Teacup Tuesday... what we're up to!

It's very busy time of year for us, we were at the Godalming Independent Market on Saturday and we have 2 more outings this week.

On Thursday evening we'll be sharing our handmade gifts at the Lythe Hill Hotel - why not join us for a mulled wine?

On Saturday we're with the ever resourceful Scouts in Farnham:

Christmas Shopping Fair, Daniel Hall, GU9 7HX

23/10/2013

3rd Farnham Scouts is holding a Christmas Shopping Fair at Daniel Hall, Farnham on Saturday 16th November between 11.00am - 3.00pm.

Gifts for everyone: Artisan crafts, OPI nails, Christmas gifts, hand-sewn accessories, homeware, Italian cashmere and lambswool knitwear, Phoenix cards, personalised cushions and gifts, Bare Innocence Face and Body products and candles, Polish Pottery, Dandy Urchins children's clothing, sweets hampers, Usborne Books, Farnham Country Market's produce and home-made cakes and many more.

Children's Activities: Professional face painting and a games room for the kids (to keep them occupied while you shop).

Refreshments: Hot chocolate, tea, coffee and soft drinks, cakes and biscuits. £1 entry for adults, children and grandparents free entry.

Come along & join in the fun.

If you can't make it then we're also in an auction with the Mayor of Godalming:

https://www.facebook.com/mayorofgodalmingauction


All the best, u-ni-k gifts!

Teacup Tuesday, with a little help from the press

Press, Marketing & Advertising. 
Bleurgh!!! Always a dreaded subject for most makers. 
Nobody likes to tell the world they are great and what they make is even better!
Ok, there are the odd few, but generally it is rare.

As a company we don't tend to advertise. We have in the past and it hasn't been fruitful so we stopped. 

Instead we wrote to the journalists, papers and magazine directly to tell them of our special things. At this time of year if you are a maker it's a good idea to do the same. A small editorial or a little mention can make a flurry of sales and is great to let people know who you are and where to find your things.

So, Do a little homework. Find the magazines and newspapers that you feel your clients read. Make a list of those who write the articles and do the photo shoots you think your items would sit perfectly with. Write a press release explaining why your product is special and send it directly to the people who write the articles. We have been successful with this many times. Our products have been included in ST kids (The Telegraph) and Selvedge magazine, The Telegraph Christmas gift guide to name a few.

Remember magazine (long leads) plan and prepare their issues well in advance. In fact Christmas planning is in July! So if you plan to send a press release keep it to the short leads (short lead Magazines and Newspapers).

Have a try.

You never know when it may be a success. Look what luck we've had with our Christmas Press releases. 

Good Luck!

unikgifts

Guildford Insider- A lovely mention in the article
for the Godalming Independent Market
that we participate in.

The Telegraph- Christmas Gift Guide
Our stocking filler paper animals

Selvedge- issue 43
Christmas Gifts you'll Love
Our kantha stitched baby blankets

Familesse online magazine
Our wooden pull along toy.

Mother and Baby Magazine
Our paper Christmas creatures

Teacup tuesday- Displays

As well as running the lovely u-ni-k gifts, I run a little market to help me quench my passion for things made with love and care by talented creators. 

It's a way to envelope myself with inspirational people and their wonderful makings. 

The makers inspire me to get home and get my tools out. To be creative and to be crafty.

To have a go and jump in. 

Not only are they creative in their makings, they are also creative in their lovely displays at the markets I run.
An interesting stall or space invites you to come inside and take a peek.
Invites you to stop and peek, and if allowed to touch and investigate.
It should give an impression of how to use the product and be styled in a simple aesthetic way that makes the products shine.
Here are a few inspirational displays that i LOVE and aspire to. 

My Pinterest DISPLAY board

Here are a few of the market stallholders wonderful displays too!

Kate Smith Ceramics

Lucy Litchfield's pinnies and cards

Splendid Ocassions

English Handmade Soaps

Thimble Workshops

Feel free to share your wonderful displays. I would love to love them too and PIN them to share what you do!!

Lets inspire each other !

