Latest / The 3Bz Podcast - Building Better Business / EP142 - From Hobby to Handmade Business with Natalie Edwards: Building a Brand with Purpose and Play

Transcript

EP142 - From Hobby to Handmade Business with Natalie Edwards: Building a Brand with Purpose and Play · The 3Bz Podcast - Building Better Business

• 0:01
  Hi there business owner, and welcome to the Three BS Podcast,
• 0:04
  the place where we go beyond the numbers and dive into strategies
• 0:07
  to help you build a Better Business one step at a time.
• 0:11
  I'm your host Stephanie, a multi awarding entrepreneur with over
• 0:13
  a decade of experience in the bookkeeping and currency world.
• 0:17
  If you're a business owner looking to streamline, grow, and
• 0:19
  get back the time that you deserve, you're in the right
• 0:21
  place tackling real world problems, answering tough
• 0:24
  questions, and digging deep into business building secrets in
• 0:27
  just 15 minutes each week. So, Are you ready to build a
• 0:31
  Better Business with confidence and clarity?
• 0:33
  Then let's go. Hello and welcome back to
• 0:38
  another episode of the Three BS Podcast, your go to place for 15
• 0:41
  minutes of CPD certified motivation, inspiration and
• 0:45
  education each week. And again, we've got an amazing
• 0:48
  guest of us this week and I can't wait to have this
• 0:50
  conversation. Natalie, would you like to
• 0:52
  introduce yourself? Yes, hello, I'm Natalie and I'm
• 0:56
  the founder of Made in the Button Room, a eco conscious
• 1:01
  crochet business based here in Gloucestershire.
• 1:05
  I love that so much because I think as a crafter, I'm a little
• 1:07
  bit crafty myself. Nothing to your standards, but
• 1:11
  we start something, we buy all the materials and then we give
• 1:14
  up and then we have all this material that sits in the
• 1:17
  corner. I've done like cross stitching
• 1:18
  and embroideries and paperwork crafts over the years and it
• 1:21
  just crocheting I've never quite got to grips with it Was my goal
• 1:25
  to do it over the summer, Didn't happen since I haven't got
• 1:27
  there. Must see you at all.
• 1:29
  Well, I'll have to come and help you one day.
• 1:31
  We'll have to have a little session at some point and we can
• 1:34
  sit and do a little a little crochet.
• 1:38
  Yeah. I'm a great believer in everyone
• 1:40
  has a craft in them. It's just finding which one is
• 1:43
  yours and taking a little time out to just slow down and sit
• 1:49
  and kind of, yeah, chill and get creative.
• 1:54
  Yeah. And I think as business owners,
• 1:55
  we're on all the time. Anything we can do that takes us
• 1:57
  away from the business for a little bit.
• 1:58
  I mean, it's kind of ironic for you because it is your business,
• 2:01
  but you know, I'm like just taking that step back as
• 2:04
  business owners is really important.
• 2:06
  So important, whilst it is my business, I also think it is
• 2:10
  part therapy for me. I love it and it helps me
• 2:17
  regulate and calm and focus in on on the it's something about
• 2:22
  the rhythm. I think I am finding that more
• 2:26
  and more perhaps professionals, people in corporate are kind of
• 2:30
  leaning into slow making and crafts as a as a kind of an
• 2:37
  opportunity to find space in a busy week to just again slow
• 2:41
  down and switch off from that and focus in on something that's
• 2:48
  mindful or it is it's time for them.
• 2:54
  Yeah. So obviously I'm a tell
• 2:58
  everybody, just find something, do something creative, even if
• 3:02
  it's just sort of part an hour in the day.
• 3:06
  I love that so much. When we talked before, you said
• 3:09
  that Made in the Bottom Room is where playful crochet meets
• 3:13
  creative planet kind making, and I love that.
• 3:15
  So can you tell me what that phrase really means in practice
• 3:18
  and how sustainability shapes what you create?
• 3:23
  So the playful bit is my battery minis.
• 3:27
  I have 18 of them, 18 designs of really fun little characters.
• 3:35
  They all have names. So we have Zachariah the
• 3:37
  elephant and we have Jeremiah the frog and we have Zeus the
• 3:41
  zebra and they all have characters and they all have job
• 3:46
  roles here at the at the bottom room.
• 3:49
  And so I really kind of bring that out as part of my business.
• 3:55
  It, it makes it more fun for me as A, to run my business, but
• 4:01
  it's a great way of engaging customers.
• 4:03
  It's a great way of getting people I don't know, just in
• 4:07
  sparking their inspiration, I guess.
• 4:10
  So that's the kind of my playful side with my personality coming
• 4:14
  out. But sustainability is so huge
• 4:17
  for me in my business. It's, it's, it's not just a
• 4:22
  buzzword, it's not just greenwashing.
