Just as families arrived at The Creative Living Room to attend its opening ceremony last September, they were deluged by a sudden rainstorm, which soaked them in seconds. One might be forgiven for wondering if that day’s sudden torrent of rain and wind was a harbinger of the economic storm that hit our country with as much shocking force only a month later.  But a hopeful sign of the future was in the works that afternoon, too.  When the drenched and wind-lashed children and parents entered The Creative Living Room, they found a warm, welcoming and cozy refuge from the tumultuous outside elements, a place where everyone could relax and participate in fun, creative and culturally enriching activities that would nurture them during the good and the bad times.  Six months later, the organization founded by four artistic women – Allison De Salvo, Rosemary Fox, Lynn Falk, and Elizabeth Bromley -- offers both a refuge from the country’s economic mess and hope for a way out of it.

The Creative Living Room’s success is due to a combination of factors: a strong idea, the coming together of the right people at the right time, resourcefulness, willingness to learn, and of course, a lot of hard work.  Co-founder Allison De Salvo’s long-held dream of having an organization “where families could celebrate the arts, share, learn and grow” came from her deep involvement in music, dance and theater as well as her experience teaching children the creative arts in New York City.  Shortly after Allison moved to Swarthmore in the fall of 2005, she met and befriended Rosemary Fox, who had worked in theater for 20 years.  They soon discovered their similar artistic backgrounds, and Allison told Rosemary about her desire to have her own arts organization. “Then, we discussed it for two years,” Rosemary laughed.  “Every time we got together for coffee while my daughters were napping or in school, we would talk about Allison’s idea.”  Their conversations became increasingly serious about turning Allison’s idea into a reality, but the two of them alone didn’t have enough capital to do it.  In spring of 2007, they met two mothers in Swarthmore -- Lynn Falk, who taught modern dance to people of all ages, and Elizabeth Bromley, who composed, sang and taught Spanish songs to children.  When Allison and Rosemary described their vision of an organization that would offer classes to families in the creative arts, Lynn and Elizabeth were eager to add their talents and capital to the endeavor.

The women weren’t novices to what it took to manage a business, especially one which offered classes in the arts.  Allison, Elizabeth and Rosemary had run their own non-profit organizations at one time or another: Rosemary had her own children's theater company in New York City; Elizabeth, who earned Bachelor and Master degrees in Psychology in Costa Rica (and yes, in Spanish), oversaw three organizations, two which offered psychological services to Costa Ricans and one which provided Spanish lessons to North Americans; Allison still runs her two non-profits (which she also designed), the Music, Art and Me Program (MAM) and World of Song.  Lynn also had business experience; she was Development Associate for Dance Place in Washington, D.C. and Managing Director of the Group Motion/Kumquat Dance Collective in Philadelphia.  But they knew their plans for The Creative Living Room were on a different scale and they would need to learn more about starting and running a business.

This is when a lot of resourcefulness and a bit of serendipity kicked in.  In 2007, as the four women began seeking sources to educate themselves in the business of business, they discovered the newly opened Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Widener University, which offered free, expert advice and educational seminars to new entrepreneurs.  They enrolled in SBDC’s prerequisite seminar, aptly named, How to Start a New Business, in October 2007.  ‘That seminar really gave us the nitty-gritty of starting a business,” Rosemary stated, “and made us really examine if we were capable of starting a business and dealing with all the ups and downs.”   Jim Porter, Consulting Manager at SBDC, said the prerequisite seminar is meant to be an eye-opener to new entrepreneurs.  “Starting a business is very demanding and can be rough going,” he explained, “and it’s important to find that out before you start, to see if you really want to take on the hard work and risks of a new start-up.” 

After careful consideration, the four women decided they were ready to take the plunge.  Starting in January 2008, they began meeting weekly with Porter to develop a detailed business plan.  “We had already thought a lot about what we envisioned,” Allison said, “but Jim took our ideas and helped us fill in the blanks.  He gave us a structure, marketing elements, how to separate ourselves from the competition, templates for tracking our finances – you name it.”  All four women found Porter’s expertise and advice invaluable and key to their success.  Elizabeth and Lynn both credited Porter with helping them to listen to one another and to value each other’s differences.  “Because of Jim’s advice, I found out it was our differences that really made the whole thing work,” Elizabeth declared.  “He has been with us every step of the way,” Lynn added.

Jim praises The Creative Living Room’s founders as much as they do him, calling them “ideal clients.” “They seek out advice and ask questions, they listen and take the answers to heart, they catch on quickly, and they transform what they learn into action,” he said, “plus, the four of them really complement each other.”  In his opinion, that last trait is what has made The Creative Living Room successful.  Jim explained, “A team will outperform an individual every time,” he explained, “and the fact that they they have different talents and perspectives provides balance that allows them to deal with the rough moments more easily.”

Of course, no one knew last fall just how rough it would get.  Like many businesses across America, The Creative Living Room has been affected by the economic meltdown and the ensuing anxiety.  Allison said their business thus far has followed the mood of the country – they saw a decline in enrollment in late fall and early winter when many companies had falling profits, but business picked up again starting in January, as people began to figure out their budgets and know what they could and couldn’t spend.  The good news for The Creative Living Room is, despite the economic instability of the past four months – or perhaps because of it, a core group of customers has consistently enrolled their families in classes.  This has given the organization a good customer base and suggests that people are finding solace in the arts during this uneasy period.

Nonetheless, the four entrepreneurs have restarted their meetings with Jim to examine what adjustments they should make to their business plan due to both the economic downturn and the simple fact that they’ve entered a different business phase.  “We’re no longer ramping up to start the business,” Rosemary explained. “It’s now about the day-to-day operations as well as planning our future course.” One adjustment that Jim recommended was to pare down the number of classes, especially the ones with low enrollment.  “Jim advised us to go back to the basics,” said Elizabeth, “that it’s obviously better not to have a huge variety of classes if you don’t have the budget or the market for it.  Then, once the basics are covered, add new classes to the roster incrementally.”

And the quartet has been busy designing programs for the coming months.  Recently, they unveiled The Creative Living Room’s summer camp, which will offer six weeks of classes, with a different themed course each week for children ages 2-4 and 4–11, with some special creative learning camps to get kids ready for school.  Allison described them as “very mulitdimensional, in that each week will focus on a particular art form, but bring in other art forms as a way to explore and discover new areas of creativity and expression.”  For example, during one week, the theme will be theater, but children in the camp will also play music, sing and dance.

The co-founders are also tailoring their company’s message to the country’s current economic and political environments.  “We’re following President Obama’s message -- that it’s going to take creativity to rebuild our economy and secure our future,” said Rosemary, “and that The Creative Living Room is here to make sure current and future generations can use their creativity to find solutions to problems.”  Allison added, “People more than ever need to connect to the arts.  It goes beyond financial issues.  The creative arts sustain us.” 

The families who struggled through the rain and wind to make The Creative Living Room’s opening ceremony last September must have shared Allison’s mantra.  Now, during our economic woes, people living in and around Swarthmore continue to find relief, joy and hope at The Creative Living Room.

Editor's Note:  Be sure to visit The Creative Living Room on the web at:  www.TheCreativeLivingRoom.com