Todays blog features husband and wife team Jamie and Catherine Douglas from Bread and Jam. Again we are talking product; designing, manufacturing and selling!
If you'd like to read the other wonderful blogs in this series, please click on the links below.
Setting up your website and shopping cart basics with Julie from Biz Yourself
Part 1 with Angie Spurgen - Artwork by Angie
Part 2 with Gabriella Buckingham - MooBaaCluck
Coming over the next few days.......
Thursday 13th November Part 5 with Jessica Hayman - Rosa and Clara Designs
Sunday 16h November Part 6 with Laura Clempson - Clara and Macy
You can connect with Bread and Jam here
We design and produce happy things to make people smile.
We have a range of products, from stationery to our very own fabric patterns,
which have been designed to motivate, encourage happiness and not to mention, look great. As long as people continue to buy our wares and feel good about
them, we will continue to design more. Some of what we do has been inspired by
vintage pattern and humour and this can be seen influencing our repeat patterns
and borders.
Our story starts with disaster, Bread & Jam started after
losing another business at the height of the economic crash in 2008. Although
it was amongst the toughest of times we have ever experienced, great things
have happened as a result. Out of the ashes of one business, Bread & Jam
took shape and we both felt compelled to work with each other for the good of
the family. As a married couple, it's always a challenge to find the time to
run the business with enough effectiveness to put bread on the table, whilst
balancing the needs and desires of our young girls as they grow.
Making products in-house is a very important basis of the
company. We could go ahead and license our designs and patterns and that may
be, arguably a little easier to manage but we enjoy the hands on approach and
it gives us something tangible to hold and appreciate. There's a huge sense of
satisfaction when you're about to dispatch an order, knowing the levels of
effort you have put into making the product as good as it can be and that soon,
someone else will be enjoying the fruits of your labour.
2. What are the important things to keep in mind when
researching the products you wish to sell and why did you choose the particular products that
you sell now?
I'll be honest, we don't do a lot of research when it
comes to designing our own products. We do research heavily into colour and
pattern but as for the products, they are generally from the depths of our
imagination. A lot of ideas for products don't tend to get off the ground as
they are either far too outlandish or simply too expensive to make and as a
result make them commercially unviable.
One of the major considerations when selecting a product
or products to include in the range is whether we can produce the item in-house.
On the whole we base a lot of our designs around what equipment we have to make
the things with, in some ways, the equipment informs the designs. We sometimes
look at a new piece of equipment and see how we can use it in different ways,
ways that others are not and this gives us a point of difference.
Of course, we do keep an eye on the industry and we are
aware of what others are doing but if anything, this actually tells us what not
to do rather than enlightens the design process.
3. Which has been the most effective avenue for you to
sell your products?
We have a good balance of selling channels at the moment
but this has taken time to build up. Initially we sold through easily
accessible sites like Etsy.com and Folksy.com. Sites like these make it so easy
to start selling your designs. It's all there for you, you just need to fill in
the blanks really and then go and spread the word.
We are NOTHS partners too and this continues to be the bread & butter sales channel for us, delivering most sales and being the most effective route to market for us. I would recommend NOTHS to anyone who wishes to push on and take the next steps of development. A little word of advice though, prepare yourself well for Christmas, it can be very busy indeed and if you're not ready it can be very overwhelming and a baptism of fire.
We are NOTHS partners too and this continues to be the bread & butter sales channel for us, delivering most sales and being the most effective route to market for us. I would recommend NOTHS to anyone who wishes to push on and take the next steps of development. A little word of advice though, prepare yourself well for Christmas, it can be very busy indeed and if you're not ready it can be very overwhelming and a baptism of fire.
*NOTHS is Not on the high street - A selling platform in the UK
It's worth noting, we don't favour one channel over
another necessarily, it's never an either or, we've always seen all our
channels as important as the next and give them all the same amount of
attention.
