The Summer of Small Business Love

Last weekend we saw #shopindependentday - a special day for sellers and buyers, all about the originality, innovation and craftsmanship at the heart of small businesses across the UK. But it doesn't just stop there... this is a whole movement that you are also part of!

It's actually the Summer of Small Business Love - an entire season dedicated to shopping small. The campaign was started by Holly Tucker, joint founder of Not On The High Street, who now runs Holly&Co, a site for small, creative British businesses up and down the country. Holly says, "We want to encourage the nation to show heart by shopping small, asking everyone to think how they could change their usual spending behaviour to support our independents"

When you consider that 99.9% of UK companies are small businesses who contribute massively to the local economy, it seems strange that those independent tiny businesses need your help. But they do. We do, I do - because I'm one of them too! Especially now. As Holly stated, "Some of the most colourful and creative businesses out there are independently owned, yet these same businesses have been hit the hardest in recent years. If we don’t support them at this crucial time, we are at risk of losing them altogether. So we need to act now, working collectively to ensure this doesn’t happen."

The world needs small businesses because they're the ones that bring about creativity, originality, imagination - they're actually the driving force behind the big businesses. Because behind every great big company, there has to be a great micro business!

Tiny businesses like mine don't have marketing budgets like large organisations, but what we do have is creativity and a hell of a lot of drive - which is why we're joining together to show the world just how much you need us! Shopping small is for life, not just for a pandemic. Shopping local truly helps your local economy. Shopping independent means you're keeping alive all that creativity and originality - and directly supporting a real life actual person (not a load of fat bankers and investors)!

So this summer I have just one ask of you: vote with your money, spend your money wisely, help the economy, support the independents - and at the same time you'll be discovering a whole world of originality and gorgeousness, and receive the most fabulous service to boot (because no one loves their customers quite as much as a small business)! Look out for the #CampaignShopIndependent across social media.

Sarah x

Award Winning PhotoFairytales!

Well, I have some rather exciting news to show off about share with you today..!

I've been awarded 'Best Handmade Wedding Keepsakes Retailer - East Anglia' in the 2022 Global Wedding Awards run by Luxlife Magazine - I mean, that's pretty outrageously stupendous, right?!!!

The awards celebrate the finest businesses across the wedding industry, from wedding planners and venues, to caterers and stationers. Everything that makes your wedding day totally perfect and memorable. 2022 is seeing the biggest surge in weddings for years following covid restrictions, so it's a truly wonderful time to be recognised in these global awards!

I'm feeling more than a little chuffed!

Sarah x

It's not been a good week...

I'm going to lay my cards on the table: 

The news has been absolutely awful - what is happening in Ukraine is so distressing and my heart truly goes out to them. So posting upbeat news and messages on social media for work has felt hard: I'm torn between feeling it's all pointless and then on the flip side feeling I need to carry on and try to keep a sense of normality as much as possible. It's a tough one - have you felt this too?

Running a small business by yourself you need to be in a good place mentally: feel motivated and upbeat. It's important for the person who runs the business to have a good mindset and be moving forward, thinking to the future. This last few days, in all honesty, have been hard. I mean, really hard. There have been times when I've felt like throwing in the towel and giving up. Wondering what the point is. Finding it hard to fire up the enthusiasm to log in every day. I've worked so hard to build my little business, I strive to make everything about it as positive and good as I possibly can. I don't want to give it up, but it's hard to keep positive. But I must, and I think it's important that I do. 

So I just wanted to say that if you're struggling mentally and feeling anxious, you're not alone. I am too - I think many of us are. My love, prayers and thoughts are with the people of Ukraine at the moment - but I also recognise that we, as a community, need to stay strong together. The last couple of years have been dire - some of us have been OK, some have been good at saying we're "OK". And what's happening now feels a bit like, "And now this?!". Yes, I know. 

We are more resilient than we know, but let's make sure we look after ourselves and each other, support one another and keep going. Let's keep in mind the struggles we're all facing, let's be kind to others. Let's donate where we can. Let's spend wisely and conscientiously. Let's seek out joy and pleasure as much as we can. If one of us feels like we're starting to droop under the pressure, let's reach out - and let's be honest about our feelings (because we're all very good at pushing it down - which can be a good thing sometimes, but not constantly). 

