How trip to the Garage opened doors
BEST FRIENDS DECIDE THEY’RE BETTER TOGETHER Lisa and Laura dumped jobs after tech session with gurus
reached “We have not our target audiences online through our content ... yet.” - Ilka
Best friends Lisa Henderson and Laura Service met as graphic design students but were worried they’d end up competing for the same jobs - so they set up their own company after coaching from Google.
The duo do everything together, from swimming to yoga, and their partners are good friends, but going for the same jobs in a small industry was a worry.
They attended Google’s pop-up Digital Garage at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, offering free digital skills training and one-toone mentoring support.
Initially the friends, who had a small sideline project screen printing sportswear, asked trainers at the Google Garage how they could get more traffic to their website.
But they came away with information on using Google Trends and understanding analytics, how to promote themselves via blog posts and how to target potential clients through social media such as Twitter and LinkedIn.
Within a few sessions they both felt so inspired by what could be achieved they made the decision to leave their permanent jobs and start out on their own, launching Ilka. Google is offering training to people of all ages to improve their employment skills. Housed in a converted double decker bus, the Digital Garage training hub will stop at 50 locations around Scotland over the next three months, offering free digital skills coaching for all.
An old Scots word, ‘ ilk’ summed up the similar career path Lisa and Laura, both 28, had taken after uni’- Laura went to Melbourne and Lisa went to Madrid - before arriving back in Glasgow.
While overseas, the friends used social media to stay connected with family and friends but Google Garage showed how digital skills could transform their business.
Lisa explains:“Google’s Digital Garage proved to be invaluable. We were amazed at how simple learning effective online marketing could be and it really showed us how we could promote our skills as designers in our own right and start working on our own projects. With a change in our digital strategy and new insights into attracting potential customers, we felt inspired to take the risk and go out on our own.”
Laura adds: “The skills we picked up gave us an edge over competitors.”
Since setting up a year ago they