Full Profile
Lucinda Noonan - MA Media Enterprise
Company: The Event Dressers- Business: Events Organisers
- Established: August 2007
- Status: Sole trader
- Based: Northumberland
Entrepreneurial Flair
Lucinda Noonan is in the dream business. Her company helps to turn clients' hopes into reality but that would not have happened without her own dreams being given a wake-up call during her time on the MA Media Enterprise course.
Lucinda is one of the successful young entrepreneurs who has taken lessons from the MA in Media Enterprise out into the real world. "The course gave me the knowledge and confidence to turn a really vague idea and dream into a reality and gave me the essential tools and contacts to set everything up," she says and adds, "It was so inspiring having entrepreneurs from all walks of life come and talk to us about their experiences. It's amazing what you can learn from other people's mistakes and successes."
The Event Dressers
Lucinda was working in public relations in the creative sector when she decided to apply for the course. "I realised I had a lot of enthusiasm and creativity pent up inside me that was wasting away and I had just too many ideas and opinions to be restricted by an employer. I needed to pursue my own business idea that I had been thinking about since I was 15 years old, working in a small balloon shop in Hertfordshire. With no mortgage, children or other commitments, this was the perfect time to discover whether I would sink or swim in the realm of entrepreneurship and business start up," she said.
Now Lucinda and her business partner Gus, whose background is in accountancy, run The Event Dressers. The company, based in Northumberland, are unique event decorators who can provide anything from balloons to centrepieces, material canopies to chair covers.
Putting her MA course into practice means that Lucinda has a clear view of the business now - "We have set up from the word 'go' as a stylish and event savvy company with the flexibility to make any event unique at a reasonable price" - and in the future - "I see myself with a team of staff on board and concentrating my efforts on corporate events nationwide. I also see us having an online store to help with franchising the company."
Dream Come True
The development of the company so far, she says, has fitted well with what she has been learning and she picks out in particular the modules dealing with business planning, finance and e-commerce and the practical project-based elements of her studies. Overall she believes that without the course she might have succeeded but more likely would have "taken the plunge and drowned within the first few months."
From the outset Lucinda believed her course was 'a Masters that could get you somewhere' and that feeling, she says, has grown stronger. "I definitely believe that. I am still getting there but it is getting closer and closer by the day."
Who says dreams never come true?
Bob Calver
Work Examples
Core Values
"You can always think of hundreds of reasons not to do something but it's looking at the reasons for doing it and trusting your instincts that make you an entrepreneur."
http://www.theeventdressers.co.uk