As our little laser cut card business turns 17 this month, nostalgia is kicking in. 17 years is a long time to do any job, so, of course, we are celebrating by looking back over some of our biggest "Pinch Me" moments of the last 17 years in business.
And don't panic, I just read that back and realised how it sounds, we are NOT closing! Just revisiting some of our favourite small business moments. Number 1 is just a little bit unbelievable, even if I do say so myself.
10. We designed the cover of the "Handpicked Collection" Christmas Catalogue and it was sent out to 800,000 people!
Of course, in true Emma-fashion, I don't have a copy of it any more, just this very dodgy photo from a long time ago! It felt like quite an honour to create a drawing that was then sent out to so many people.
9. We were invited to sell on Notonthehighstreet.com
Back in 2011, we received an email from a company called Notonthehighstreet.com, inviting us to sell on their marketplace platform. At the time, we were struggling artists and couldn't really afford the joining fee, but we knew that they turned down 90% of seller applicants, and there they were inviting us to join! It felt like such an honour that we couldn't say no. The single best decision we made for our business.
8. We hit 50,000, then 100,000, and then 300,000 sales on Notonthehighstreet.com!
Each milestone has felt so completely unreal and we are so grateful for every single order we receive. Always have been. Always will be.
7. We Made Wedding Stationery for a celebrity wedding, and Hello Magazine printed our actual business name
This was a fun project to work on and there was an actual photograph in Hello Magazine of Des O'Connor holding one of our wedding invitations! This project actually came to us when one of our lovely customers spotted a Tweet from the celebrity, asking for wedding stationery recommendations and she put our name forward. It was quite surreal speaking to the bride on a weekly basis while we created her bespoke design.
6. Our Laser Cut Wedding Card Became the 3rd Most Reviewed Item of All Time on Notonthehighstreet.com
I mean, mind blown. How did we find out such a specific and random fact? Well, it turns out that someone put together a website with all these interesting NOTHS statistics. I was, of course, having a little nosey and spotted our card right there!
5. We Won The NOTHS Make Awards Best Family Business in 2011
We hadn't been selling on NOTHS for very long when this happened. We were invited to a London photoshoot and then a few weeks later for the awards ceremony. At the time, my son was not quite 2 years old, my husband was at sea, and we weren't even taking a wage from the business, so it was a logistical nightmare. When Holly Tucker announced that we had won, I burst into tears and then nearly fell into her on the stage because my legs were shaking so much- not my finest moment, but definitely one of my proudest.
4. We were shortlisted for The Henries Awards
Back in 2022, we were finalists in the Best Handmade/ Hand finished category at The Henries - these awards are sort-of like the Oscars of the greetings card world. We may not have won, but we did get to don our fanciest frocks and go to the big smoke for a bit of schmoozing. We also got a shout out on Radio 1 on the way (it's a long drive from Cornwall to London, what else were we going to do to amuse ourselves?!) As a social media content creator and marketer, of course I didn't get many photos- in fact, just two- my ticket and my dress (see images below). Note to self: Take More Photographs!
3. We received orders from some very famous people, and for some very famous people
I wish I could tell you who, but I'm pretty sure that's against Data Protection, so I won't name any names. I will just say that there was a Hollywood actor who got married one Valentine's Day and only announced it afterwards, but we knew about it 2 months before. We also once had an order for 2 cards, going to two of the biggest talk show hosts in the world. There have been so many orders like this that I simply cannot list them all off here. We even made a card for an actual princess and a real-life president!
Of course, every single order we receive is just as important to us, and all of our customers get the VIP treatment. We love you all equally!
2. We Became an Etsy Top 0.1% Seller
There are around 8 million Etsy shops on the platform, and our little laser cut card company is in the top 0.1%!
1. We made it to 17 years in business!
We started our laser cut card business back in 2008, with no real plan.
Somehow, we made it through recession, Covid, the cost of living crisis, postal strikes, GPSR stopped us from sending orders to the EU and NI for a while, tariffs stopped us sending orders to US for a while, cyber attacks (on Royal Mail, not us. Remember that one? That stopped us shipping to US for several months) and all the other stuff along the way.
It hasn't all been celebrity customers and awards ceremonies. We have also struggled; we had times where we didn't earn any money and we definitely considered closing a few times.
We've had 5 studios, 6 laser cutters, and at one point we even had 9 members of staff. We are so happy to still be here, despite all of the craziness and challenges we've faced.
It's been the wildest ride, and we are so excited to see what happens next!
0 comments