Tag: Small business UK

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More new Christmas decorations

I’m so excited for this next delivery. I’ve been hoping these would be in stock for delivery for a long time, and now they are finally on their way.

Trains are very popular as Christmas decorations. We have our lovely box set of four wooden trains, but this is much more impactful! I’m trying to think of a way I can keep one, but I’m not sure we have the space!

I adore rocking horses and this one really signifies the magic of Christmas. Going back a few years everyone wanted a rocking horse. The addition of a mini tree and Teddy along with the jingle bells around its saddle shout Christmas to me. It’s stunning.

We still have plenty of our musical wind up merry go rounds in stock. This is the red version with Santa in his sleigh but we also have a cream design with traditional horses featuring festive characters. Which would you choose?

I hope you are having a stress free run up to Christmas, not many weeks left now! Who else is getting excited?

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Is it even Christmas without a tree?

Decorating a tree at Christmas has been a tradition in homes for a long time. But who says we can only have one tree? While we may not all have space for multiple decorated trees like homes in the USA do, we can have smaller trees scattered about our homes instead.

This spiral glass tree would look lovely on your larger tree but can also be hung in other areas of your home.

This wooden tree with a festive message is very tactile and will sit on a shelf or mantelpiece in your home.

Our advent calendar tree is simplistic but eye catching and is a lovely way to countdown to the festive break.

How many trees do you have in your home?

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Welcome Santa into your home

For children (whether the adult kind or not) the build up to Christmas Day and all the memories you make is what makes it such a special time of year. I always make sure to choose some decorations that children will love, whether it’s our ever popular town scene with moving train or the now out of stock twerking Santa (my husband said they wouldn’t sell!). This light up Santa stop here sign is ideal to pop on your child’s window ledge, giving a nice gentle glow.

Some children adore snowglobes, and these teacup size ones are ideal for smaller hands – please remember they are not toys though so should always be supervised by an adult. Would you choose Santa or Snowman?

Bring the magic of the North Pole to your home with this metal sign, you could even go one step further and create a role play area for your child so they can ‘work for Santa’ in the post office!

Whatever memories you choose to make with your family this year, I hope they are magical and bring the joy of Christmas to your home.

Cari xx

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Christmas has landed – part 1

The first of our Christmas stock deliveries has landed.  It arrived on Wednesday in two big boxes, and my daughter and I unpacked, checked for breakages and priced everything up ready for our first market.

These cute wooden trains are perfect for your Christmas tree – who doesn’t love a train?  They won’t get easily broken either should you have paws or little fingers in your family.

The new range has already launched online, so if you want something snap it up now as we have very limited stock – while I will try to re-order there is no guarantee so please don’t miss out on something you’ve set your heart on.

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My personal favourites are these carousel/spinning musical ornaments.  With a range of designs available from Santas sleigh to a traditional carousel, they are sure to fly out.  I’m hoping we can get more but can’t guarantee it, which will be a shame as I would quite like one myself!

We should have more stock arriving over the coming weeks, which is very exciting.  I can’t wait to show you more!

Cari xx

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April update – Christmas market bookings and 5 year planning

The first quarter of 2024 has been a blur, with losing dad and trying to help sort everything (not that I’m able to help that much).  April has been playing catch up, by looking for potential markets for the end of the year and getting our accounts up to date.

I have managed to spend some time in the garden, when the weather has been nice, and I now have several pots of compost waiting for various seeds to germinate and push through.  I can’t help feeling like we’re going to be unsuccessful this year, but that’s the joy of gardening, just giving it a go.

We *may* be exhibiting at the Living North Christmas Fairs this year, I’m just trying to sort out logistics and costs etc.  Have you visited them before?  It would be lovely to have an idea of how busy they are as it’s a step up from what we have done to date.  I feel like if I’m ever going to achieve what I want with this business I need to push out of my comfort zone though, so I’m hoping I won’t regret going.  Just need to sort out what the minimum space we need is and get the display plan agreed.  It’s exciting and scary at the same time!

Our new Christmas range will need to be with us before then, so we also need to raise the funds to pay for that.  You can help us get there by shopping from our current Christmas decoration stock or sharing our website with someone who loves the Christmas magic too.  Every purchase helps fund our dream!

Cari xx

 

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New delivery option and our last event for 2023

I must say, so far I’m really impressed with how Royal Mail are handling the seasonal increase in workload.  I know they work their socks off at this time of year, and there has been no obvious delays in orders being received.  Despite that, I have added a new 24 hour delivery option.  This means that all orders received before 8pm Sunday to Friday will be collected next day, and should arrive 24 hours later (Friday orders should arrive Monday).  If you need to guarantee your order will arrive this 24 hour delivery option might be for you.

I’ve also been busy with our stationery website, adding the craft kits we have available.  I did consider adding these festive ones to this business but with limited stock available it didn’t make sense.  If you would like to know more visit https://www.cariscards.co.uk to shop the range.

