Let’s Talk Shop – Détails, épisodes et analyse

In this episode of Let's Talk Shop podcast, I speak with, buyer and owner Priya Aurora-Crowe of Lark London. 

Lark London is a wonderful chain of 18 independent brick-and-mortar stores in London and Surrey, that is owned by Priay and her husband Dominic Crowe. 

Priya shared her experiences and perspectives on the ever-evolving world of retail. Here are some of the key takeaways: 

1. Previews and Prototypes: Priya expressed her love for getting early glimpses of new ranges and products. It's like Christmas for her team at Lark! They enjoy opening boxes, reading emails and letters, and examining samples. These previews allow them to stay ahead of the curve and make informed buying decisions. 

1. Supporting Small Businesses: At Lark London, community support and finding hidden gems are at the heart of their buying process. Priya and her team review applications from local businesses on a weekly basis, selecting small businesses to support and help grow. This aspect of their job is particularly fulfilling and inspiring. 

1. Dealing with Challenges: Priya shed light on the challenges they face, including the unfortunate issue of shoplifting. They have been experiencing thefts at their stores, resulting in frustration and concern. Priya emphasised the need for more effective actions to deter shoplifters and prevent such incidents that ultimately affect both businesses and local consumers. 

1. Dividing Responsibilities: Priya and her partner, Dom, have wisely divided their responsibilities to ensure a harmonious relationship and to run Lark London efficiently. While Priya oversees buying, staffing, social media, and merchandising, Dom takes care of managing the shop, handling fit-outs, and dealing with legalities and maintenance tasks. 

1. Importance of Branding: Good branding and packaging are vital for standing out in a competitive market. Priya highlighted the significance of products having a story and visually cohesive branding for effective merchandising. Strong branding and packaging can truly make a product shine on the shelves of Lark London. 

We hope these insights from Priya have given you a fresh perspective on the world of product businesses. 

This episode wraps up another season of Let's Talk Shop, the podcast is all about empowering and supporting you on your journey to building a profitable product business through wholesale. 

https://www.larklondon.com/

https://www.instagram.com/lark_london/

My links

https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/small_business_collaborative/

In this episode of Let’s Talk Shop, I speak with, Jake and Freya from Studio Wald. This is the second time Jake and Freya comes on the podcast and a lot have happened in their business since last time.

They have now got over 1000 stockists who bought from them, with over 300 buying regularly, and they now employ a team of 4. 

In this episode, we dive into the challenges and triumphs of running a product-based business, focusing on wholesale strategies, production quality, and market conditions. Here are three key takeaways from our conversation:

1️⃣ Balancing growth with life: We chat about that it’s not always about growth in business. Sometimes, it’s more about maintaining business so you can achieve a good life-work balance. It’s a nice reminder that we’re building our businesses for us, and they need to fit into our life. 

2️⃣ Attention to production quality: Maintaining high production quality is crucial for success, and this always creates new challenges. Studio Wald’s bestselling flower press used to be made with Birch Ply, but since the war in Ukraine, this is now sanctioned as it is mainly produced in Russia, which meant resourcing and switching to maple veneered MDF.  This in turn, meant working with a new material, and having to balance the increased costs with maintaining affordability to the customer.

3️⃣ Adaptability and growth mindset: Jake and Freya shared how their approach to product releases has evolved over time. They moved from a perfectionist mindset of waiting until everything was ready to an organic and agile approach. By building a stock of adaptable photos and embracing flexibility, they were able to release designs more quickly. 

About Studio Wald

Freya and Jake, are the owners and creatives behind Studio Wald.  Freya and Jake met while studying a degree in 3D design. And now they have 3 children and a busy Leeds city-centre studio where they make or compile their products. All paper products are printed and finished in England, mainly in their home county of Yorkshire, using either 100% recycled or FSC certified paper. 

All their products are made in the UK with care & attention to ideas, pattern & process.

Jake and Freya have been on the podcast before, so I’m excited to have them back to hear how they have grown their business since we last spoke. Plus, when I ask paper-based business owners who they look up to, quite often Studio Wald comes up, so I know you’re just as keen to hear from them.

https://studiowald.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/studio_wald/

My links

https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/small_business_collaborative/

Season 6 is coming to an end and in this episode, Sasha and I speak about how we both found the experience of working together and what she’s learned about growing her sales.

We also set some goals for the next 6 months and talk about what’s been surprising and what’s worked and hasn’t worked.

Growing your wholesale and your sales can feel lonely and challenging at times but remember that consistency and staying focused is the way to go. If you need help and would like to work together in 2022, please apply to work with me via my website.

Please like and subscribe if you enjoy this episode and please feel free to leave us questions in the comments.

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LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

https://www.southsearock.com/

https://www.creasedcards.com/

https://www.jeffandthesquirrel.co.uk/

My wholesale courses: https://smallbusinesscollaborative.mykajabi.com/online-courses-beginners-guide

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🔔 Subscribe for the latest! ➡️ https://bit.ly/letstalkshopYT

🚀🍾 Let’s work together ➡️ https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/

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Hello 🙋🏻‍♀️, I'm Therese Oertenblad and I help business owners start and grow their wholesale, get clear on their prices and margins and sell more.

