Cards on the table
Valentine idea got Stacey out of jam
STACEY Dennis was close to despair. Laid off work just as she started maternity leave, she had only £30 in the bank.
To top it all, her husband Jay, a selfemployed builder, also lost his job after a serious injury.
With a new baby to take care of, Stacey, 32, a graphic designer based in Pontefract, West Yorks, used her spare time to make sassy and cheeky Valentine’s cards which she sold online.
Within eight weeks she had sold 6,000. Love Layla Designs, named after her daughter who is now four, will turn over an estimated £1.5 million this year.
What made you turn to cards as a solution?
I had already made some for an LGBT charity and still had some leftover supplies which I sold on Etsy.
It started off from my kitchen table with a few designs. I remember asking my mum to pick up some card from the craft shop on the way back home with Layla one day. She was worried when I said 200 pieces. Now I’m buying 150,000 at a time, but we still print them ourselves.
It was all hands on deck to start with, printing them off as needed and then friends and family helping to pack up and post orders. Once Valentine’s was over, I created a website and we looked at the next event on the calendar, then the next. It grew from there. Now five of us, including Jay, have jobs out of it.
How do you come up with your ideas?
The cards’ rude one-liners stem from the fact Jay and I are constantly taking the mickey out of each other. It’s all West Yorkshire banter meets his Australian wit. All of us sit down and brainstorm everything, and we crossreference because we are all in different situations in life – from step-parents to having one child or being a budding parent. So between us we can get a different opinion on everything. When my mum was diagnosed with skin cancer last year, we made a cancer range with money from each card going to charity. We have donated about £14,000 as a result.
Do things get crazy?
It’s hard to juggle the family/work life balance at times. We’re seasonal, so when we’re really busy, it can be difficult to fit in being a mum, wife, sister and all that stuff. We also spend so much time finding comical things to write on cards it can be a challenge when I have to focus on things like staff training. But we have so much fun.
Are there any slogans we can repeat here?
How about ‘Happy Father’s Day, I promise to move out eventually’ and ‘On our anniversary I want you to know how much I have enjoyed annoying you all this time and how excited I am to keep doing so in the future.’ Some of our most popular cards do include rude words.
Are you still working out of the house?
We have had to move out and have had three office moves, each time getting bigger. Storage is our main issue. We’ve now got a great space only five minutes’ drive from home.
Do you spend a fortune advertising?
Word of mouth and social media do the job for us. We also recently won the Digital Star Award at the 2018 Small Awards. That all helps promote us.
What next?
We now sell other novelty items including wrapping paper, wine labels, balloons and badges – we listen to our customers. We have also set up a franchise in Australia run by Jay’s family.
CONTACTS
lovelayladesigns.co.uk Small Awards thesmallawards.uk
FOLLOW STACEY’S FOOTSTEPS
Many creative souls like Stacey start selling wares online either through Etsy.com, which is craft-orientated, or eBay.
If you want to offer a service to customers, from dog grooming to cleaning, catering or event organising, check out gov.uk/set-up-business where you’ll find advice on everything from business plans to recruiting staff.
You will need to decide if you want to be a sole trader, a limited company or a partnership.
For funding, try your bank for a business loan (they’ll need to see a detailed business plan) and keep your eyes open for grants and awards. The Prince’s Trust Enterprise Programme (princestrust.org.uk) supports jobless 18 to 30-year-olds who want to be their own boss with grants and advice. Shell LiveWIRE (shell-livewire.org) offers similar guidance with cash prizes of up to £10,000 on offer too.
If you’re struggling for your own idea, you may want to invest in a franchise. Check out the British Franchise Association at thebfa.org for more on the industry and how it all works.
The rude one liners come from my banter with Jay