When times are tough, help each other!

Economic crisis worsens. How are you affected?

When Anna and I started u-ni-k we were hoping to work from home to spend time with our little ones, bring beautiful gifts to fellow Mummies and basically enrich the lives of little people around the world. The news was full of tales of economic recovery and world banking people telling us that the UK was going to be OK. A few rays of financial sunshine were peeking through the recession clouds, a rainbow was formed and the proverbial pot of gold was to be found in the UK.

Now we're heading towards the end of the year and people are looking at how prices have been rising but their pay packets are the same. My rough, one cup of coffee only this morning while looking at the BBC news website, calculations say that it costs a minimum of £50 per week to keep a child. On top of this the Universities Minister David Willetts said on BBC Radio 4 this morning "The country is not as well off as we thought”. Things are looking grey for us all.

What does this mean for us small businesses?

Well for Anna and I it means helping out other small businesses as much as possible. We retweet, follow and support however we can our fellow small businesses. Our business is based upon the small independent makers, so if times are tough for them it's tough for us.

We help our makers by not charging them any listing fees, we link back to their website from ours (OK I am still working on this page in the new look website redesign but it's near the top of my to do list!), we promote them via this blog, our Twitter and Facebook pages, and also send out press releases dedicated to their products. In short we campaign for our makers!

I make sure that our makers are the first to see their products on our website and they have the final say in the images and copy.

In return we hope that our makers list us a supplier on their website, promote us through their marketing and keep the products they make exclusively for us 'exclusive' for at least a year from the date they sign our contract.

Me all dressed up
ready for our Christmas Markets

What next?

Well, u-ni-k are hitting the road. We're taking the stock pieces that we have and we're heading out to a Christmas Market near you (if you live in the Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex areas). We're busy knitting, sewing, and promoting, our own handmade treasures while nudging our suppliers to finish their samples off and send our way so that we can stock them on our stall!

So please mark 12^th and 19^th November 2010 in your diaries to come and support u-ni-k gifts and our makers at the Weybridge Handmade Christmas Market and the Farnham Christmas Fayre.

We'd love to see you there.

PS

If anyone knows of a good Christmas Market looking for a fabulous stall of handmade childrens goods please let me know: sarah @unikgifts.co.uk