My takeaways from running a creative startup
I’ve always had a bit of an entrepreneurial spark: even back in my secondary school days, I’ve flipped and sold items on platforms like Instagram and Carousell to make a little extra pocket money.
In 2017, when I was 19 and completing my studies at Temasek Polytechnic, I founded Out & Ink, a company that specialises in temporary jagua ink tattoos, drawn on the spot by our team of artists. We mostly cater our services around events, which our name perfectly captures: to “go out, and ink”.
What are Jagua tattoos?
Jagua is a natural dye from a fruit called Genipa Americana. It’s skin-safe, stains blue-black and lasts up to two weeks, making it a commitment-free alternative to experiment with body art and self-expression. We apply them in gel-form via an applicator bottle.
When I first saw it being used, my mind clicked — it was a medium that could really resonate with a diverse audience, as well as enable artists to meaningfully showcase their skills.
The Start, and our foray into the local events scene
I started drawing with Jagua in June 2017. This was relatively easy for me to do as I was experimenting with henna art at that time, and I’ve been drawing and practicing art from a fairly young age. The first customers that I tested the ink with and gained feedback from were my friends at school.
Just a month later, I was introduced to IGNITE! Music Festival, an annual music festival run by Republic Polytechnic (RP) students, by my sister (who was an RP student at the time). I managed to get a booth at their festival village and gathered a couple of friends for Out & Ink’s first-ever pop-up. The crowd blew us away those two extremely fulfilling days, building the momentum for our spiel of pop-ups that followed over the coming months at Singapore Night Festival, Urban Ventures Street Party, ARTBOX, and other local craft fairs.
Fast forward to today, 2.5 years later: Out & Ink is a community of 12 artists (and counting) who enjoy what we do, taking on events and gigs on a freelance basis. In addition to our public event pop-ups, we’ve also explored taking one-on-one appointments and customising designs for private events like company D&Ds and opening nights.
If you have a creative business idea, here’s my advice:
1. Start out small.
As creatives, we tend to be overly idealistic about what we want to create. Be ambitious but realistic—especially in the beginning. Start small by finding the simplest thing you can do now to get the idea out there for validation. For me, it was trying the ink out on friends at school who have actually thought about getting a tattoo.
2. Creativity is questioning boundaries.
Try not to limit yourself: question everything and see how far you can go. For the fact that our niche is carved more so in the events space rather than the tattoo industry, we were better able to reframe our challenges into a question of “How do we make the experience of getting inked more fun & enjoyable?” and keep going in that direction.
This lead us to come up with new initiatives such as Ink Omakase (where you put your hand into a frame/get blindfolded for a mystery tattoo), and even designing and printing custom stencils for our private event clients (which makes inking just a 5 minute process).
3. Bring people together, and make it purposeful and fun.
Out & Ink has become a community, built on friendships and trust. We place a lot of focus on giving our artists a platform to exercise their creative muscle, showcase their skills, and bring joy to others while doing so. What we’ve created is participative, purposeful and full of good vibes from the people we’re built around.
Having more of us also makes our team more accessible and able to offer a range of different art styles. Even when we’re not at events, our customers are able to book one-on-one appointments with us every week at a co-working space in Somerset called *SCAPE Hubquarters.
4. Keep exploring, and learning.
For me, the best learning comes from doing, though I still make it a point to attend local start-up events and panels that help me learn from others’ experiences. Recently, our team also joined the *SCAPE Creative Fellowship Programme, which allowed us to meet other creative entrepreneurs and industry experts who challenged our perspectives with business tips and frameworks.
Starting your own creative business can be a very satisfying journey. Treat the entire experience as a learning process and it will be worth it, no matter the outcome. You’ll get to know yourself better, figure out how you work best, and exponentially expand your comfort zone.