I've decided that I'm buggered if I'm going to ease up on the ethos I have for my business and give up on what I've worked for, in spite of the bad days when it feels hard to be motivated or creative. When being happy on social media isn't necessarily how things feel in real life - it doesn't matter, I'm still going to be here every day, doing the do, working the work, dreaming the dream...

I'm here if I can help. Let's stick together: community over conflict.

Sarah x

Erm, I've won an award (again, again)!

Anyone who knows me even slightly will know that I feel all a bit embarrassed when it comes to blowing my own trumpet. It's just not me: I'm far more likely to actively run myself down than beef myself up!

So this is all a bit unsettling for me to write - but I've, well, you know, won another award (or, if I was saying this in person to you it would come out as "yeahIwonnotherawardanywaycupoftea?")

So, this latest one (flicks hair in arrogant fashion), is all about me this time (actually if I'm honest, pulls hair down over face): I've been named as the 'Best Online Handmade Gift Shop Owner (UK)' in the 2021 Influential Businesswoman Awards. 

The awards are organised by Acquisition International Magazine, a trade magazine with global coverage. They say, "Acquisition International prides itself on the validity of its awards and winners. The awards are given solely on merit and are awarded to commend those most deserving for their ingenuity and hard work, distinguishing them from their competitors and proving them worthy of recognition."

The organisers went on to say, "The Influential Businesswoman Awards sole objective is to encourage and support women as they further participate in entrepreneurial endeavours as it is our belief that their participation is vital in ensuring a balanced and forward-thinking economy."

I mean, I've had worse Tuesdays! (No seriously, I know I'm playing this down, but I am SERIOUSLY so happy about this - and I've been receiving some absolutely lovely messages and DM's via social media this morning too). A glass of bubbly over dinner tonight it is then: whoop whoop!!

Sarah x

PhotoFairytales has won an award (again)!

 I mean, I think this image says it all really:

Yep, I've only gone and won 'Best International Bespoke Handmade Gifts Retailer 2021' - a bit of a mouthful, but absolutely brilliant none the less!

SME News are a UK trade magazine supporting small and medium sized enterprises. They run various annual awards every year, including their flagship programme UK Enterprise Awards. The Enterprise Awards programme is there to recognise the work done by small and medium businesses, particularly during the difficulties COVID-19 presented over the past year. This year’s winners include UK businesses that range from micro companies with a focus on creating wonderful products, to medium sized businesses with an aim to provide a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Discussing the success of these deserving winners, Awards Coordinator Emma Pridmore praised the programme’s winners: “Congratulations to all the businesses recognised in this year’s awards. It’s always exciting to reach out to people with the good news, and I wish you all the best for the future.”

To say I'm over the moon with this fantastic news is putting it mildly - but I just wanted to say that I honestly wouldn't be here doing this thing that I love, if it weren't for you. I sent a very quick message to all the members of my VIP club about the news yesterday, and it was just so lovely to get loads of emails back congratulating me - I mean, truly lovely - I've not stopped smiling!

So thank you, dear reader - you're what it's all about!

Sarah x

Lady Boss with a fearless attitude (and a FREE print!)

I took a quiz yesterday to determine what kind of business-owner I am… just for fun, and mostly because it reminded me of those quizzes I used to do in teen magazines back in the day (mostly full of questions to determine whether you’d be a good match for a certain celebrity: remember doing those?!).

And the result? Well, apparently I came out as ‘fearless’!

I have an authentic, fearless personality which puts customers first when it comes to creating an awesome product that they will love (yes, I like to think that’s right). Sometimes I get frustrated with aspects of control over my business (yea-uhuh!), but I have a unique skill for powering through imperfections and I am incredibly persistent (yup). I have the opportunity to continue growing and using my wisdom to take my business to the next level.

