When Bob Crolla lost his job in 2013, he didn’t realise he was on the way to realising a long-held dream.
Bob, 44, who lives in Slaithwaite with his girlfriend, Mandy, was made redundant from his customer relations job at O2 in Leeds following a shake-up at the company.
When the Jobcentre referred him to the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) scheme and the West Yorkshire Enterprise Agency, he realised it could help him set up his own music studio – something he’d wanted to do for some time.
“I’ve been a musician for 30 years and I’d always wanted to own my own studio,” he said. “But I never had the money to set up. The package I got allowed me the opportunity to do this.”
Bob got the keys to a large industrial unit at the beginning of December, 2013, and began work on fitting it out. He said: “The unit is in a great location, near to a college and a high school – both sources of potential customers.”
By the end of February, he’d done enough work to be able to open for businss as Sasquatch Music.
“I had an open night and invited people to come and have a look around and a glass of wine,” said Bob. “I got my first booking several days later and business has been picking up steadily since then.”
The main core of Sasquatch Music is rehearsal studios. Bob hires out the studios to bands on an hourly basis and he also has a fully equipped recording studio, producing professional quality recordings for solo performers and bands.
Most of his customers are young bands starting out, although he’s also attracting established, professional musicians and several bands now have regular weekly bookings.
Bob said the support of Veronica Baldwin, his business mentor from West Yorkshire Enterprise Agency’s MYMentor network, was invaluable.
“Although I know about music I had no idea how to set up and run a business,” he said. “Getting help and guidance creating a business plan really helped me to formulate my plans, look at obstacles and opportunities I’d not considered before and work through them in detail.
“The weekly payments really helped, too. Although it’s only a small amount of money, it helped more than I expected during the period before I got paying customers and had no income.”
The studio is still very much a work in progress Said Bob: “I have another two rehearsal rooms to build and also a live room where young bands can put on public performances for their friends and relatives. I’ve also just taken a booking for a children’s birthday party and I hope to do more of these in future.”
Bob said there was a shortage of studios catering for younger bands with a limited budget, but added: “I want to fill that gap, creating demo CDs for up-and-coming talent at affordable prices.” Also among his plans is a youth music club aimed at 10-16-year-olds.
