Tag: Running a small business

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Food Festivals and village markets

It’s Monday, and it’s feet up day (although I’m struggling to relax).

After a busy weekend attending Crayke Village Market and Saltburn Food Festival, I need to relax though.  It seems you all love our new humour range and I am almost at the point where I need to restock for the third time – thank you if you were there supporting our small business.  Sunday in particular was a very long day, we got up about half 6 and finally arrived home 13 hours later.  Of course it was takeaway for tea, not that any of us had the energy to eat it!


We were next to the fantastic Lemontop Gin yesterday, and I just had to reward myself for all my hard work last night.  It is highly recommended!  I’m now on the hunt for more cream soda to mix it with.

So, next weekend is another busy one, with a village market and another long Sunday (just a bit closer to home) with the fantastic Festival on the Flatts.  I’m hoping the humour range proves just as popular with the locals!

Cari xx

 

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Pilates – I thought you said pie and lattes!

Yes, as expected, this new card design was by far the best seller at Crayke Village Market today. We only have one left in stock (at time of posting) so a restock order will be happening soon.

First we have our guest stall at Hovingham Village Market to prep for. I’m so excited to be invited as Hovingham is such a tranquil and picturesque village, a dream retirement location for us in an ideal world! The market is a thriving event in the region, where you will find an eclectic mix of local artisans and businesses from food and drink to crafts and homewares.

If this one goes well we may be invited to add it to our regular markets. In fact, July is a busy month for us, with Hovingham, Sheriff Hutton, Crayke and Saltburn Food Festival on the calendar. Full details of all our upcoming events are shared on our socials.

Website back online

I panicked a little this morning at Crayke market when I got a notification to say my website was down. I had just added a video to TikTok, directing people to it! Thankfully it is now back up and running but please do get in touch if something isn’t working as it should.

I’m so happy with how everything is going, it’s lovely to be out selling face to face at so many local markets and events. August is shaping up to be just as busy and then we will be thinking of Christmas!

Cari xx

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Prepping for the next three months

I think autumn has to be my favourite season.  The air gets cooler, but not too cold, the trees begin to change colour, there are conkers to find and Christmas is on its way.

We have Christmas fairs booked but this year I’m concentrating on growing my online business.  I’m not getting any younger and attending a Christmas fair usually means a near 12 hour day working, not to mention all the prep the week before to make sure I don’t forget something.  It’s exhausting.  Our children help of course, they’ve grown up with us attending Christmas fairs (right from birth!) but I know this isn’t what they want to be doing.

I have piles of Christmas stock all waiting to be added to the shop.  I really need to push myself to get that done for you all, otherwise they will still be sat here this time next year.

 

Are you starting to prep for Christmas?  Let me know if you are, or if it’s still too early.

Cari

 

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Our gorgeous advent calendars

Please forgive me for turning your thoughts to Christmas already, but as I’m now nearing the end of listing the everyday greetings cards I’ve been sorting through the Christmas stock in preparation for listing.

I was fortunate enough to buy a stock clearance of Flamingo Paperie advent calendars both in the closing down sale and from a former Flamingo partner.  I now have plenty of advents to manage my Christmas event bookings and to add to this shop.  In fact I have quite a few (I need to buy a second basket for them).

We’ve transferred all the packs of Christmas cards into one of the 64 litre tubs I have – yes they filled it!  I think it’s safe to say I have lots of stock available for you all, and the best bit is the card packs all support charity.

So, although adding the stock is still a work in progress (I’m determined to have it all done before September) we are all set to start posting out your orders.  I’m so excited to turn my dining table into a packing room!

Cari xx

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Slowly building bit by bit

I’ve built websites before.  I’m self taught, but with the help of my amazing hosting service and google, I manage the basics.

Adding the stock however is a slow and tedious process.  Very repetitive, but a job that needs to be done.  I’m tackling it one box at a time, but there are a lot of greetings cards!

For the last few days I’ve lost my mojo with it.  I thought I just needed a break, but today I just don’t want to get back into adding them.

Maybe a coffee will help.  Or maybe I will start tomorrow.

Cari xx