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Pretty Little Home- Life & Business Update!
Pretty Little Home- Life & Business Update, July 2022!
Hello and welcome back to our blog! We are always working on new content for our blog from a product stance but we thought it has been a little while since we last did a life update and what we have been up to behind the scenes at Pretty Little Home and our personal lives.
Since we last caught up, there has been a LOT that has happened, so i will do my best now to cover the past year or so!
Stanley
Where do i start? I think the best place would be to start with the birth of our 3rd baby boy, Stanley.
Stanley was born in September 2021 and he has completed our family! Stanley came into the world during Pumpkin season and it was crazy busy for us, luckily we have a great team at the warehouse so fulfilment was in hand. Stanley is so lucky as his big brother Freddie and sister Maggie-May adore him!
Business
We have had a really great year from a business point of view, as you may or not be be aware our mission is to sell Pretty Little Home only products , we are constantly working on our brand so that all products are designed and made by us. We have launched new lines this year including my personal favourite, the colourful double wall floral mugs. Other new arrivals include our glass snacking stations, a new range of chopping boards and beaded styling trays!
This Morning
We had an exciting email this year at Easter time asking for our products to be featured on This Morning, incase you are not from the UK, This Morning is a really popular daytime TV show. This was such an amazing opportunity for a small business like ours, for both exposure and brand awareness.
This Morning featured our glass bunny jars, already a popular product anyway but the feature on live TV made us sell out in 2 days! Once again, our brilliant team in the warehouse made sure all orders were fulfilled within our dispatch time! We cannot thank them enough for all the hard work they put in to meet deadlines.
Holidays
In April, we finally managed to get our first family holiday in 2 years (thanks to COVID), it was amazing to take a real break after such a busy Easter season and to take the kids away after such a long time. We went to Cyprus and it was just beautiful, Stanley loved his first holiday and Freddie & Maggie were so happy to be in the sun! It was such a needed physical and mental break from the business, it always makes you come back refreshed and ready to go again. We have had some seaside trips in the UK too thanks to the amazing weather at home which is always a treat!
John Lewis
We also had the absoloute honour to host not one but TWO pop up shops in John Lewis this year too, it was the best experience. Mainly because we got to actually speak and see all of our amazing customers, being online only means we can only usually talk through social media, email or Whatsapp. For customers to be able to see our products in person and touch them was such an amazing opportunity for us and we have more planned for later this year too in new locations. The partners in John Lewis were so helpful and accommodating to us as a small business, their visual merchandising team knew exactly what to do with our products and how to show them off.
Obstacles
Of course, no year goes without its problems as I have learnt that’s just what running a business is, solving problems everyday, sometimes small and sometimes big. Freight is still really high, which is problematic for us when it comes to bringing out new products and growing as a brand, the very first year we started having our own products manufactured the costs of freight almost quadrupled, but we are still getting there, albeit a bit slower than we had hoped.
Space is also another huge issue we battle with, making room for new containers in our warehouse and ensuring the warehouse is safe and accessible for our staff. There is always something that needs to be done, always work to do in the warehouse or on our website, it is definitely not for the faint hearted this running your own business malarke- but we do love it and i think you absolutely have to because it is HARD!
I hope you enjoyed this little update, i will try and do them more frequently as i know it is important. We are looking forward to another busy Autumn and Christmas period and we are really excited for the future of PLH.
Lots of Love, Jenny x