So, although the quiz was just a bit of fluff and fun, it has left me feeling a bit empowered to be honest. I run my business myself, from home, and sometimes to be perfectly honest it can be hard to maintain a feeling of positivity. I adore what I do, and I have truly AMAZING customers - buy hey, we all have ’off’ days and I’m no stranger to the wobbly ’am I doing it right’ imposter-syndrome times. Even after nearly 10 years of doing this! So it’s actually rather lovely to be told that you’re fearless.

It may have been a bit of daftness, but I’m going to believe it (just the same as I believed the quizzes in Smash Hits magazine and Just Seventeen!).

If you're feeling a bit fearless yourself, or fancy a bit of motivation on your wall, I've got a free print you can download. Print if off, put it in a frame and put it up on your wall for a little bit of empowerment whenever you need it! Follow the links below - the print will print on A4 and will fit in any standard frame with an 8x6" opening (or a frame with a mount that has an 8x6" aperture).

Free Motivation Print in Blue - click here
Free Motivation Print in Pink - click here

(Small print: the print is completely free for your own personal use. You may not reproduce or sell the print, or pass it off as your own work. Not allowed for commercial use. Copyright belongs to PhotoFairytales.co.uk)

Enjoy! And now I'm going to go and get on with my fearless day and see if I can use my wisdom to get my business to the next level!!

Sarah x

PhotoFairytales - websites through the ages...

When a new baby arrives one of the first things new parents do is whip out the camera and snap every little movement, smile, milestone that their gorgeous newborn makes. Of course, why wouldn't you? And it doesn't stop there of course, we're madly photographing and recording them through every step of their lives, one way or another.

So, that got me thinking: (apart from my human 'baby', and my 'fur babies', of course!) my 'baby' is my business, and yet the emphasis with that is always about changing and improving, moving forward and evolving - never marking anything for posterity, or remembering times past. So wouldn't it be great to flip through some old images of how it looked when it was a newborn?!

OK, this might not be of huge interest to you if you haven't known me or my website for long, but - in the same way you react when someone shows you their baby photo album - bear with me, be polite: especially as PhotoFairytales was, erm, actually quite an ugly baby!

So by harnessing the power of the internet, I've been able to get some screenshots of PhotoFairytales through the years. I couldn't find one from right back at the beginning (2009), but I did manage to find one from 2011...

Like I say, PhotoFairytales was an ugly baby! I thought it looked so good at the time - but all those colours and all that busy-ness.. what was going through my head?!

Moving forward 2 years to 2013, and things are starting to look a bit better:

Still a bit busy and cluttered, but at least the colours are easier to live with now! I've even got a proper logo...

This is how it looked back in May 2016 - or what I think I'll call "The Wordy Year" (I obviously wanted to get my message across quick: look at all that reading you had to do!). Prettier colours though.

And finally, this is what it looks like today: less cluttered, a more streamlined colour scheme, and a lot less reading to do!:

I think from now on I'm going to make it a 'thing' to take a screenshot before I do any major changes to my website - just for old time's sake. And that way, any time I fancy a wander down memory lane - or a laugh at my old website skills - I can have a flick through my 'PhotoFairytales Through the Ages Album'!

Which one do you think looks best (and please don't say "the first one"!)?

Sarah x

So, what do you do then…?

Let me be perfectly honest here - as a child, whenever anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I didn’t know what to say. Most things I said in reply would have a question mark after them, suggesting pretty clearly that I didn’t really know: Vet? Lorry Driver? Police Detective? Zoo Keeper? 

Yes, these were all things I stated at one time or another (I think Police Detective also entailed the vague idea of moving to America and being a bit ‘Starsky & Hutch/Charlie's Angels’ so I don’t think it was a genuine dream…).

And, the thing is, I still don’t really know what I want to be when I grow up…

At school it seemed as though every one of my friends knew exactly what they were planning for their future - and it usually involved a proper job title. Something like: Teacher. Doctor. Hairdresser. And so on, and so on… Even now, here, right this moment, there is a proper grown-up woman typing away at her computer who struggles to actually know what to call herself. You see, I don’t really have a proper job title these days. Mumpreneur? Graphic Designer? Business Owner? Erm… Artist? - crikey no, that’s much too grandiose!

