So as you all know I love to support local and started a segment where we could share, learn and inspire! It is so important to support local and share your findings with others.
During lock down, we are going to do a whole lot of these to highlight these businesses – many of which are taking HUGE strain during this time – and shed some awareness and love to all.
So today we are featuring the most gorgeous hand crafted items for baby, the nursery and home. Stunning items! Such love and care goes into each piece and trust me, you will want to own everything once you start scrolling through their Instagram feed! I love their wooden camera’s, they are just too cute! Please support this special local business.
Please give their Facebook and Instagram some love by following them! They would appreciate the love.
We chatted to the lovely Kerrilyn Smith, and she had this to say!
How does it feel to be a business owner that inspires others and loves what they do?
To be honest, we haven’t had time to even think about being business owners! Being so busy with our baby Oliver, normal work demands and now Olly & Molly, we have just been spinning (in a good way)… it doesn’t yet feel like it is real.
But it is absolutely rewarding to help new moms (and dads!) to create the nursery of their dreams, as well as providing some fun items for little ones and seeing how much they love to play with them – something we are really passionate about.
What are the top 3 learnings you have had to find out the hard way since starting your own business?
The first one that comes to mind, is to start low and go slow (and be prepared)…. we had so many ideas initially and wanted to just get all of them ready for sale, only to get orders for items before we had thought about packaging, bubble wrap, cardboard etc.
We found ourselves running all over town to find these things in such a rush, then having to get back home to make the products, package them and get them shipped in time was so stressful, which we just were not prepared for.
By Sunday night we were FINISHED and just needed some red wine and sleep! So number one is – be prepared for all of these things BEFORE you go live!
Second would be – if you are making/manufacturing items, be sure to keep a stock pile of raw materials – nothing worse than running out of something on a weekend that you can only purchase on weekdays.
Number 3 would be – take on what you can manage – especially if making it all yourself. Having too much to do, when it’s just not possible, is stressful and sometimes not worth it.
Where do you see your business in 5 years? Once we have gotten over the effects of the lock down.
We would like to have an online store, various collections of baby and home products, but even more so: products that really are beautiful and valued by moms and dads and locally/individually made – that would be first prize.
We also see ourselves giving work to many individuals who really need an income and have a skill that is valuable, but don’t have jobs – we certainly would prefer this over any other kind of arrangement with established manufacturing businesses. Partnerships that can grow with us would be so rewarding and valuable.
What is your advice to individuals out there wanting to start their own businesses but are too scared?
You have to start! Don’t wait for something that you think will be the catalyst to get started – things won’t be perfect at the beginning, but you cannot perfect an idea without starting. An old saying – “When was the best time to plant a tree? 20 years ago! When is the second best time to plant a tree? Today!”
Tell us 2 things that are the BEST part about owning your own business and make it all worthwhile?
Absolutely getting positive feedback and happy customers – nothing makes it more worthwhile. Knowing you made someone else happy with your work and effort is so rewarding. Being able to give work to those who truly need it – we never even saw this as a reality, but with the positive response and number of product orders, we have been able to give work to some people who were desperately in need of it – some to help manage the volume of products we have been making and some to help us bring new products on board. This also makes it so worthwhile.
How has lock down affected you and your team?
We started up during lockdown! So it affected us in that it helped us to start with an idea we had been thinking of for months.
I know it has been the case for many small businesses, some out of necessity due to loss of income and some just out of having the time at home.
This really has been such an “out of ordinary” time in everyone’s lives.
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