So yesterday I went to Harrogate to meet Carole Hallsted of Mellow Treats www.mellowtreats.co.uk. She was very nice and friendly, and her shop in Commercial Street is even newer than my business as it has only been open two weeks. We spent a comfortable hour swapping plans and ideas for each other. Being so new, she does not have the cash or confidence with me to place a big order, but we agreed that when I do the Great Yorkshire Show, I will leave her some stock that she will create a window display around, and we will see what interest there is.
One of the suggestions Carole had for me, was to take a look at Handpicked Hall. This was not the first time this had been suggested, Carolyn at Bramham had told me about Handpicked Hall in Ripon which is a retail space renting tables or spaces to craftspeople and independent retailers but I had dismissed it as I thought I would have to go to Ripon 5 days a week, now Carole told me that there is one just opened in Leeds so I thought I'd take a look.
Handpicked Hall in Leeds, has opened in the Grand Arcade in a building that used to be a jazz club (Coconut Grove maybe?). The Grand Arcade is a beautiful Victorian arcade next to the Grand Theatre but truthfully it has come down in the world a bit, since the seventies when I used to walk up it from my bus stop near the ABC Cinema to go to Lewis's on Briggate, stopping maybe at Scene and Heard record shop to buy the ex jukebox singles with the holes cut out of the centres. Now it looks quite off the beaten track and I hope the opening of Handpicked Halls www.handpicked.co.uk/Leeds/will help bring people back, both for its sake and mine as I have now signed up to take a table there for the next two Sundays at £12 a day. After that I am seriously considering signing up for the three days, Friday to Sunday for £65. From the amount of people I saw around yesterday, I am under no illusions that it will make my fortune but I would like to have a regular outlet where people can find me and I would just have to take my laptop there and work in between customers.
Saturday 22 June 2013
Friday 21 June 2013
An exciting prospect!
Stress and excitement in equal parts here this morning. A few days ago I got a call on my business mobile, asking if I did wholesale? Obviously the answer was yes, or rather I would do. The couple concerned run a small shop in Harrogate and I agreed to go over this morning, to show them my stuff and have a chat. Although a big order would be nice, small regular orders would be better, so I only want them to buy what they think they can sell. Which may be none of it, although they said they were looking at stocking Burt's Bees products, but preferred mine as being local and more individual.
The stress is down to the car failing its MOT yesterday, nothing major but it will be in the garage until Saturday at the latest so the trip to Harrogate will be on public transport. My car mechanic is Tony who operates from a large yard behind his semi in the village of Swillington, about twenty minutes drive from here. He is a lovely man who always tries to find the cheapest way of doing things, once he improvised using high pressure rubber tubing to save me £100 on the new part. If I could bring him fame and fortune I would, but I suspect that he is happy as he is, with a steady flow of satisfied customers brought in by word of mouth. There are now three families in my street alone, prepared to trek out to him. And yesterday it was literally a trek as I turned out of his house in time to see the hourly bus disappearing round the corner and had to do the half hour walk to the main road where I could wait for another bus. The walk did give me the chance to walk past Smeaton House Farm home of my Gt X 7 Grandfather William Lumb who lived there in the last half of the eighteenth century. The farm is up a long drive, so I didn't see much, but there were free ranging hens wandering across the farm yard so the current occupants must be okay sorts.
Other news is that I have decided to do the Great Yorkshire Show, and posted off the application yesterday. The application included a risk assessment form so I had to rack my brains and think of what is dangerous about about soap. Of course, Cora in Downton Abbey did suffer a nasty accident involving soap but that soap was wet on a slippery floor, my soap is dry and piled in a basket on a table. The worst I could think of was that the table would collapse with all the stock on it, at the same time as a small child was passing who would get crushed to death. I began to get rather alarmed and feel that I was actually quite dangerous. I put down on the form about the possibility of the table collapsing but left out the small child. I didn't want them to think I was too dangerous to exhibit.
The stress is down to the car failing its MOT yesterday, nothing major but it will be in the garage until Saturday at the latest so the trip to Harrogate will be on public transport. My car mechanic is Tony who operates from a large yard behind his semi in the village of Swillington, about twenty minutes drive from here. He is a lovely man who always tries to find the cheapest way of doing things, once he improvised using high pressure rubber tubing to save me £100 on the new part. If I could bring him fame and fortune I would, but I suspect that he is happy as he is, with a steady flow of satisfied customers brought in by word of mouth. There are now three families in my street alone, prepared to trek out to him. And yesterday it was literally a trek as I turned out of his house in time to see the hourly bus disappearing round the corner and had to do the half hour walk to the main road where I could wait for another bus. The walk did give me the chance to walk past Smeaton House Farm home of my Gt X 7 Grandfather William Lumb who lived there in the last half of the eighteenth century. The farm is up a long drive, so I didn't see much, but there were free ranging hens wandering across the farm yard so the current occupants must be okay sorts.