As business owners we’re supposed to have this thing called an ‘elevator pitch’. For those who don’t know, this is a sentence that perfectly sums up what we do and who we are in the time it takes to move between floors in a lift. You know, just in case we end up in one standing next to Richard Branson or one of those Dragons who asks us to validate our existence. With the idea being that we have this sentence so well-honed and keyword packed and witty and entertaining, that they are bedazzled by us and immediately offer us a quintillion pounds to be a part of our exciting venture. Makes sense.

Erm, I’m still working on my elevator pitch… and I think, if I still struggle to find a job title for myself, it’s going to still be a while coming!

So, whenever anyone asks, I usually say I’m either a graphic designer - which I think makes them think I’m working on multi-million pound contracts creating advertising campaigns, or I work in media or something flashy - or I say I run my own design business. If I say that they usually ask, ‘ooh, what do you design?’, and I mumble things about websites and personalised prints and gifts and things… before abruptly running out of steam. And the problem there is I think they then go away picturing me playing with Pritt sticks and glitter and an online account with Hobby Craft, and selling my sticky crafting in village halls and scout huts (but mostly to my mum). And that’s not what I do at all!

It really is hard to come up with something that sums it all up - and I’ve been doing this since 2009! I wear so many hats in my PhotoFairytales role that it’s nigh on impossible to find a sentence (or even two) that describes all the various parts of my job.

So, if you ever do meet me and inquire politely ‘So, what do you do?’ don’t be at all surprised if I sigh a bit and say something like ‘Orangutan Charmer’ or ‘Handsome Cab Light Fitter’ or ‘Dog Whistler’ - because any of those sound much more interesting than my usual mumbling!

Sarah x

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Sleeeeeeeeeep.......(and why its over-rated)

My husband is really good in bed... He is, honestly, you have to believe me - my husband is amazing in bed. Always has been, pretty much since we met 20 odd years ago. Oh, hang on, I think I might have given you the wrong impression here. I’m not talking about… you think I’m saying he’s “good in bed” don’t you? No, sorry, that wasn’t what I meant to be talking about at all!

No, what I mean is that he is very good at being in bed. He’s a master of the weekend lay-in, the “I can’t hear anything, I’m sleeping” position. Even on the hottest summer mornings, he can still cocoon himself like a caterpillar in the duvet with just his nose sticking out. Me? Well, I’m different. I lie there with an actual frown while I try to be asleep. I never used to be like that - not that many years ago (BC - before child and BP - before PhotoFairytales) I used to be able to lay about dozing in bed until lunchtime on a Sunday. I didn’t even have to be asleep, I could just loll about on a pure whim.

But I just can’t do it now… if I wake up, I have to get up. If I loll, I only end up laying there thinking “I could be answering emails/cleaning the oven/hoovering/getting a headstart on those orders instead of laying about here.” Relax. RELAX DAMN IT! No, it’s no good, got to get up. Then there’s the fact that we frankly need a new mattress - well a new bed really. I know if I lay there too long I’ll only end up with a stiff back or stiff neck or both.

And maybe, just maybe, I’ve actually changed as I’ve got older (just had a birthday by the way, so feeling a bit ageist!). Perhaps my body clock has turned me into an “early bird” rather than the “night owl” I used to think I was. Maybe 5.30am really is the “best part of the day”. Hhmmm. I just feel like a party pooper when I conk out after the EastEnders repeat every night!

No, I’m going to think positively - I can get up (even on weekends) before the rest of the world. I can spend that time catching up on things (even if I have to do it quietly). And I will try not to resent the fact that by the time my husband gets up on a Saturday I’ve been up so long I want my lunch.

It’s a new day, it’s a new dawn, and I’m feeling…. well, a bit tired if I’m honest!

Sarah x

Votes for Women! (Well, the woman who runs PhotoFairytales...)

Next time you're sat at your computer or laptop, it would be great if you could spare 2 minutes for me. Oh, look at that: you're online right now what a coincidence!

I'm going to tell you how to lose weight instantly, make your hair so shiny you'll blind everyone, win the lottery this weekend, and make everyone think you're 10 years younger than you actually are. Honest!

