Littlemummy.Com

Q1. Give a brief description of your business and how you came up with the name.

I design and paint art for children including limited edition, personalised name prints, posters, canvasses and door name plaques.

I know it’s a bit corny but doesn’t every new mum who starts a business try to incorporate their child’s name? I’m no exception, my daughter is called Katie and our little pet name for her is Katiepie, it’s as simple as that.

Q2. How did you come up with the idea behind Katiepie Designs?

I have been arty all of my life and after spending years working 9-5 in various, mundane office jobs I turned my hobby into my work. I went back to college when I was 26 to study art and design and spent a few years selling my art, but also worked part time to supplement my income. I painted in various mediums and also spent some time painting children’s murals, before going into interior design and soft furnishings. When I had my daughter, I painted some art for her nursery and so Katiepie Designs was born.

Q3. Did you have any start-up costs, if so how did you raise the finance?

I didn’t have any huge initial start-up costs as I was working from home, producing my own art work and I already had an office/bedroom at home. I did pay someone to design my website as I wanted a professional looking site, which has since been upgraded. I also spent a few hundered pounds on business cards and marketing material but my main outlay in the first year was advertising. It is very expensive and it didn’t always give me the return I was hoping for. I’d spent a few hundred pounds on an advert or offer a few hundred pounds worth of my work as a competition prize and anticipate that I was going to be inundated with orders. Sadly this rarely happened. This financial year I am more aware of what works for Katiepie Designs and my money will be spent more wisely. After a few months I also had to invest in a new PC, printer and some new art materials.

I was quite naive in that I thought it wouldn’t cost me a lot to finance the first year and that I could earn a bit of money while working round my daughter. Things aren’t quite as idyllic as that in the real world and I soon realised that I had to spend money to make money and if I was paying out for nursery fees for Katie then I would have to sell more than a few paintings a week to pay for it. Saying this, I didn’t want to borrow money and used savings and interest free credit cards to finance my first year.

Q4. Do you employ staff or do you do all the work yourself?

At the moment I do everything myself but I find that there just aren’t enough hours in the day. I am at the point now that I will need to consider taking someone on if I want to expand my business and increase sales.

Q5. How many hours a week do you spend on your business?

At least 40 hours a week but generally more. I could spend 100 hours a week working and there would still be things on my to do list. Basically, I work every spare minute I have.

Q6. How do you manage your childcare?

I don’t have any close family nearby who are able to help out looking after Katie, so I have to pay for all my childcare. Initially, my daughter went to a childminder for 4 hours a week while I was researching the business and she is now at nursery for 2 full days, 8am-5pm and two half days 8am-2pm. My nursery is very flexible and I often put Katie in for additional sessions if I have an exhibition coming up or I’m particularly busy. I hated leaving her at first, but she loves it and happily wanders off now with not even a backward glance. My husband is a teacher so in the school holidays we cut her nursery time down and Aidan looks after Katie while I pretty much work full time.

Q7. What strengths do you think it takes to run a successful business?

Determination, belief in yourself and your business, a risk taker, good organiser, ability to delegate, ability to work alone (in my case), to be a jack of all trades, to be able to juggle twenty zillion things at once and the patience of a saint when people (naming no names) think that because you work from home, it isn’t real work. When in fact you never turn off and will probably work harder than you ever have in your life!

I’m not saying that I have all (or even any) of these traits but they are what I think are important if you decide to go it alone.

Q8. What have been your most successful marketing strategies?

This is a difficult one as I’m still learning what works and what doesn’t and it’s obviously different for every business. Setting up and monitoring a successful marketing strategy also takes a lot of time, effort and money.

As my website was going to be my main marketing tool, it was essential that it looked great and was easy to navigate. I also produced a leaflet/brochure to send out to those responding to adverts and to give out at Baby Shows/Exhibitions. The Katiepie logo is my own artwork and this appears on my business cards which makes it very distinctive. People only have to glance at my business card and they instantly remember what Katiepie Designs offers.