Other news is that I have decided to do the Great Yorkshire Show, and posted off the application yesterday. The application included a risk assessment form so I had to rack my brains and think of what is dangerous about about soap. Of course, Cora in Downton Abbey did suffer a nasty accident involving soap but that soap was wet on a slippery floor, my soap is dry and piled in a basket on a table. The worst I could think of was that the table would collapse with all the stock on it, at the same time as a small child was passing who would get crushed to death. I began to get rather alarmed and feel that I was actually quite dangerous. I put down on the form about the possibility of the table collapsing but left out the small child. I didn't want them to think I was too dangerous to exhibit.
Monday 17 June 2013
Bramham
With all the efforts last week to finish Rosie's book for the exhibition I never got a chance to talk about Bramham ie the stand I took in the Rural Craft Association Marquee at Bramham International Horse Trials last weekend.
Fortunately we were blessed with beautiful weather, there were no fears of having to be towed out of a muddy car park here.
I had my stall set out:
The balms and body butters were set out on the old wooden stand we used to use for displaying chutneys, the soaps laid out in the baskets I bought off ebay which are more commonly used in bakery windows. There were testers out with descriptions in front of them.
The problem was, that too often the marquee looked like this:
There were just not enough people coming inside. Maybe the weather was too good, we had reports on the Saturday that people were just lying on the grass eating ice creams and watching the cross country that they had paid £30 to see. Maybe there was too much for them to spend their money on, as the site was full of tents and marquees of all sizes selling all sorts of country clothing and equipment. Maybe the recession means that people are keeping a tighter watch on what they spent. The depressing upshot of this was that I barely made the rent.
There were positives to be taken from it, the people I did sell to, were very enthusiastic and it was very heartening to talk people into trying it, who had sensitive skin only for them to come back to buy, several hours later. I sold to one woman on the Saturday who took it home for her daughter who has contact dermatitis and then she came back for a second jar on the Sunday after daughter amazedly reported that it did not sting. Rather oddly, I sold a jar of Insect Away, the insect repelling skin balm, to a woman who wanted to use it on her horse. Each to their own of course, although if that is any good it might be a whole new market for me.
The other positives that I took from the show were from the other stallholders, who were a great bunch of mainly middle aged women, who all supported each other. In particular Carolyn Collis from www.crystalis3D.com was very kind and when her husband joined her on the Saturday offered to take over my stall for half and hour so I could have a break and a look round outside. But all the other women I met, Caroline, Lucy, Kathryn, Ruth, Cousin Alison, Claire and others who I never got their names, were friendly and supportive and if they could not quite turn the dead hours when the show jumping was on, into a pleasure they certainly helped enliven them.
They also left me with some ideas for the future. One was to join Women in Rural Enterprises (WiRE) www.wireuk.org which is pretty much what it says, an organisation to help and support women in rural enterprises. Fired up with enthusiasm, I went to a meeting last Monday in Stillingfleet hoping to find the same atmosphere of help and support I had enjoyed over the weekend at Bramham. Unfortunately I felt that they spent most of the evening discussing the problem of finding and keeping good staff in the same way as women talked about the servant problem in the 1920's. However if I do join WiRE, then I have the option of doing the Great Yorkshire Show with them. Clearly something to think about pretty fast, as it is in July (9-11), and costs in the region of £500. I don't want to be spending this much on a show unless I can guarantee its return, and it would be three long hard days work. On the other hand I have a lot of stock left over from Bramham and it would be a chance to promote the website to a lot of people.
The second idea to come out of Bramham was that I get myself on the list of speakers for Women's Institute meetings. I used to do presentations at work so an used to talking to groups of people and would be happy to talk about bee-keeping or how to make the products or setting up a small business. The WI pay a small fee and allow you to offer your products for sale with the WI keeping 10% of any sales. At this stage in the business it seems a no lose arrangement, I promote the business, possible make some sales and get paid for doing it.
My absolute priority now though, is to get the website up and running properly. I bought a ready made website which I have to convert to my needs so currently it is a mish mash of my business and a farmer's market which was the template I bought. It has mainly my words with beautiful pictures of apples and potatoes. Severely confusing for anyone who visits.
This will have to be fitted in amongst family things this week, as first born is down for a visit. She wants to find decorative things for her new flat so we went to a car boot sale yesterday and will be going to an auction tomorrow.