Teacup tuesday... things in twos

Sarah and I have been tackling our end of year accounts. 

This year we have decided to bite the bullet and do as much of it as we can....

hoping that we can do it all. 

After all, we are intelligent ladies. 

We've done the majority of our bookkeeping in the past. So with both of our knowledge of running a small business and project management between us, we have almost mastered it. 

Almost there...

We've used a few tricks of the trade like running the accounts from the bank account and through the help of Paypal downloads. We (I) have made it pretty by colour coding it to simplify things. 

And of course look pretty!

Between us we have mastered it.

Between us we can do anything!

So today I congratulate us and our team work.

Well done us working Mums!

unikgifts.co.uk

Teacup tuesday....Our customers

We love our customers, we especially love knowing and seeing that what we choose to feature on the u-ni-k gifts website is loved and cherished, just like we hoped it would be.

This weekend I was sent a very beautiful picture of a little girl in one of our Antique linen apron dresses bought for her Birthday as well as being told that one of the Memory boxes I made personally for a special ladies birthday, actually bought tears to the Birthday girls eyes. Something very lovely to hear when you have spent time and care carefully trying to make something precious and lovely.

Henry's gorgeous Easter pressie is here! 
Thank you Anna And Sarah at unikgifts
Henry loves it!! 
Fantastic site for children's gifts!!!!

Dinner on our elephant meal boards

With that in mind I thought I would share some of the lovely pictures and messages sent to us from our clients who have enjoyed giving our gifts to very happy recipients.

A beautiful Birthday Antique Linen dress

A new born wrapped in her new cotton Shuktara blanket

Lucky Samson with a blanket & wooden car

Beautiful Winifred and her flowers

Handsome boys and their flying machines

Sleeping James in his Shuktara blanket.

                   

Party frocks and Cashmere at Christmas

A beautiful blanket in Brighton

A sleepy sausage with her floral Shuktara

Cuppa and cashmere

Happy customers & happy gift receivers.

unikgifts

Teacup Tuesday....networking

As a small business we try very hard to support those that are in the same boat as us; especially if they share our ethos.

Last Friday I had a good networking day; one of our Twitter followers reached out to me and asked if I could help out on her website (she runs a lovely forum / information site that aims to help people moving). So I popped over there and provided some information; which she kindly thanked me for.

I also discovered a Twitter networking event called #ConnectFriday. This event is for ethical, sustainable, and kind to the environment businesses can all 'meet' and find out what each other does. This means that I can meet and network with people who may run small independent yarn businesses that I could buy my cotton or bamboo off for knitting the softies. We could discover a FSC wooden box maker for Anna's memory boxes, perhaps even a new supplier for our gift wrap cotton or ribbons! I grew up in a country where shopping local, recycling & being aware (kind) of the environment was a way of life not an ethos that people could buy into or brand themselves with. We never saw the word 'eco-' until we moved back to the UK.

Anna & I try to adopt this in our business as well as personal lives - we work with people who use natural materials - sustainable natural materials, or who upcycle materials. Not only do we work with these people but we share their business successes, we let other people know about them, we link to their websites from ours, we retweet their Twitter tweets & share their Facebook status updates. We'll put their flyers out with ours and generally use them as our preferred suppliers.

So today's blog is in honour of all those fellow small businesses that do the same for us - in particular David Earp - Shuktara, Marie Travell - Rainbow Cakes, Joanne McGowen - Act One Adventures, and of course Anna - Godalming Independent Market. These four people are consistently there, networking with us.

Thank you guys, you'll be the first 4 businesses I 'shout out' on the Twitter & Facebook #ConnectFriday event I'll be doing.

Teacup Tuesday... School holidays!

Quick, it looks as if Mummy's trying to get something done!

It's never easy running a small business (read our other Teacup Tuesday blogs to see all the different trials we endure), but for some reason it's even more difficult in the school holidays. Now Anna & I both have children under 4, so while they are not at school we are affected by the activities that are put on hold during the school holidays.

