Redundancy set Fife entrepreneur down road to becoming own boss

Jane Banks’ LaserFlair provides laser cutting and engraving from her Kingdom home

Being made redundant during the financial crisis gave Jane Banks the opportunity to set up laser cutting and engraving business LaserFlair in Fife. Q What does your business do? A LaserFlair offers contract manufacturing laser cutting and engraving services to companies, organisations and individuals across the UK. I work with distilleries, jewellery makers, designers, engineering companies, museums and food vans to create products to their design. Customers include Diageo, Volvo and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. I started the business five years ago and work from home in Upper Largo. Q Why did you start in business? A Redundancy, in a word I was really struggling to find jobs in the manufacturing sector after the financial crisis. My husband encouraged me to start my own business, so I tried to think about ways I could make things cost-effectively. Laser cutting and engraving had potential. We moved to a house with outbuildings and bought a machine. Once I had a website up and running, I got inquiries about contract manufacturing. My initial plan was to make personalised gifts, but contract manufacturing fitted my experience of project management and working with customers to create their own products. Q How did you get to where you are? A By not giving up, pushing myself out of my comfort zone regularly, and being prepared to try new things. Q Who has helped you along the way? A I launched a new website and blog – laserflair.co.uk – and Business Gateway Fife was a great support, and provided specialist help for search engine optimisation. The advice I was given was invaluable and taught me how to maintain my ranking without needing further help. My husband has been wonderful ever since I decided to start the business. He is an amazing fix-it person and helped me to install the machine and ancillary systems. I couldn’t have done it without him. Q What was your biggest mistake? A Not getting stuck into social media or blogging soon enough. It is a great way to spread the word, keep up to date with customers and make new contacts. Blogging is good for describing what I do. It doesn’t take off overnight, but with perseverance you can build a following. Q What is your greatest achievement? A In September I won Most Enterprising Business of the Year at the Association of Scottish Businesswomen awards. Another great moment was engraving commemorative cask ends for Diageo when David Cameron opened their extended distillery facilities at Cameronbridge, Leven. Q What do you hope to achieve? A I’d like to build my customer base and keep myself as busy as I want to be. Being in control of everything and working from home maximises flexibility and keeps risks manageable. Q Do you want to recruit in the future? A It’s not something I’m planning.

Jane Banks with her laser engraving machine at her home.