I had my stall set out:
The balms and body butters were set out on the old wooden stand we used to use for displaying chutneys, the soaps laid out in the baskets I bought off ebay which are more commonly used in bakery windows. There were testers out with descriptions in front of them.
The problem was, that too often the marquee looked like this:
There were positives to be taken from it, the people I did sell to, were very enthusiastic and it was very heartening to talk people into trying it, who had sensitive skin only for them to come back to buy, several hours later. I sold to one woman on the Saturday who took it home for her daughter who has contact dermatitis and then she came back for a second jar on the Sunday after daughter amazedly reported that it did not sting. Rather oddly, I sold a jar of Insect Away, the insect repelling skin balm, to a woman who wanted to use it on her horse. Each to their own of course, although if that is any good it might be a whole new market for me.
The other positives that I took from the show were from the other stallholders, who were a great bunch of mainly middle aged women, who all supported each other. In particular Carolyn Collis from www.crystalis3D.com was very kind and when her husband joined her on the Saturday offered to take over my stall for half and hour so I could have a break and a look round outside. But all the other women I met, Caroline, Lucy, Kathryn, Ruth, Cousin Alison, Claire and others who I never got their names, were friendly and supportive and if they could not quite turn the dead hours when the show jumping was on, into a pleasure they certainly helped enliven them.
They also left me with some ideas for the future. One was to join Women in Rural Enterprises (WiRE) www.wireuk.org which is pretty much what it says, an organisation to help and support women in rural enterprises. Fired up with enthusiasm, I went to a meeting last Monday in Stillingfleet hoping to find the same atmosphere of help and support I had enjoyed over the weekend at Bramham. Unfortunately I felt that they spent most of the evening discussing the problem of finding and keeping good staff in the same way as women talked about the servant problem in the 1920's. However if I do join WiRE, then I have the option of doing the Great Yorkshire Show with them. Clearly something to think about pretty fast, as it is in July (9-11), and costs in the region of £500. I don't want to be spending this much on a show unless I can guarantee its return, and it would be three long hard days work. On the other hand I have a lot of stock left over from Bramham and it would be a chance to promote the website to a lot of people.
The second idea to come out of Bramham was that I get myself on the list of speakers for Women's Institute meetings. I used to do presentations at work so an used to talking to groups of people and would be happy to talk about bee-keeping or how to make the products or setting up a small business. The WI pay a small fee and allow you to offer your products for sale with the WI keeping 10% of any sales. At this stage in the business it seems a no lose arrangement, I promote the business, possible make some sales and get paid for doing it.
My absolute priority now though, is to get the website up and running properly. I bought a ready made website which I have to convert to my needs so currently it is a mish mash of my business and a farmer's market which was the template I bought. It has mainly my words with beautiful pictures of apples and potatoes. Severely confusing for anyone who visits.
This will have to be fitted in amongst family things this week, as first born is down for a visit. She wants to find decorative things for her new flat so we went to a car boot sale yesterday and will be going to an auction tomorrow.
Friday 14 June 2013
Our Book
Today is the first day of Rosie's end of year exhibition and since Tuesday we have been beavering away to bind our book ready for her to exhibit.
It looks fabulous and Rosie and I were knocked out at actually being able to hold it like a real book. On another level it doesn't look that good because bookbinding is a new skill to both of us so there are badly cut pages and glue bubbles where there shouldn't be, but that didn't stop us both cooing over it like new parents.
In a last minute improvement last night Rosie designed some end pages for us to stick in which caused another outbreak of cooing.
Rosie had already submitted the illustrations to college as her Final Major Project and was very pleased to gain a distinction for it. Selfishly, I was also pleased by the accompanying comment 'The story is great fun and your illustrations complement the quirky humour perfectly'.
This is possibly my favourite page from the book:
Or maybe this:
Rosie's exhibition is at Leeds College of Art in the Vernon Street building from today until next Friday
http://www.leeds-art.ac.uk/home/news-events/events/end-of-year-show-2013/
Today is a private view (swanky eh?) after that it is open to the public. She has set Oliver's play tent up as a reading corner and the book is on display there. I am hoping for older and less flexible visitors it will also be on a table or somewhere where it can be read without having to sit cross legged in a miniature big top.
In a last minute improvement last night Rosie designed some end pages for us to stick in which caused another outbreak of cooing.
This is possibly my favourite page from the book:
Or maybe this:
http://www.leeds-art.ac.uk/home/news-events/events/end-of-year-show-2013/
Today is a private view (swanky eh?) after that it is open to the public. She has set Oliver's play tent up as a reading corner and the book is on display there. I am hoping for older and less flexible visitors it will also be on a table or somewhere where it can be read without having to sit cross legged in a miniature big top.
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