This week, Small Business editor Caitlin Sykes talks to business owners about craft business.
Liora Saad is the owner of Toodles Noodles, a craft business that specialises in eco-friendly stationary.
When and why did you start your business?
The business started back in March of 2011 really as a hobby. I'm a qualified graphic designer and at the time I was working at an agency as an operations manager and was missing being creative. The whole thing started with making gift wrap and tags to match. Back then there wasn't really anything cool available in the market between the cheap paper you'd buy at the supermarket and the ultra expensive imported sheets you'd buy at a gift store. So that's what I looked to tap into.
At that time I lived in Wellington, and one day I was gutsy and took my samples and walked around shops that I thought would like them. I also sold at the City Market. At that time I was the only stall there not selling high-end food, but I knew it was the right target market for my product. Then when we moved to Auckland about four years ago I got into the market scene there, and contacted more retailers. I've also been selling online through Etsy from the beginning and have my own online store.
How has the business grown since?
Well, the hobby turned into a small side business with the product lines growing and it's now my full-time job with freelance design work on the side. We're now sitting at around 100 retail stockists, including some in Australia that have come on board in the past six months.
The 'team' at Toodles includes myself, who designs all the products and is in charge of sales and relations. Then I have an assistant who works remotely in Wellington who helps me with admin work, customer relations and maintaining my online shops. I also have my amazing partner who specialises in business structure and project management.
How have you managed to scale your business given the handcrafted nature of what you produce?
Because of the way the business came to fruition and has grown my only viable way of testing out products has been to create them by hand. For example, when I first started offering gift tags I would cut them all by hand and do the hole-punching - I went through a lot of hole punches!
But as the company has grown our manufacturing processes have had to grow too - but I still try to use all local suppliers for both printing and raw materials. And I always like to align myself as much as possible to other small companies. So for example all my screenprinted items get screenprinted at the small business of a woman who works out of her garage in Auckland. She's great because I can run ideas past her and we've been able to grow each other's businesses. And I handcraft my most popular item - our felt flags - myself. They get screenprinted and then I cut the bottoms and assemble the tops. We've sold 2,000 of those in the past six months alone.
What have been the biggest challenges for you as a business owner, particularly related to producing handcrafted goods?
One of the biggest challenges in the New Zealand market is finding a way to produce products locally while keeping costs low enough to compete with products produced offshore. We've often had to drop an idea for a product because the cost of producing it locally would drive the price beyond what's viable for retailers.
Ironically, producing locally also creates challenges for international sales, because freighting costs can be a challenge with some orders.
What's one piece of advice you'd have for another maker who wants to build a sustainable business based on their handmade creations?
If it were easy everyone would be doing it. There will be challenges that feel as big as mountains but if there is a will there is always a way and the reward of doing something yourself is the best feeling.