RESOURCES:

FREE Canva line sheet template  ➡️ https://bit.ly/freebieYT

FREE Third-party wholesale marketplace guide  ➡️ https://bit.ly/freebieYT

✏️For all my business tips and hacks ➡️ https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/blog

💌Get my newsletter ➡️ https://bit.ly/3EfzIkZ

📲Behind the scenes and tips on Instagram ➡️ https://www.instagram.com/small_business_collaborative/

Today we’re in Brighton where Sasha cold calls on shops in the hopes of getting some new stockists so that she can grow her wholesale business. 

Cold calling, whether by phone, email, or in-person can be very scary but it doesn’t have to me. When it comes to cold calling practice really does make a huge difference, in particular, if you visit in person. 

In-person cold calling will allow you to check if the store is a good fit before you approach and you will often find out the name of the buyer and get their initial reaction. 

In between Sasha’s store visits, we do little mini-interviews about how it felt and we hope these will help you get more comfortable with cold calling and help you grow your business.

We also visit one of Cheeky Zebra’s stockists and see the cards out in real life. 

Next Monday we will be back with another episode where we will talk about where Sasha is now with her wholesale and how she hopes to grow it over the next half a year.

Please like and subscribe if you enjoy this episode and please feel free to leave us questions in the comments.

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LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Sasha’s longest stockist: https://www.creasedcards.com/

My wholesale courses: https://smallbusinesscollaborative.mykajabi.com/online-courses-beginners-guide

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🔔 Subscribe for the latest! ➡️ https://bit.ly/letstalkshopYT

🚀🍾 Let’s work together ➡️ https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/

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RESOURCES:

FREE Canva line sheet template  ➡️ https://bit.ly/freebieYT

FREE Third-party wholesale marketplace guide  ➡️ https://bit.ly/freebieYT

✏️For all my business tips and hacks ➡️ https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/blog

💌Get my newsletter ➡️ https://bit.ly/3EfzIkZ

📲Behind the scenes and tips on Instagram ➡️ https://www.instagram.com/small_business_collaborative/

Since Sasha has done some wholesale in the past and had lost a bit/a lot of faith in it we needed to put the right foundations in place this time around to avoid costly mistakes and work way to hard for no return.

We started from the very basics with setting Sasha’s wholesale terms and prices and then moved on to creating her new and much improved wholesale catalogue. Since Sasha’s range is so big, she basically has a greeting card for every occasion you may ever come across, and of course, in a brick and mortar store, it’s unlikely they could fit as many and such a big range could be overwhelming. As such, Sasha did a lot of work on refining her wholesale range to include all her bestseller before creating her catalogue.

Remember to have a look over on Instagram as we wanted to show you the difference between Sasha’s old catalogue and the new one.

In this episode of Let’s talk shop, we talk about:

• How to set your wholesale prices. 
• New catalogue vs. old catalogue, what Sasha do differently this time around?
• How to set your wholesale terms? Hint: you set your terms!

Please like and subscribe if you enjoy this episode and please feel free to leave us questions in the comments.

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🔔 Subscribe for the latest! ➡️ https://bit.ly/letstalkshopYT

🚀🍾 Let’s work together ➡️ https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/

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RESOURCES:

FREE Canva line sheet template  ➡️ https://bit.ly/freebieYT

FREE Third-party wholesale marketplace guide  ➡️ https://bit.ly/freebieYT

✏️For all my business tips and hacks ➡️ https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/blog

💌Get my newsletter ➡️ https://bit.ly/3EfzIkZ

📲Behind the scenes and tips on Instagram ➡️ https://www.instagram.com/small_business_collaborative/

In this continuation of us documenting Sasha’s wholesale journey, we speak about selling. 

Insecurities around selling are very common and sometimes they show up in very strange ways. It’s very easy to make yourself very busy to avoid having to step outside of your comfort zone and sell your products.

In this episode, we talk about how this showed up for Sasha and what tweaks we’ve made to her workweek to set her up for success so she can reach more retail buyers and get stocked in more shops.

In this episode of Let’s talk shop, we talk about:

• What Sasha has done in the past to sell her products. 

• How we implemented a bit more structure to Sasha’s week and what that feel like. 

• What retailers to target and what to say?

• Mindset - insecurities to start and to continue to sell. How some insecurities show up in peculiar ways.
• How to reframe and prioritise selling and how a sales mindset changed how you showed up online.

Please like and subscribe if you enjoy this episode and please feel free to leave us questions in the comments.

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🔔 Subscribe for the latest! ➡️ https://bit.ly/letstalkshopYT

🚀🍾 Let’s work together ➡️ https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/

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RESOURCES:

FREE Canva line sheet template  ➡️ https://bit.ly/freebieYT

FREE Third-party wholesale marketplace guide  ➡️ https://bit.ly/freebieYT

✏️For all my business tips and hacks ➡️ https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/blog

💌Get my newsletter ➡️ https://bit.ly/3EfzIkZ

📲Behind the scenes and tips on Instagram ➡️ https://www.instagram.com/small_business_collaborative/

It’s not always that everything goes to plan when you try something new.