So my midweek playgroup is now 'on holiday' until September.I know this doesn't sound like it should affect us but it's where I can catch up on emails & missed telephone calls (I use this opportunity to call people back who have asked about our products or our company - usually national newspapers looking for us to advertise with them) while DangerMouse plays with her friends.

I now find myself with a toddler who wants stimulation during the day and a husband who wants to discuss interior design (where to put up pictures in layman's terms) at night. So missing these few hours is making a big difference!

While I am sure there are other working Mums out there who now have older children underfoot who are thinking 'pah' at this blog update, but I'm not yet able to give Kathryn jobs that help me! She has her own interpretation of 'tidy' when I'm stock checking or she finds something she likes and says "ooooh mine!". If I try to do something while I think she's playing nicely... I usually find she's managed to get into mischief (at the weekend I found her up to her elbows in paint - painting my car with her poster paints!!).

So we working Mums with children underfoot this Summer Holiday are trying to find ways to fit our work days into the precious few hours we have in a week. While we will always put orders as our first priority in these few hours, people may have to wait a day more for us to come back to their enquiries or they may just have 'please excuse the typos as this was sent from my iPhone' at the bottom of their emailed response!

Teacup Tuesday... making time for friends & family

Most my work is done at night, turning me into a night owl

If you're thinking of starting a small business take heed: your 'you time' will disappear first, and then you'll struggle to make time for friends and family. Making a small business work is hard work, there's no way around avoiding the fact that you need to put in the time and effort to make it a success.

Like other businesses some days we are emailed magical business courses / seminars which seem to sell business success in 30 days by just working 3 days a week!

The adverts usually say something like: 'Build your business in just 30 days, sign up now and receive my free eBook on Making Your Business Work For You' and then in smaller print Just £100 to join'. In really small writing there's mention of a monthly subscription but no mention of cost. If you ignore this email you'll have another one in a few days saying 'Now with out a sign up fee - Join now and save £100' - John from Bishopsford did and he's now running an internationally successful business. Read more about John and his success story by clicking here...'

Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

I'm very conscious that the time I spend on u-ni-k is focused and task orientated. I make sure that I maximise the time I have available on doing tasks that need to be done, that will bring the maximum return and that can be completed in the time I have available. Usually there's not enough time available so I sacrifice making that overdue call to an old friend, or jumping in the shower at the end of the day instead of having a long relaxing bath. You make these sacrifices to make things work, so I'm not sure what magic formula the courses and seminars provide.

Perhaps I'm just too cynical. Perhaps, just perhaps I could work less and earn more... if I could only believe that for a price some magic business advice could change my life that much.

Teacup tuesday- TUNE!

It's supposedly summer- a time to be musical.
I'm a big music fan and with this weekend being Glastonbury weekend it's a time to turn the music up!
I normally have music coming out of every room so I can hear it where ever I am in the house.
It helps me think, relaxes me, inspires me and makes me happy.
I am often found bopping or wiggling with the naughties.....
Lunch is often eaten while head banging or doing some type of bop as we eat. Normally resulting in giggles.

With that in mind I share a few blogs I have written on Music.....it inspires, it provokes and it can change a mood in a second. Use it productively and it can feed your soul!

So if your having a lull or a non-productive day switch on the radio or put on a favourite CD. It can certainly change your mood for the better!

I call it MUSE music........inspirational tunes! Here is my MUSE music blog here.
It can also capture a moment perfectly! Here is my sentimental music blog.....which I wrote while reminiscing with tears in my eyes. Soppy date!

So..........turn on your tunes and get to it!


unikgifts.co.uk

Teacup Tuesday... insurance - a bet you wouldn't want to lose!

OK so it seems mundane, and actually the money it costs could be spent on something 'better' like more marketing or a stall at a fantastic craft fayre but really insurance is something you can't do without.

If everything goes swimmingly then yes, it seems unnecessary but if it doesn't all go swimmingly then insurance is the net there to help you. Take Anna's recently uninvited and definitely unwanted visitors... her insurance is going to help her replace the electrical items she lost (not unfortunately the camera memory card). Otherwise she'd be without them for longer than a few weeks :(

The same as a business, should someone decide that your product arrived in poor condition or even worse never turned up then the insurance you paid for when posting it helps you reclaim towards that loss and perhaps even covers making a new product and resending.

