Eleanor tells us how coming to the Bloomsbury Beginnings’ Start Up programme helped her to show off her unique world music concert series ‘Tuned In London’ to a bigger audience

Over the past few years I have put together and run a series of World and Folk music concerts that evolved to become Tuned In London. I’m very proud of the unique and intimate events we run, the talented musicians we support and our beautiful ‘hidden gem’ venue at Sands Films, Rotherhithe.  But it was often difficult to bring in a big enough audience to appreciate the talented artists on stage, and to cover our costs. So I was looking for business advice about how to sustain ourselves and ideally scale up.

I was drawn to join the programme after coming to a panel event run by Bloomsbury Beginnings and Blooming Founders where I heard some powerful testimony from other women who’d been through the programme.

The course threw up lots of challenges for me – some of the business models we explored that would have potentially allowed me to monetise quickly (for example offering corporate hospitality) didn’t always align with my values and what I felt passionately about. But I loved the fact that I gained real clarity about what I did want to achieve, and that I was surrounded by smart, supportive women who gave me feedback about how I presented and sold my very unique proposition. I went away re-energised and confident, knowing much more about how to engage and grow my audience. I formed a great friendship group too.  The Calthorpe Garden added an extra dimension for me as I really enjoyed being in the natural setting – I’ve often come back to events here since with my daughter.

Since completing the course (and going on to get involved in Tree Shepherd business incubator too), I’ve been ‘discovered’ by some big influencers in the music business, attracted some of world music’s most well known artists, filled my Sands Film venue to capacity on many occasions and even branched out to develop a new classical music concert series TunedIn to Shortwave Nights which launched just before Christmas and has attracted some amazing musicians and a growing audience.

If you have a project you’re passionate about, and want to grow, then I would really recommend that you apply for the programme

2020 Update: Our next course starts in January 2021