I did a lot on advertising in my first year to try and get Katiepie Designs known and to test the water and see what worked for me. I have advertised in parenting magazines, google, exhibited at Baby Shows – large and small events, sponsoring competitions in parenting magazines and websites, sending out press releases to parenting magazines and other publications, advertising on parenting websites, shopping sites and leaving leaflets at local nurseries, playgroups etc. and passing out my business card to anyone who will have it! It has been a very expensive learning curve but a year on I am still getting business from adverts that were placed when I started out.

But undoubtedly the majority of my business comes from the search engines. It’s not cheap but this gives you an almost immediate return. My ideal is to appear on the first page of the organic listings for specific search terms relating to my products so that you get the hits to your website but don’t have to pay for it! I have started to appear on the organic listings as I found out while I was on holiday. I was still getting orders though despite not advertising and it was then that I realised that if you typed in certain search terms on the search engines that were relevant to my work, my website appeared. I was ecstatic!

I have also done really well at baby shows, but again they are very expensive to participate in and often the sales comes in months after you have exhibited, particularly due to the fact that a lot of people attending are still pregnant! Shows are however excellent for getting to your target market and I participate for exposure to the public and the press.

Q9. And finally, do you have any advice for parents considering starting their own business.

Do it!

My parents both worked full time and I was always under the impression that work was a chore, something that had to be done, even if you didn’t enjoy it, just to bring in money. When I was younger, despite being a great art student at school, no-one ever encouraged me to study art in further education or go into it as a profession. I therefore spent many years working in jobs that didn’t satisfy me, getting bored with a year and moving on. I started studying marketing at evening classes while working full time and when I successfully completed the course I told my tutor that I always wanted to study art, and she simply said “do it” and I did, so at 26 I returned to study art and design and have never looked back. I now realise that you can enjoy work, it doesn’t have to be a chore. I think that is so important when you have children, that you, as a parent should be happy in whatever you choose to do, be it working for someone, or setting up your own business or being a full time mum. If you’re not happy, it will rub off on your kids.

If your kids are toddlers or older, make arrangements for childcare. Katie is 2 and trying to work for any longer than 5 minutes with her around is very difficult. She gets frustrated because she wants my attention and I get annoyed when I turn round after writing an email and she has decorated the carpet or the walls with paints, pencil or waterproof markers! It’s not fair on anyone.

I am quite a forthright person, sometimes a good thing, sometimes not. You have to very determined that you will succeed and really believe in, and know the business you are getting into. Research the market and make sure that there is a market for your product or service.

It can be lonely setting up on your own but I have found some great friends and met some amazing people and got some good advice simply through talking to people. Starting from the guy who owns the small local shop where I bought my PC, my web designer and printer, who have all become friends. I’ve spoken to people exhibiting at baby shows and people on ‘mums’ websites. A guy who contacted me from one of these websites giving me free advice on sales and marketing, helped me through a really tough time last year, I felt like packing it all in and he was amazing. I had never met the guy before, it really restored my faith in human nature. I know it sounds a bit weird, we did eventually meet at a Baby Show I was exhibiting at and he was a normal, regular guy, and I met him, his wife and his lovely newborn baby. I also met Julie White, from Truly Madly Baby (She appeared on Dragon’s Den and won funding to start up her party plan business) on a ‘mums’ website as she was starting up, she sells my products now and we have become friends. So I guess, my advice is don’t be afraid to talk to people, ask questions and get as much free advice as you possibly can.

Use your local Business Link, they can advise on everything from sales and marketing to employment law and tax. My local one also runs courses on book-keeping etc.

Don’t underestimate how much time and money you will have to spend on the business to make it work. I very rarely get time to myself and am constantly trying to juggle too many balls at once and I always have a ‘to do’ list as long as my arm. Saying that, I am happier and more fulfilled doing what I am doing than in any other job I have ever done. I am also very proud of what I have achieved and still get a little buzz when people ask me what I do and I say ‘I’m an artist’.

Littlemummy: Please go and visit Katiepie Designs, the name plaques would make a beautiful gift and are very reasonably priced.

Thanks Helen for the insight into how you got started and how you make your business work.