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4. How important is having a business mentor (if you use
one) How have they helped you grow your business?
We don't actually have a business mentor, mainly because
our location is very rural and isolated but we do have people who we can turn
to and ask questions. Social media plays a huge role in our business,
especially Facebook. We are part of a group of like minded business owners
(design and craft orientated) who are all at different stages of development
and we all use each other as sounding blocks and between us we have a wealth of
experience to share with other group members. With us being some remote, it's
essential for us to have some form of forum whereby we can ask questions but
also give advice, this works well for us.
5. How important do you think selling platforms like NOTHS and Etsy are?
We've been very lucky in a lot of ways, we were
approached by NOTHS and we duly accepted their invitation to sell with them. It
gives us a very solid partnership to move forward with, we're flattered and
feel good about selling with them and they have already bought into us and our
style so right from the get go, both sides of the partnership are happy with
the relationship. NOTHS has been and continues to be the back bone of the
company, delivering us the most sales and providing us with a solid basis from
which to grow and develop. I wouldn't say that we couldn't have got to our
current level without them but they have been instrumental in our development
and continue to deliver great results.
Our website does perform reasonably well for us but
there's no way we could reach the exposure and customer base that we get
through NOTHS, not without huge investment or much more time and effort at
least.
6. How much has wholesaling been a part of your success?
Retailing our wares through traditional, bricks and
mortar stores is again hugely important to us. I think it lends credibility to
what we do, retail buyers have shown faith in us and our products and seeing
our products on physical shelves gives us a really great buzz. It does throw up
some interesting conundrums however. Retailing online and retailing through
shops has some very different requirements.
We are now beginning to think about how the product retails on the shelf much earlier in the process, whether that's through packaging of through point of sale material. Also, wholesale customers are a very different animal to retail customers and as a result they need to be cared for in very different ways. For example, with a retail customer (online) you will very rarely enter into a dialogue or have any contact with at all and you rely on the quality of your products in order to have them come back and shop with you again. Whereas, wholesale customers on the whole, prefer direct contact, even a face to face meeting at some stage to cement the relationship and come back to buy from you again.
We are now beginning to think about how the product retails on the shelf much earlier in the process, whether that's through packaging of through point of sale material. Also, wholesale customers are a very different animal to retail customers and as a result they need to be cared for in very different ways. For example, with a retail customer (online) you will very rarely enter into a dialogue or have any contact with at all and you rely on the quality of your products in order to have them come back and shop with you again. Whereas, wholesale customers on the whole, prefer direct contact, even a face to face meeting at some stage to cement the relationship and come back to buy from you again.
7. Looking back, what would you do differently if you
were to start all over again?
We've always taken a view that when the time comes to
look back, we will try not to regret a single thing. Sure we make mistakes,
that's what makes us human but as long as we're learning and making the
adjustments so we don't make the same mistakes again then it can't be a bad
thing can it?
8. Any extra tips and advice for budding
designers who want to sell their own product?
Well we're all different and each of us has different
requirements so there's not a "one fits all" bit of advice but there
are some things which have helped us along the way. We've mentioned earlier
about having somewhere you can go to extract advice and use as a sounding board
but don't forget the ones around you. Your family and friends can make the
difference between success and failure, without their support you will find it
difficult for sure. Don't judge your success or the success of your products by
the success of other sellers around you. Be inspired by other creative people
and companies are doing but do not compare your level with theirs. The reality
behind closed doors can be very different the image portrayed via social media
and press. Finally, have faith in your own work and be bold. If you can't extol
the virtues of your own work, how can anyone else? On the whole, if you think
your work has value then someone else will too, have confidence in your own
abilities.
Thanks so much Jamie and Catherine. We wish you all the very best for the future! Stay tuned for the next instalment in this series with the wonderful Jessica Hayman from Rosa and Clara Designs.
If you have any comments, we would love to hear from you. Please comment below
If you have any comments, we would love to hear from you. Please comment below
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