But it's not only product or belonging insurance a business needs, no there's liability & other areas that we need to cover ourselves for. In this 'have you had an accident that wasn't your fault' TV advert soaked society, I wouldn't dream of erecting a gazebo or table at an event without the insurance to cover me for any accidents that may happen. A table can be heavy if it gives way... and if it fell on someone's foot and they decided to seek compensation then I'd need my insurance to back me up!

So not mundane or unnecessary at all. When you need it insurance is the safety net that catches you when accidents happen. If you run a small business then it is a necessity.

www.unikgifts.co.uk

Teacup Tuesday, unwanted guests

Most of you who know me will know my house was broken into last week. A little trip out turned into the biggest nightmare. We returned to an upside down house with every portable electrical appliance gone forever. Old old phones, old cameras, chargers, lovely laptops, our luxury IPad mini and the lovely family camera with photos still to upload were all taken.

Lovely friends and family came to the rescue, dropping things they had planned, to help out while our home was out if bounds as forensics took prints and statements were taken.

My lovely business partner toured Surrey the day after looking for a power cable for her old laptop ensuring I wouldn't crumble without my trusted technology I use to joint run u-ni-k and my other market venture.
My sister raced to ours the day of the break in to entertain the naughties while my partner and I dealt with the police and aftermath. My other Part-time job understood when I took the day off to cleanse my house free of nasty intruders and my lovely Mum allowed me to do it child free.

All I have to say after the event is tools are replaceable. It's inconvenient to loose data and time spent on work butFriends, family and my children are far more precious.

In retrospect, tools like DropBox, ICloud, Storage facilities with domain providers and Photo box are now the only tools in my life...that and my Iphone till I am with laptop again!!!  

And my new moto, to be prepared!

Bare with me while I get up to speed, but onwards and upwards I say!!

unikgifts.co.uk

Tea cup Tuesday:The art of Thank you

I read a status update on Facebook from a lovely friend about gratitude & thank yous.

"Call me old fashioned but have we lost the art of thank you cards?!"

No no no no no!!!

I'm big at thank you' s. Even if they may be late, (normally very late in my case) my little ones always send a thank you card for Birthdays & Christmas gifts. OK, at 19 months Sam may be too young to actually write a card but I have already started Ida on thank you drawings to grandparents and she even coloured most of the thank you cards I bought for Christmas gifts.

I like the art of communication it incurs & the sentiment of thank you.

It installs manners and as importantly confirms that a gift is appreciated. Initiating confidence that the buyer got it right and choose a really good gift.

Thank you doesn't always have to be about saying thank you for a gift. They can be about acknowledging a service, a compliment or action. A thank you for being there or a thank you for doing something. Both equally as important as any thank you.

I don't think there are enough thank you cards in the world. For whatever reason.

They make you happy and they make you smile.

As my blog earlier this year talked about gift giving being just as important and special to the buyer as it is to the recipient. Just as a gift of thanks is just as special to both.

So Zoe, the inspiration for my little Teacup Tuesday, most certainly not. I believe the Art of Thank you cards should be cherished and kept.

thank you

exclamation

 a polite expression used when acknowledging a gift, service, orcompliment, or accepting or refusing an offer : thank you for your letter | no thank you, I don't believe I will.noun

an instance or means of expressing thanks : Lucy planned a party as a thank you to the nurses | [as adj. ] thank-you letters. 

Our Little Thank you Pigeons

DO IT! Send a thank you card to someone today!

unikgifts.co.uk

Teacup Tuesday... it's not just about the kids!

Well, this week we've been processing orders and doing a bit more due diligence on the 'things for Mummies' section of the website (if our due diligence pays off then this will be 'coming soon').

We've found some more talented makers...

We've opened a world of opportunity!

A letterpress printer; would you like some lovely Mummy stationary? A welcome to the world printed poster, personalised pieces?

We've found a weaver who works magic on an old fashioned loom... scarves, throws, wall hangings?

