Ashley Cavers mini biog
Ashley has a background in print and broadcast media, and has worked for both the BBC and Sky TV, with more recent experience in corporate communications and enterprise networks. For the last eight years, she has worked freelance for The Sunday Times Fast Track, meeting the entrepreneurs behind some of the UK’s most successful private businesses. She also has direct experience of starting and running her own businesses, having previously run a PR and events firm as well as a retail business, which she successfully sold. Earlier this year, she took up a role as Lead Network Navigator with Oxlep Business, helping to support start-up and growth companies across Oxfordshire. Ashley experienced OxLEP Business’s support first-hand, after co-founding The Wonky Food Company in 2017. The company makes relishes out of imperfect fruit and veg and started selling in The Midcounties Co-op this summer. Earlier this month, The Wonky Food Company was included in the 2018 list of Game Changers in the Thames Valley region.
How did your portfolio career come about?
I never consciously set about to have a portfolio career (in fact, I hadn’t even heard of the phrase ‘portfolio career’ until fairly recently!). My career started off fairly conventionally, working in staff roles for the BBC and then for Sky Television during my twenties. But when I turned 30, and recently married, my husband and I had the opportunity to move to West Cork in Ireland, a place where we had frequently holidayed and had always loved. I was feeling a bit disillusioned and burned out, doing some serious commuting and working long hours in an industry that I found increasingly at odds with my values and interests.
I guess I had an early mid-life crisis of sorts, so when a job opportunity came up for my husband in Ireland, I jumped at the chance for a fresh start! I continued to freelance for Sky but found myself increasingly involved in an active local community (at one point I ended up managing the local bookshop!). After volunteering to do the PR for an inaugural local arts festival (a festival which more than a decade later is now one of the biggest in Ireland!), a number of local groups and businesses started to approach me to do their PR, so I started my own consultancy.
At the same time, the stint at the bookshop had given me a taste for retail and spotting a gap in the market for good quality stationery (I had always been a paper junkie!), I opened my own upmarket stationery and gift store. This was at the height of the economic boom in Ireland, and the business did well. I was considering opening a second site, with ambitions for a national chain of high street stores, when the financial crash came. Overnight, the economy in Ireland collapsed. Although I managed to sell the business, this turn in events combined with starting a family, prompted a return to the UK.
I realised on my return that my experience in Ireland had completely changed my attitude to work. I had proved that I could successfully combine a number of separate career interests, and returning to a 9-5 job now seemed inconceivable to me. I took a bit of time out to have my second child and settle back into life in the UK after a six-year absence. Being the height of the recession, there also weren’t too many opportunities to choose from. But I soon started freelancing for The Sunday Times Fast Track, which for me, combined the two recurring threads of my career: journalism and entrepreneurship. I’ve now been back for 10 years, have started two other businesses and have never been busier!
What 5 tips can you share for people considering a portfolio career?
1 Be organised!
2 Develop a good professional network – you never know where the next opportunity will come from.
3 Don’t be afraid to change direction or drop a part of your portfolio that isn’t working. Take time to regularly evaluate where you are.
4 Have a good support system – I couldn’t do without my cleaner, accountant and family (not necessarily in that order!)
5 Self-belief is essential, but accept that moments of self-doubt are inevitable.
More
View Ashley Cavers LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-cavers-68613534/
Browse The Wonky Food Company web site:
Browse The Wonky Food Company web site:
Follow The Wonky Food Company on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/wonkyfoodco
Browse the OxLEP Oxfordshire web site:
https://www.oxfordshirelep.com/
Interested in a portfolio career for yourself? Download your copy of our free Skills report to find out what your transferable skills are:
https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/what-is-a-portfolio-career/