• 4:23
  It's it's it's something that I feel really passionate about and
• 4:29
  all of my kits, for example, they are completely plastic
• 4:33
  free, completely plastic free. So the wool, it's British wool
• 4:40
  that I use in most of my kits. If it's not British wool, then
• 4:43
  it's organic cotton. The stuffing is carded British
• 4:47
  wool. The packaging is all like
• 4:52
  biodegradable. It's just, yeah, and, and right
• 4:56
  from I really take the time to kind of research the best places
• 5:03
  to get the materials from so that I can trace, you know,
• 5:08
  where it's all come from. And yeah, it's, it's really
• 5:12
  important to me that quality and sustainability is, is really at
• 5:17
  the core of everything that I do.
• 5:21
  I love that. I think I need a mascot now for
• 5:23
  my company. I'm going to have to pick your
• 5:25
  brains after this. I think we need a mascot,
• 5:27
  honestly. It's so much fun.
• 5:29
  I'm that I'm that silly person that turns up an event with a
• 5:33
  little mini in tow. It's just a great conversation
• 5:36
  status. It's a bit of fun.
• 5:38
  This is it. There's so many angles to it
• 5:40
  from a business perspective, isn't it?
• 5:41
  There's the marketing, there's the brand recognition, there's
• 5:44
  the conversation start and the networking.
• 5:46
  I love that. I love that so much.
• 5:48
  So you also said to me that you started from your spare room.
• 5:52
  So the bottom room has started for your from your spare room as
• 5:54
  a passion. Many of us, our businesses start
• 5:57
  from our kitchen tables and from home.
• 5:59
  What's been the most surprising lesson that you've learned from
• 6:02
  running a handmade business from home?
• 6:05
  Oh, question, the most surprising thing I've Oh,
• 6:14
  probably quite a few. I think I've surprised myself
• 6:18
  I've I'm not a business person. I'm someone who through through
• 6:26
  circumstances in life was taken down this path of my hobby
• 6:32
  turned into my business. It was 100% started off as a bit
• 6:37
  of a hobby and a side hustle and now my full time job.
• 6:42
  So business is not my background and I I think I've surprised
• 6:48
  myself at what I can do and how far I can take this with the
• 6:54
  skills that I started off with. I love that so much and I just
• 7:01
  think it's so incredible that we can do that and I think we do
• 7:05
  surprise ourselves on a daily basis.
• 7:07
  I think for me personally, the biggest thing that changed again
• 7:10
  for me in business was finding that community, whether it was a
• 7:13
  small business, Britain community, theopathy, this is
• 7:15
  SBS community, being a part of community and learning from
• 7:19
  other business owners whose strengths are different areas
• 7:21
  that are different to mine. So marketing is is not a key
• 7:24
  skill of mine. I'm not very good at it.
• 7:25
  That's something that I have to really work out and I struggle
• 7:28
  with. But there's others in my
• 7:30
  community and my network that have made that easier for me.
• 7:33
  Do you find the same thing with your sort of community and
• 7:35
  network of business owners? 100% the community is
• 7:40
  everything, absolutely everything.
• 7:42
  I doubt I would still be doing my business if it wasn't for the
• 7:48
  connections that I've made. The friends that I've made, you
• 7:52
  know, they, they started off as, as collaborations or
• 7:56
  connections, but actually they many are now really dear
• 8:00
  friends. The support, the cheerleading,
• 8:06
  the tips, the advice, the all, all of it.
• 8:10
  Particularly as it's me. I am the business.
• 8:13
  It is just me. I mean, one day perhaps it would
• 8:15
  wouldn't it be wonderful to have other people on board?
• 8:18
  But at the moment it's me. So it can be lonely or you can
• 8:23
  get swallowed up by things and lost in it.
• 8:25
  So yeah, community enough, your tribe, that support network is
• 8:31
  so key. I love that because that's how
• 8:35
  we met a network in every other people knew you and I was like
• 8:39
  you. You're an SBS winner.
• 8:40
  No, you're an SBS winner and it suddenly opens is you almost.
• 8:43
  It's like permission to be friends and permission to have
• 8:46
  family. It's like, Oh no, you're in the
• 8:47
  same group as me. That means you're a good person
• 8:50
  and someone is worth talking to. We just instantly get each other
• 8:55
  because you just know, oh, you know that person or you're an
• 8:59
  SBS winner 2 or so. You automatically are connecting
• 9:03
  because you get it. Yeah, I love that so much and I
• 9:07
  want to get back to crochet and because basically I just want to
• 9:10
  pick your brain because it's not my fault.
• 9:13
  Crochet is often seen a bit like knitting, I suppose, quite
• 9:15
  nostalgic. Obviously.
• 9:17
  We said it was very mindful and there's a real mindful quality
• 9:20
  to it, but it's especially very old school knitting, probably
• 9:23
  more so than crochet. Now crochet feels a lot more
• 9:26
  modern anyway, but you've really made it modern with workshops,
• 9:29
  these kits and the online sales. So how do you make something so
• 9:34
  traditional and and give it such a modern approach?