Here's how:

I've applied for business funding with Enterprise Nation and I need 350 votes to secure the funding. So this is where you, lovely reader, come in: could you please vote for me at http://www.enterprisenation.com/funding-applications/photofairytales/

If you're not a member of Enterprise Nation you will be asked to register with the site, but it will only take a moment (and if you want to de-register afterwards that's easy enough to do). Every vote counts, so I will be sooooooooo grateful if you can help.

And once you've voted all those things I mentioned will come true!

Sarah x

PS: there may be some slight exaggerations (fibs) in this post, but I'm not going to tell you where... ;)

I'm running a business, not a hobby!

About 8 weeks ago I had a brief online chat with the lovely Nicole from Kenzo Crafts. Basically, we were both bemoaning the fact that when you work from home or run your own business, somehow it never gets taken all that seriously.... People (quite nice, intelligent people usually!), make comments about your work as your "little thing", or refer to it as "your hobby".

We were holding this conversation on Facebook, and so (never one not to seize a moment!), within 5 minutes I'd created a new page: "I'm running a business, not a hobby!". No, I know it's not catchy - but at least it gets to the point!

Just 8 weeks later and there are now over 200 fans of this page - all of them equally frustrated that so many people simply think they are working purely to fill in their spare time. And some of these are mothers to young children, run households, AND run their own business! The page is just growing organically with new people joining every week - and the message from everyone is the same. Just take a look at some of the comments on there!

So why is it that people who run small businesses and/or work from home don't get taken seriously? It is quite odd, especially when you consider most of us work much longer than the average full-time 40 hour working week. And that many of those hours are either at the crack of dawn, or late at night when other workers are either tucked up asleep or watching telly.

A huge number of women decide to run their own business as a route back to work after babies. I know that's one of the reasons why I set up PhotoFairytales. It means we can juggle work and homelife in a way that probably wouldn't happen if we were employees. Society is always discussing how to best allow parents the flexibility to hold down a career and look after children - and in the meantime while these discussions are taking place, many women are just getting on with it: setting up their business, making it a success, looking after their home and family. But just because those hours of work are from home and are split up over the day, it seems there is a blur between "working from home" and just "being at home all day".

So, lets get one thing straight: people who work from home and run their own business often work longer and harder hours than the standard employee. We are totally committed to the business we run - not only do we want it to be a commercial success, we want it to be a personal success too. We are creative people who take on many, many roles: book keeper, marketing manager, website developer, customer service officer, administrator, technical support, purchaser, business developer, office cleaner, tea trolley operator... I could go on!

If you're one of those who works from home too and gets frustrated from time to time, head on over to the "Business, Not Hobby" page on Facebook and have your say. You'll feel so much better afterwards and you'll be in good company!

Now, get back to work slacker!

Sarah x

Holidays are coming, holidays are coming..!

I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be taking a break at the end of August. I feel a combination of joy at typing those words - and worry that I'll get withdrawal symptoms! Oh dear, does that make me a workaholic I wonder?!

No, I think it's just that I love what I do. I read once that if you can find a job you love you need never work again. And it's true - I don't think I have ever started a working day not wanting to. True, sometimes it can be hard to juggle life as a mum with home life and work life, but that's all about the number of hours in a day not about work frustration!

Anyway, I'm going to take a couple of weeks off, and I'm going to try very hard not to think about work - although I'll probably come back fired up with new ideas for new products and thinking about what will be coming up for Christmas (not that long now!!).

I can take orders up until August 12th and will be back to normal on August 31st. You are welcome to submit orders during this time, but please be aware that you won’t get acknowledgement of them (and work won’t begin on them) until my return. Please note that there will also be a longer delivery time during that first week while I get on top of the backlog. I will be able to give you an idea of time when I return and have an idea of how many orders I need to deal with, but I would estimate that delivery times will probably be extended by at least 3-4 days. Or of course, you could get your orders in quickly now and get them done before I go!!

Now, time to start thinking about where we'll actually be going.....!!!

Sarah x