When Sasha from Checky Zebra first started to wholesale her greetings cards she would have looked very successful to most of us, getting a big order from a well-known multi-chain card retailer but all was not as well as it might have looked on the surface. In reality, it was very stressful and in the end, Sasha had very little to show for all that hard work.

This really put a damper on her wholesale experience and her focus turned to growing her business using Facebook ads instead and up until recently this worked really well until the ads for Father’s day flopped and Sasha’s sales fell off a cliff.

Building a sustainable and successful business takes resilience and bravery and when something doesn’t go to plan it’s your ability to pick yourself up and admit that it’s not always unicorns and roses.

Diversifying your sales channels can help you grow a much more resilient and sustainable business and over the last few months I have been mentoring Sasha to start to wholesale again and we documented her experience and can’t wait to share it all with you.

In this first episode of Let’s talk shop, we talk about:

• Sacha’s previous experience wholesale with lots of funny stories!
• Sasha’s reluctance to do wholesale.
• And we set some goals for Sasha’s wholesale for this year and next.

Please like and subscribe if you enjoy this episode.

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LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Facebook ads expert: https://www.carlystringer.com/

Sasha’s longest stockist: https://www.creasedcards.com/

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🔔 Subscribe for the latest! ➡️ https://bit.ly/letstalkshopYT

🚀🍾 Let’s work together ➡️ https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/

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RESOURCES:

FREE Canva line sheet template  ➡️ https://bit.ly/freebieYT

FREE Third-party wholesale market place guide  ➡️ https://bit.ly/freebieYT

✏️For all my business tips and hacks ➡️ https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/blog

💌Get my newsletter ➡️ https://bit.ly/3EfzIkZ

📲Behind the scenes and tips on Instagram ➡️ https://www.instagram.com/small_business_collaborative/

Today’s episode of Let’s talk shop is a solo episode where I talk about what to do and what not to do when sales are slow to help you and motivate you to continue to grow your business.

In the episode I share 10 to-do’s/don’ts:

1. Check-in with your sales mindset.
2. Stop comparing yourself to others and your sales to last year, normally the latter is something I tell you to do but last year was not a normal year.
3. Make a sales plan, without targets you may never reach the goal.
4. Get analytical.
5. Check-in with your ideal customer. Where’s their mindset at?
6. Don’t go down the discount hole without a plan and purpose.
7. Give products a chance to sell.
8. Focus on getting seen by more potential customers – are there any other sales avenues that you have not tried for your business.
9. This time of the year is a great time to work on your business, whether that’s wholesale, marketing, SEO, processes, PR. What will help you make the most of the busy Christmas period.
10. I think the future is bright for small businesses and especially British made products.

Article mentioned in the episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57531716

Waitlist for my courses:

https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/start-to-wholesale

https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/let-s-talk-sales-course

If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a review over on Apple podcast as it really helps others discover the podcast too.

If you want help with your wholesale please get in touch either on my website, by email or Instagram.

Connect with me

Website: https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/small_business_collaborative/

Free FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/letstalkwholesale

Sign-up to my newsletter: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/5df908bbf68c9d00263c9c21

Today on Let’s talk shop, I speak with my former clients Jake and Freya from Studio Wald. Studio Wald is a wonderful home and gift business based in Leeds. We talk all about how Jake and Freya decided to start their business straight out of university and how they have grown it since.

Jake and Freya share their top tips that has worked for them and we talk about trade shows, hiring their first team member, growing through wholesale marketplaces and so much more.

If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a review over on Apple podcast as it really helps others discover the podcast too.

Connect with Jake and Freya from Studio Walkd

https://www.instagram.com/studio_wald/

https://studiowald.co.uk/

Sign-up to my start to wholesale course: https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/start-to-wholesale

If you want help with your wholesale please get in touch either on my website, by email or Instagram.

Connect with me

Website: https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/small_business_collaborative/

Free FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/letstalkwholesale

Sign-up to my newsletter: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/5df908bbf68c9d00263c9c21

Today’s episode of Let’s talk shop is a solo episode. The first of in season 5 and quite possibly the only in this season. Let me know if you want more episodes like this.

In the episode I talk about how to get started with your wholesale, we talk about:

• What wholesale is.
• If it’s right for your business.
• What you need to consider before getting started.
• How to set your terms and develop your sales materials.
• How to get stated selling to shops and where to find them.

If this is something you want to learn more about. Please have a look at my next course, Start to wholesale that I’m running in June. We start on the 15th June and you can find all the details and sign-up on the below link.

https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/start-to-wholesale

If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a review over on Apple podcast as it really helps others discover the podcast too.

If you want help with your wholesale please get in touch either on my website, by email or Instagram.

Connect with me

Website: https://www.smallbusinesscollaborative.co.uk/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/small_business_collaborative/

Free FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/letstalkwholesale

Sign-up to my newsletter: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/5df908bbf68c9d00263c9c21