We are almost at our last Christmas fair of 2023.  Back at the fabulous Bowes Museum, you will find us outside as usual with our 20% off sale on all our Christmas decorations.  If you can’t visit Bowes, then we will have the 20% off sale online over the weekend – but why wait?  You can shop today and save 20% on all our Christmas decor today!

The forecast is looking good for the weekend, here’s hoping we can finish 2023 in style!  Say hello if you decide to visit.

Cari

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Christmas officially starts today!

Transport themed wooden Christmas countdown.

…well, for me anyway.

The first day of November usually heralds the start of our Christmas shop events here in the UK.  We attend markets and festive Fayres across North Yorkshire and County Durham each year, with some markets a firm fixture in the calendar.

It also brings all the online Christmas shoppers out, with our website having its busiest month of the year.  This is something we are working hard to increase but being found amongst all the other online Christmas shops is quite hard.

A friend of mine visited a large garden centre recently and made a short video of it.  I got quite envious of all the space to create lovely displays of Christmas decorations and ornaments.  It’s long been a dream of mine to have a warehouse space to turn into a Christmas experience with a shopping facility too – I describe it as a cross between IKEA and Argos!  There would be large displays where you could scan the items you want to buy, then once you had finished we would have all the items ready for you to take home.

Anyway, back to this year.  The stock is still a disorganised stack of tubs – isn’t there always something more urgent to get done?  No, I’m not putting it off, I love everything about my business, it’s just, well, life, you know?  It will be done before I’m back at my day job.

Transport themed wooden Christmas countdown. So, the countdown to Christmas has officially started.  The next few weeks will be a whirlwind, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Cari xx

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2023 stock is chosen…

It’s taken longer than normal to get our stock order placed this year.  I’ve been very indecisive (not like me at all) and with minor health issues I’ve been finding it harder than usual to make time around work and family life.  I finally got my act together last week, and added all the things I’d love to have to my basket.  This week I whittled it down to a manageable order, both financially and logistically!

This year I need to invest in some more space, probably for packing orders as one of our business goals is to make more of this lovely website.  My husband aka the logistics manager has long been complaining that we need a proper packing bench, so my thoughts are for a shed in the garden that we can use for display storage and packing.  As it is the stock is rapidly taking over my dining room, and we are bursting at the seams.  Long term we have our mind set on a warehouse/retail space, but for now we can manage where we are (just about!).

Anyway, here’s a sneaky peek at something we might have arriving after the summer.

Cari xx

Merry go round Snowglobe coming soon

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What will be in store for 2023?

I hope you had a lovely Christmas, however you celebrate.  As we all prepare for a new year to start, I thought it might be nice to talk a little about plans for 2023.

The year starts with a visit to a local trade fair which I’m really excited about as we haven’t been for a couple of years I think?  Certainly we didn’t go this year, so it will be nice to search out some new potential suppliers and to see what our current suppliers have planned.  I’m hoping to stock a variation of the nesting snowmen as they proved popular, and maybe some more mini snow globes too?

Bigger plans for this year are to find more markets for our stall, perhaps attend Beverley this year and maybe even Lincoln (if we can get offered a space that is).  I’m going to be working hard to improve the website too, as those sales really keep us ticking over between markets.  I know I need better descriptions and images so that’s the focus.

I’m also changing up our system at our ‘base’ (aka the dining room) so that we can manage orders more efficiently.  If my aim is for ten orders a day to come through online, I need a way to get them processed and out next day as usual.

We have a 20% off sale running right now so that I can implement the new system, so if you had money put aside for January sales hop over to the shop to take a look.

Here’s to a happy and healthy new year for you all.

Cari

 

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Can’t quite believe it

My weeks seem to consist of work, study, family, dog and Christmas fairs at the moment.    Amidst the dashing from one thing to the next, I am always reminding myself to be grateful for being busy, however challenging that can be at times!

As I’m planning  my Friday, with a van to collect for the weekend and cars to load with stock etc around my work commitments and dog mum duties, I realise that I’ve only got one more weekend of events before Christmas.  The season that I spend most of the year planning and prepping for is almost over.  It always flies past, but this year it seems quicker.  Maybe because I’m getting older….

The main reason I created this business was to indulge my love of all things Christmas.  It’s been running for many years now, and each and every sale still brings joy to my heart.  I agonise over what stock to select, hoping that you love it as much as I do, not always getting it right (yes we still have some stock from the early days!) and in the early years I even made some of the decorations myself.  I hope to be able to go back to that, possibly once the business is making enough to allow me to partially retire?

The company has grown as my kids have grown, albeit not as quickly, and I still love running it so much.  There’s something magical about Christmas and I hope the decorations we stock help spread that magic a little more.  Perhaps we will get to meet you over our last few events for 2022 and help bring the magic to your home?

Cari xx