• 9:38
  Oh, I think the designs just come for me quite naturally.
• 9:43
  So if they're seen as quite modern and fun, then it's not a
• 9:49
  that's that wasn't a purpose of mine.
• 9:51
  I think that's just me and my style.
• 9:55
  When I was I'm self-taught 15 odd years ago I I taught myself
• 10:01
  how to crochet. It was not cool.
• 10:04
  I was a young 20 something mum. It was not cool.
• 10:09
  Now it's so on trend. It's so on trend.
• 10:13
  It really helps. Crafting generally I think is
• 10:18
  less, I don't know, I don't know what the word is.
• 10:23
  Not sort of fuddy Duddy, but that kind of just not a cool
• 10:28
  thing to do. There's people like Tom Daley
• 10:33
  and Sam Ryder. They're kind of helping bring
• 10:36
  knitting and crochet to the forefront.
• 10:39
  I've got more and more and more students now from sort of 910,
• 10:43
  eleven years old that are desperate to learn how to
• 10:46
  crochet. They're watching TikTok videos,
• 10:49
  they're watching YouTube videos, and they're desperate to learn.
• 10:52
  So I'm totally riding this wave of crochet and knitting is kind
• 10:57
  of cool again and loving it. So I think it's just a happy
• 11:02
  little coincidence that I found myself in now.
• 11:08
  Yeah, and I think that's business, isn't it?
• 11:09
  Finding that gap in the market and if it's doing well, we go
• 11:12
  with it. I think a year ago I had a
• 11:14
  client who was a clothing retailer and they're like
• 11:17
  one-size-fits-all and they're incredible.
• 11:19
  And they were doing amazing on TikTok shop.
• 11:21
  And then the rules and the goal posts moved and changed and they
• 11:23
  had to move with it. And I think that's part of
• 11:25
  riding this business roller coaster.
• 11:27
  One question I ask every guest on the podcast if you could
• 11:31
  describe your business in one word, what would it be and why?
• 11:37
  Oh, just one word. It's tricky, I know.
• 11:44
  It's really tricky. I think, I mean, there's so many
• 11:47
  this that's, that's really, really tricky.
• 11:52
  I think fun sums it up. Having spoken to, I'm kind of
• 11:58
  drawing on on customers feedback from the events that I've just
• 12:02
  done over the weekend and they smile or laugh or just, I don't
• 12:10
  know, they just, we have a fun conversation.
• 12:13
  They find the whole thing quite enjoyable.
• 12:15
  So yeah, if it really had to be just one fun, no.
• 12:21
  I like fun. I think fun's a great one.
• 12:24
  Fun to run it and fun to be in it, and the fun for that we
• 12:26
  deliver for our clients. I think that's an incredible 1.
• 12:29
  To get involved in. Yeah, just.
• 12:31
  I'm not. I don't take myself particularly
• 12:34
  seriously. The animals make people laugh,
• 12:37
  that's all. A bit of fun with the characters
• 12:39
  and things. So yeah.
• 12:41
  I think that's genius. I love that so much.
• 12:43
  Well, we're almost at the end of another episode.
• 12:45
  They fly so fast, these episodes.
• 12:47
  Thank you so much for joining us.
• 12:49
  Where can people find you? Where can people buy your your
• 12:51
  kits and things? Pull, pull, pull away.
• 12:54
  So I currently I'm currently building my website so the best
• 12:58
  place to go to find my shop online is at the British Craft
• 13:01
  House. Shout out to Dossie so you can
• 13:05
  head there. I'm on Facebook, LinkedIn and
• 13:10
  Instagram all at Made in the bottom room.
• 13:14
  Amazing. And we'll put all the links in
• 13:15
  the show notes. Thank you.
• 13:17
  Very nice. Easily.
• 13:19
  Well, that brings us to the end of another episode of the Three
• 13:21
  BS Podcast. Thank you so much for watching
• 13:23
  or listening wherever you are. If you could take 5 seconds just
• 13:25
  to like great overview. It really helps push this
• 13:27
  podcast out to more business owners so we can all build
• 13:30
  better businesses. Thank you so much, Natalie, and
• 13:33
  I'll see you all for the next episode.
• 13:35
  Bye bye. Thank you.
• 13:39
  And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Three
• 13:41
  Bees podcast. I hope you found it useful and
• 13:43
  that you're walking away with some motivation, inspiration, or
• 13:46
  education to help you build a Better Business.
• 13:50
  Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and of course, connect
• 13:52
  with us on social media for more insights, tips, and behind the
• 13:55
  scenes content. Your next step in building a
• 13:57
  Better Business is just a click away.
• 13:59
  I can't wait to connect with you and I'll see you on the next
• 14:01
  episode. Bye.