing that makes you sing, and teach people how to sing along with you, you're on the right road.
Has Zibah's story got you thinking?
"We’re delighted to be the 2000th loan recipients!"