The latest in our series of Start-up Stories panel events focuses on businesses that started life as a passion, hobby or dream. Some of them literally started in bedrooms and grew from there. The four panelists share their inspiring stories of bedroom to business.

Rebekah Horton – RH Creations

Rebekah started gathering creative ideas for writing while playing beanie babies with her sister on the sofa. Her hobby grew into passion while being a resident at Exeter YMCA, and she fell in love with storytelling after spending most evenings writing monologues and poems, after being inspired by Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads. RH Creations was set up in 2020 and is a small business that provides creative content for charities. Rebekah’s passion is to combine mental health with creative arts to support people in expressing their voices and stories. Whether that is through writing, photography, films or books, it is essential for our mental health and well-being to express ourselves freely without judgement.

Jackie Lynch – Reiki Spirit

Jackie is a former solicitor who turned her passion for wellbeing into her own business. After training in reiki, Jackie began giving treatments to family and friends before leaving law early in 2019 and setting up her holistic wellbeing business, Reiki Spirit.

Based in Braunton, Jackie is a Reiki Master, wellbeing consultant and meditation guide. She specialises in helping women who are feeling lost in life learn how to create a life of fulfilment. Jackie offers reiki treatments and wellbeing programmes at the One Acupuncture women’s holistic health centre in Barnstaple. She also runs one-to-one retreats where individuals can relax, re-balance and connect deeply with themselves in order to uncover their true desires and learn how to put them at the centre of their lives.

Antonia Alexander – The Green Door

I set up my business just over two years ago from a room in my grandmother’s house that used to be my bedroom. I became self-employed because I wanted control over my time and to work at my own pace at creative projects. Also, to work on projects I found fulfilling being costume or sustainable fashion. I like having an intimate relationship with customers and it makes me feel close to the community I love. Business to me is about creating a community and providing a service with purpose and is in line with your beliefs. I enjoy altering clothes because it elongates their life before often ending up as textile landfill which is my hatred. I love clothes and feel they have the power to transform and make you feel amazing and that’s what I like to provide for my customers.

Kim Insull – Really Wild Learning

Kim is a self-confessed animal addict. He first became inspired and intrigued by the natural world as a young boy exploring his garden for mini beasts. This interest quickly grew and it wasn’t long before he was exploring the local pet shops and begging his parents to allow him to have a pet snake. Luckily they were extremely supportive and ‘Wiggles’ the garter snake became part of the family and many others followed! Kim found a lot of things at school a challenge but was truly captivated by art and science. He went on to study a BA Hon’s in Photography at University with the plan to become a wildlife photographer. Having gained his photography degree Kim discovered that he loved sharing ideas and inspiring young minds so trained as a secondary school teacher. He has worked as a teacher for 14 years in a variety of schools in the South West and Channel Islands so brings a completely unique set of skills to animal education. Kim had the idea to create Really Wild Learning in response to seeing children who were disengaged from education and unconnected to the natural world. Having taught children who had never seen animals up-close or gone on a nature walks he decided to get kids off the TV and internet and get involved in some Really Wild Learning themselves. Having kept and bred a variety of insects, snakes, lizards, frogs etc for over 30 years there isn’t very much he doesn’t know about these fascinating, misunderstood creatures.

Booking/Joining information

This is a Zoom webinar – details will be sent to you 24 hours before the session via email.

The session will be recorded for BIPC Devon’s archive. You are free to leave your cameras on or turn them off as you prefer. There will be a chance to ask questions during the session, which you can do via video/audio or by using the Zoom chat function.

If there is anything we can do to help you access this session more easily, please do get in touch at bipc@librariesunlimited.org.uk.