We're looking for more makers that will make something beautiful for Mummies! How about a jeweller? A milliner? A cordwainer (makes shoes, cobblers fix them)?

What would you like to see? Just for Mummies...

Teacup Tuesday...Finding the right fit!

This week Anna & I have been talking about craft fayres. We're proud to be apart of some lovely local fayres here in the Surrey / Hampshire / Berkshire area but we've recently been let down or disappointed by some of the newer fayres we joined. One of which took our booking money for a fayre that never happened, once they had payment they went silent - never to be heard from again!

With the increase of postage prices now in force (Royal Mail is still our preferred mail option), we're really keen to show our lovely gifts in person at craft fayres. So if you can recommend any, please do pop over to our Facebook page and let us know of a craft fayre near you that we can exhibit at!

On a happier note, we've started to build the website into something that has a slicker purchasing process. We're really happy that our new domain hosts provide us with a stable platform with which to do this. So keep your eyes open for more changes... and maybe even a section for Mummy gifts rather than baby & children's gifts. It's all very exciting.

Something nice for Mummies? ooooohh!

Teacup tuesday- the joy of gifting

With a weekend full of Easter gifts, 1st Birthday gifts and prospective birthday talk (a few on the list) I have been thinking a lot about gifts.....again!

I love buying gifts. I think everyone does, no?

Especially if the person you are buying for is a loved one or a special friend. The thinking, finding, buying and wrapping is a lovely feeling. The waiting and then giving, watching as the gift is unwrapped and then waiting to see if the gift is loved....it's an exciting moment.

But, sometimes people don’t always get it right. It’s hard finding the perfect thing.  I love giving a gift far more than receiving one. Perhaps the reason why I have gone into the gifting market. Although I do now struggle now that time is limited with two toddlers!

Are you the type of person who instantly shows they don’t like a gift and asks for a receipt or to exchange it?

Or are you the type to gratefully receive it and either find it a new home or keep it and love the fact that someone has taken time to think of you, even if they have got it horribly wrong?

Buying for a child that isn’t your own is hard. Especially a new baby. Trying to satisfy the parent and the child is a pretty much impossible task. I am a Mum of an almost three year old and although I know that not everything she receives is my taste, she quite honestly LOVES gifts of every shape and size. And normally the gifts I don’t like (the pink sparkly, dolly, girly, frilly type ones) she adores. The gifts are for her and who am I to say what she should like and not like. She has her own mind, taste and preferences. She's a little girl after all! Strong minded and of strong opinions.

Gift giving is a lovely thing. Something to show you care. Something to show you love the person. For me having a “gift” list eliminates the love out of the equation. Yes sometimes it’s essential to avoid the multiple toaster fiascos at weddings and especially when parents have a “need” list due to money constraints. But in my mind, when buying a gift for someone special, like a best friends wedding or a grand daughters 1^st birthday, the thought, choice and love that goes into buying a gift is as important as the gift itself.

So, Mums and Dads- spare a thought when listing “wants” that you wish for your child rather then leaving the element of surprise.  Or adding a newly received present to the charity bag (I am guilty of this too) because you don't like it. Are you sure the little one doesn't actually love it!

Sometimes the thought that goes into a gift is as important as the gift itself. And the gift is not for you but your child!

Gift giving is a voluntary act. 

Gifts mean you love and care.
That's what is important.
Sometimes we all forget that.

unikgifts.co.uk

Teacup Tuesday... beautiful things & necessities

We're tired of bad service so we're taking our custom elsewhere!

We're fed up of having to tell people our website and email is down. Enough is enough we are moving on to a new domain host.

But as with our old domain host the transfer isn't turning out to be simple. The old company wants to delete the site before we move to the new company. It's customer service like this and unreliability that means we are moving. *SIGH* Why doesn't everyone care about their customers like we do?

On a more positive note, we've started a u-ni-k gifts Pinterest Board! Both Anna & I have been on Pinterest personally for a while but it's only recently that they allowed businesses to also have a page. So we've started a few boards based upon the things that inspire us, crafty things we can do with the little ones, beautiful things and of course, no u-ni-k Pinterest page would be complete without the "We love Bunnies" board.

