Design Career Spotlight: How I Started a Business with A Fellow QC Alumnus!

Hey there, my name is Daniella De Luca! As you may know, I’m a QC Design School Student Ambassador. What you might not know, however, is that in addition to being a graduate of QC Design School, I’m also a graduate of QC Event School, too.

In total, I’ve completed the following certification courses through QC:

If you’ve read my previous blog article, you’ll know that I didn’t originally set out to start a design career when I first enrolled with QC Design School. However, since completing my courses, I decided to take the plunge! My first business, Maximize Design, focuses on interior decorating services. I provide clients with creative and unique ways to maximize their small spaces by implementing functional space, thus saving elements to their homes. For now, this business mainly operates virtually.

Recently, I decided to embark on a new business venture with a close friend: jewelry designer and fellow QC graduate, Marie Ostrom! With our combined knowledge and experience (that we both gained from taking QC courses), we were able to create The Friendly Market.

Our individual businesses are very different, in terms of the products and services provided. However, we both share like-minded ways of running our new, joint venture together. This, in large part, is due to the incredible business knowledge we’ve goth gathered from our QC training! For instance, we share common goals and ways of approaching:

So, what is networking? Furthermore, why is it so important when starting a business?

Simply put, networking is when we interact and form connections with other people. This can be for social and/or business purposes. From a business standpoint, the goal is to exchange information with each other and use that information in a way that benefits our career and goals.

With everything going on in the world today, networking has become a little more difficult. We’ve been lacking face-to-face events and opportunities. However, QC Design School provides all students and alumni with the perfect virtual space for networking within their Virtual Classroom on Facebook! In this space, students and grads can share ideas, help one another with questions, collaborate, and network with like-minded individuals.

Now I’d like to introduce you to my new business partner, Marie Ostrom! Marie is a longtime friend. She’s an entrepreneur in her own business, Orange Sky Art Co., and now the Co-Founder of The Friendly Market.

Years ago, I had told Marie about how much I was enjoying my QC Design School courses. I was always talking about how much I was learning and how convenient the payment options were. Moreover, I gushed constantly about how QC’s flexible, online learning structure was the PERFECT fit for my busy schedule as a new mom. When Marie saw that QC had an Event School as well, she also decided to enroll!

Fast forward to today… Marie is currently enrolled in the Promotional Event Planning program. She’s also graduated from the following QC Event School Courses:

Furthermore, Marie also aspires to cross over into QC Design School and enroll in the Interior Decorating Course. Her business, Orange Sky Art Co., is a collection of unique, handmade polymer clay products and mixed media art.

The idea for creating The Friendly Market came from Marie. She wanted to start a rotating neighborhood market after COVID restrictions were lifted in our area. Importantly, she wanted to embark on this endeavor with a group of friends who also had their own businesses. This way, everyone could all expand their networks. Once I heard Marie’s idea, I jumped right on board!

With my legal background and knowledge of by-laws in our area, I knew that there may be some limitations to what we could do. Marie and I brainstormed, and had consultations with Jamil Elannan, a business consultant. Together, Jamil helped us navigate the complexities of our ‘market style’ approach. As a result of all this preparation, we’ve landed on creating a virtual market (for now)!

Once we figured out what we’d need to do, in order to start this business, we knew it would be a big task for either one of us to take on alone. So, we divided up the tasks and pursued them together! With the help of Jamil, as well as our knowledge from QC’s business development modules, we were able to effectively identify our target markets. We knew how we wanted to appeal to our potential customers. Furthermore, we also knew how to prepare a business plan for where we see ourselves going in the coming years.

The Friendly Market is an online market of vendors. We created this business as a convenient, one-stop-shop for unique, local, and handcrafted items. Currently, we have 3 sponsors:

1. Elm Law
2. Birch Law
3. And Divorce Buddy

Each vendor that’s currently part of our market has their own set of dynamic skills and talents. They bring these to the market in the form of either a product or a service. For example, Area Apparel provides custom apparel. Cliffside Style creates wood, glass, and stone home decor beads. Saw Something Nice creates geometric wood art, while Heart’s Desire Beauty makes nail polish, cuticle oils, and hand creams.

With our joint backgrounds in design and event planning from QC Design School and QC Event School, Marie and I have been able to apply so much of what we’ve learned to The Friendly Market. YOU may be thinking about enrolling with either of these schools. I can assure that regardless of whether or not you want to pursue a design career or event career specifically, the possibilities you’ll receive through QC’s certification training are ENDLESS!

The knowledge that Marie and I have both obtained has helped us with specific knowledge in our fields of choice. But it’s also helped better our creative mindsets, too. Now we can both approach new ideas with an understanding of what it takes to start a business – and market that business to clients. Speaking from my own experience, I originally enrolled at QC without any intention of starting a business. But now, I own 3!

If you haven’t started your design career yet, but dream of doing so, this is your sign to make TODAY the day you jump in with both feet! While you’re at it, you should definitely go join the QC Design and/or Event School Virtual Classroom. I truly do hope to see you there after reading this article!

Use this virtual space to your advantage and network with fellow QC students and graduates! At the end of the day, you never know which profession could use your design career or event career’s insight and experience. I mean, think about it: without networking, Marie and I would have never met. Marie would not have enrolled at QC (on my recommendation) to obtain her professional training. Moreover, The Friendly Market would not exist today!

I’d love to hear YOUR networking stories in the comments below! How has networking helped YOU get to where you are today? Alternately, where do you hope it can get you in the future?