A1 Sole Trader Case Study
Tanya Bennett (Pirate)
Sole Proprietor
Pirate is a Hong Kong based illustration and design services business founded by Tanya Bennett in 2015. Services include portraiture, visual imagery and live illustration instore for luxury fashion and lifestyle brands, including Cartier, Chloe, Dior, Fendi and Jimmy Choo. Over the past five years, Tanya has evolved her business to provide services such as branding services, and graphic and product design, and has recently illustrated 9 children’s books.
What was your background before you founded Pirate?
I completed a BSc in clothing design and manufacturing and ended up specialising in illustration. Then I moved to China and worked with factories for two years, which was fun, doing design and product development. When I moved to Hong Kong in 2007, I got poached to run an art gallery and had no idea what I was doing. It was a completely new experience for me, but I had an incredible mentor for the first year and that set me up to eventually leave and start my own business 6 years later.
What made you decide to set up your own business?
At the gallery, I probably got to the point where I felt I had outgrown my role. It was either a case of looking to take the next step up in terms of a bigger gallery, institution or art fair. It kind of just didn’t really appeal to me because secretly all along all I wanted to do was paint. I was 30 and it was a case of if I don’t try it now, I will always be a frustrated artist. At the gallery I met so many artists and they were so inspiring, so for me, it was one of those make or break moments.
What steps did you have to go through to start up?
Hong Kong is so well set up to support entrepreneurs and small businesses. I had googled how to register as a business and went along to revenue tower thinking that I had to submit all these documents. For me, as a sole proprietor, I had to complete a one-page form, take a ticket (mine was ticket 88!) and then I submitted it along with my HKID. About 5 minutes later I had a business registration certificate. It was so easy.
A lot of sole props are often working from their house. I asked some friends if I could use their address in the City as an office address to give my business a bit more gravitas and prestige than a village address on Lamma Island.
When asked what I do, I would tell people that I was an artist, and I started to put myself out there without any real business plan, but with a few contacts for freelance jobs. I suppose the business evolved as I got jobs. It wasn’t that I saw a gap in the market and targeted myself towards that, it was through contact networks in Hong Kong, which I think is a very fundamental part of any business here. It’s very unique to Hong Kong. Everybody knows each other quite well and recommendations are very frequently by word of mouth. Through that, people would say ‘hey can you do this’ and I would say ‘sure’. Then I would have to figure out how I was going to do it. For example, I had never considered doing live events until my friend asked me to illustrate at one. Now it’s a staple revenue stream for my business.
How would you define a sole proprietor?
You’re singularly the business. You and the business are the same thing and its super easy to set up. You are 100% liable for the business though. So whilst its really difficult to raise capital as a sole proprietor, if you do happen to take out a business loan and you default on that, you are then personally responsible for it. You could have your own house repossessed unless you have liability insurance.
As a freelancer, especially as an artist in Hong Kong, I think its fundamental to be adaptable to the market and the demand. There’s certain aspects of my job that I prefer creatively over others, but you have to take the work where it is.
What would you say the benefits are to being a sole proprietor?
It’s easy to set up, and easy to manage. There are no real formal requirements, you can literally just fill in the form and get started. The tax return and accounting are pretty straight forward whereas, with being a limited, its more complicated administratively; you also have the ability to manage your own time, and your own projects.
What challenges do you feel you have faced as a result of being a sole trader?
The reality is that you work all of the time. I can be at my desk at 6:30 in the morning and still working at 10 o’clock at night. I work when I’m on holiday. I’m constantly on social media, email, and on Whatsapp to my clients. There are no boundaries, but then it’s your business, and your livelihood. As a sole prop you get to keep 100% of your profits, so it’s in your interest to try and generate as much revenue as possible.
I actually remember with my first big job, it was the night before my sister’s wedding and we were at the rehearsal dinner. I had my laptop with me under the table finishing files so I could send them back to Hong Kong in time. My dad was so mad at me but I had no other choice because I had to meet a deadline.
Because it’s just you, you have to wear a lot of hats. You have to be the business developer, and the marketer, you have to be creative, and be the accountant. It’s a lot, and you have to switch between all of them.
If you were to take on a partner, what would you be looking for?
The product I produce can only be done by me. Its my art, my style, so I wouldn’t really be able to hire another creative. I would like somebody to take away some of the administrative tasks. So somebody who could handle my accounts, business development, client relations, field enquiries and that sort of thing. That takes up a lot of my time and energy and takes that away from physically producing the work.
Could you identify any factors from the external environment that helped make your business a success?
For me in Hong Kong, it’s the fashion market in general and how well luxury goods sell. Very small boutique brands do not have the budget to hire a fashion illustrator to come instore and draw their guests for a day. Premium luxury and lifestyle brands do. That’s allowed me to align myself with those sorts of brands, which is amazing.
There’s small network of artists/illustrators in Hong Kong, so we often bounce work to each other if we can’t take it on ourselves. Its quite supportive and I really like that.
I’ve just naturally migrated into different product areas. I’ve started on children’s book illustration which is just a very organic switch for me, it’s not something I actively pursued. As with anything I’ve ever done with my business, it’s all been a very organic consumer led demand process. Somebody came to me and said ‘hey do you want to illustrate a book?’, and I said ‘okay’. Once I had promoted that across my platform, other people could I see I could do that, and asked me to work with them on other books. So now I’ve gone from never having done a children’s book, to currently working on my ninth in a year.
Could you identify any factors from the external environment that have caused problems for you?
The political situation in Hong Kong. A lot of the events I did were live instore. Last year with the protests, stores were forced to close. A lot of local people weren’t shopping and a lot of Mainland Chinese tourists weren’t coming over to visit the city which was a large chunk of the market. On top of that, there’s been Covid which is a massive factor with everything being physically shut. I did 40 events in 2019 and I’ve done 1 in 2020. Because event work pays quite well due to the bespoke nature of it, I have had to increase the volume of the other products I create such as portraits and design.
Hong Kong works on a really tight timeline, they want everything next week. Everything is a crisis and I consistently get requests for work in ridiculously tight timelines. I’m now so used to being able to just click it out. Its really hard to plan in that respect. Once I had a 24 hour turnaround to produce 8 portraits.
What’s been your favourite part of the experience?
I suppose it’s just bring proud of how capable I can be of running my own business and how many small moving parts are involved in that. It’s all-consuming because you have to wear so many hats. You have to not only be the artist; but you also have to build your business development, you have to do marketing, you have to do accounting, and you have to do administration. I spend so much of my time following up payments and creating invoices. It’s very time consuming and takes away from the main work I do, which is being creative. Its not until you take a step back, that you realise how much you’re able to juggle, and that makes me feel quite proud.
What advice would you give somebody who was thinking of starting their own business?
Do something you are passionate about. You are going to spend a lot of time working on this.