There's a little something for everyone; Mummy (parent) humour, some of our favourite pieces...

So come over and take a look at some of the beautiful things we've found while looking for makers and inspiration for our own crafty lives!

http://pinterest.com/unikgiftsllp/

Teacup Tuesday... How long exactly is a year?

Quick troops defend the small business from injustice!

Anna and I are fuming, no actually we're livid. We returned our first accounts to Companies House but were fined for being late. Since our accounts cover a period of over 12months we thought we had 21months to enter them, according to Companies House 12months and 2 weeks are not over 12months.

As you can imagine we have looked at our calendar and thought, well blimey.. "who knew? There must be 54 weeks in the year, imagine us not knowing that before... kinda explains our childcare costs"

OR there's some magic calendar out there that the government follows that we as working Mum's are not aware of.

So this week we are SEETHING with anger, all fired up to take on the big boys while quietly paying the fine because we want to stay in business.

Just another way the current Government is trying to stifle business in this struggling economy.

Teacup Tuesday... postage costs

Well we've been umm-ing and ahhh-ing over this for YONKS! What to do? What to do?

We LOVE sending our gifts special delivery... we and the customer can track them and make sure they arrive safely. They're there before 1pm the next day (unless we post on a Friday then they arrive on the Monday) and are always treated with care.

BUT it's expensive and since April last  year it's become VERY expensive. We've tried to protect our lovely customers from the price hike but it's been costing us dearly.

So we're saying goodbye to special delivery for those gifts that are under £50 and not likely to break in the post.

We're rolling out a new price structure that works inline with the post office's first class UK mail prices. We'll be gift wrapping as usual and sending things on their way with all the love and attention to detail our customers know us for.

BUT no more tracking, and no more next day delivery. Unless you contact us to request it. Then of course we'll send it Special Delivery. Anywhere in the world.

Teacup Tuesday... musings of a small business

Nice and settled with your cuppa? OK this week we've been talking money and laundry piles and people who get us down...

Well as you know, Anna & I run u-ni-k while trying to keep up with all the other jobs a Mum has to do. It makes us tired and sometimes irritable, especially when the world seems to be full of people who just want to make our lives harder... but sometimes a small win makes all the difference.

We take our lovely pieces to craft fairs, and usually our gifts that are under £20 sell really well and people take our details if they are interested in some of our more expensive pieces. This is because, until now, there hasn't been a handheld, mobile card reader to allow us to take card payments.

Missing out on these vital sales has been a bugbear of ours for 12months now. We investigated several possibilities - all of which required us to be online on our own network to work! Then along came a Facebook advert for iZettle.

Woop woop, the little device fits neatly on to an iPhone and the app is amazing! I have been busy loading up our products into our account so that I don't have to waste time typing in the item that the person has bought when invoicing them with the device.

So once the products that the person is buying has been totalled up on the application, the customer hands over their card, I process the payment, they sign the app (using a finger or pencil end) and enter their email address. iZettle will email them a receipt with the full details of what they paid for.

We have an initial £20 transaction credit and will be charged a nominal amount per transaction each time we use it. All I need is a 3G signal that allows the iZettle app to communicate with it's hub.

Fingers crossed that we have some trial 'large' purchases at the Love What We Do event this Friday.

Teacup Tuesday... Stock taking, spreadsheets etc

Well this week we've been thinking about Valentines day and a little further ahead to Easter! I know I know, we've only just celebrated my birthday but these things creep up on us before we know it.

We've done a quick stock check and ordered some pieces for our upcoming craft fairs.

[We're at the Love What We Do event on 8th Feb, so if you're in the area stop by and say hello. We'll have some of our new makers pieces there for you to fall in love with!]

So February is the month of love. With this in mind, Anna's produced these lovely things about what we love:

(you'd guessed bunnies already hadn't you?!)

The other thing we've been chatting about is family, and how it's important. So take sometime out this week to show some love to your family.

Heart rainbow maker

Don't forget Daddy too!

Silver cufflinks for Daddy

www.unikgifts.co.uk