Big Love For FOH International
Meet Katrina Grice, Director at FOH (Front of House) International.
FOH is an independent event merchandise company, who specialise in supporting grassroots and academy sized artists with their branding, licensing and merchandise ranges.
Katrina began working for an independent record label at the age of 14, but it wasn’t long before she was working in live event merch, selling programmes at the NEC & NIA in Birmingham, more than 20 years ago. She soon took her first tour with Disney on Ice, which cemented her taste for working in live events and the touring life. Katrina continued to grow in the industry as a supporting touring merch rep for a number of bands. Katrina’s first tour as a primary merch rep was Elton John! One of the highlights of Katrina’s live event career was as the project manager for the official merchandise offering at the UEFA Champions League final in Cardiff back in 2017, a project which covered the whole of Cardiff city centre.
Katrina spent most of her employed career, in the live events industry, travelling the world – until 2 years ago she and her partner decided to launch FOH International in an attempt to stay closer to home to spend more time with friends and family.
In the last 2 years, FOH have worked on projects across the globe, with clients ranging in size from very large projects like WWE and UFC, to academy size artists like Del Amitri and Coco Jones, to unsigned up and coming artists like Maya Lane and The Halfway Kid.
If you’re able to produce branded items on a mass scale in a short period of time, Katrina would love you to get in touch!
As part of Big Love For Small Business we asked Katrina the following …
Why did you start your business?
My partner and I have spent many years working in the live events sector and we decided it was about time we used our experience to forge ahead with something for ourselves, a business that was able to represent our values and remain truly independent.
What motivates you to keep going in your business?
Looking back at where we started 2 years ago, with a single client and juggling full time jobs, and now we have multiple clients and we are no longer having to split our attention to other jobs for income. The hard work is starting to pay off. It’s also great to watch our grassroots clients growing too, and being able to afford to perform as a result of income we help generate.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a business owner?
My biggest challenge has been accepting that I don’t know everything, and I can’t do everything myself. The last 6 months I have been working harder on outsourcing what I either can’t do or don’t have time for, so that I can focus on finding new clients and delivering projects.
What are some of your proudest wins or achievements in your business journey?
I think my biggest achievement since starting my business has been managing to grow the business enough that to quit my full time job and to be able to focus on the business and my work-life balance.
What advice would you give to someone thinking about starting their own business?
Be patient. Sometimes rapid growth happens overnight, but that is rare. Most of the time you have to nurture the business and see where it goes. Have flexible plans as what you originally set out to do may change slightly.
What do you love doing in your free time?
In the small bits of free time I have, I love to potter in the garden (I am no specialist!!) and spend valuable time with my family.
What do you love most about our community?
Once I had made my mind up that I wanted to join a local business community, I shopped around a little. My first taster was a NetworkWell meet, and then I went on to try a few other groups. I genuinely found the approach of The Women Who Business Community to be the most relaxed and welcoming, whilst also being really supportive and informative. I look forward to many more meets and growing within the community.
While I was still enjoying my free membership, I posted a couple of times in the Facebook groups and managed to meet a couple of new suppliers.
On a more personal note, it has been really nice to meet other business minded women. It’s great to talk about where I started and where I am now as I suddenly realise the progression!
What would you say to someone considering joining our community?
Be prepared to meet a bunch of lovely people, use your 2 free passes to try more than one type of meet. And don’t forget your business cards!
Ways to contact Katrina …
W: foh.international – soon to be launched!!!
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