For our MD Karen Barnett, the answer is a resounding yes!
In this recently published piece for Business Cornwall, Karen reflects on how living and working in Cornwall has shaped her approach to business, creativity, and life at Parc Signs. From swapping London for sea views, to embracing the unique mindset that Cornwall fosters, it’s a personal perspective on place, pace, and purpose.
Read the full piece below, originally featured in Business Cornwall (April 2025 edition).
Working and living in Cornwall brings a truly unique business mindset
I believe it affects not just those of us who are lucky enough to work here think, but also how we operate day to day. I knew it was time to leave London when I got off the train at Paddington and cried. I love that city, it’s great to visit but the desire, as one of my friends said, ‘to pull the houses down and to see the horizon’ was stronger than my desire to stay. Thankfully my husband felt the same and off we moved with a toddler and a baby, back to the motherland.
There’s been a visceral shift in perception of Cornwall as a serious place to do business. I think much of that has been a slow burn over the past few decades with a foot to the floor shift in gear since the Covid years, with that gap now closing even more. Covid caused so many of us to rethink where we lived, with a mass exodus from the cities. Regularly you hear people recount how they left a big city during Covid, often heading back to where they grew up in rural or suburban area and didn’t go back. None of my friends who run their own creative businesses live in cities anymore. It seems that being surrounded by nature draws inspiration and wellbeing is enhanced outside of core urban locales.
Studies have shown that creative workers especially are more attracted by the possibilities of adopting an active lifestyle, being closer to natural landscapes
Being surrounded by the physical energy of the coast, whether riding waves, sea swimming, coastal walks or just gazing out into it, it’s healing and anyone that lives closer to the water understands this. In the modern world where we’re tethered to our devices it’s more important than ever to be able to step away from that. To decompress and process thoughts and goals. Our team at Parc Signs certainly make the most of what’s on our doorstep, going from work to the trails or the sea.
Cornwall has always been full of people with a ‘do things differently’ attitude
We know that to survive and thrive in Cornwall you need to think about how to make things work. With Falmouth University on our doorstep and world class graduates across many sectors there’s so much collaboration here and that style of working is so normal. There’s an ambition to be innovative within Cornwall and beyond. We’re not out on a limb, either professionally or geographically anymore.
That baby and toddler we brought home to Cornwall in 2008, one chose a university surrounded by the sea, the other is studying a creative course at college, drawing inspiration for many projects from nature. A coincidence? I think not. They’ve been shaped by what surrounds them.
I never imagined returning to Cornwall but my family business opened up a huge opportunity to still have a career and live somewhere I love.
Living and working in Cornwall isn’t without its challenges, we don’t have all the amenities and diversity of a city, transport links are still poor, the housing situation is woeful but the work life balance, the access to nature, the inspiration it brings and the feeling of wellbeing dramatically affects all of us. Sometimes it takes stepping out into what surrounds us to realise that. Or having a spaniel who needs constant walking. Probably the best way to decompress and think.
I can’t imagine running a business anywhere else.
This piece was originally published in the May 2025 edition of Business Cornwall as part of their ‘Just a Thought’ column. You can also read the original version on their website [here]
We’re proud to now share it here in full, written by our MD, Karen Barnett — a personal reflection on place, mindset, and why running a business in Cornwall is something quite special.
