Blue Eyed Sun

Blue Eyed Sun - gorgeous greetings cards

BES Blog

  • Home and Gift 2019 - Essential Information

    Home And Gift 2019 - Essential Info

    Blue Eyed Sun will soon be exhibiting at the Home and Gift 2019 trade show in Harrogate in Design Point One (DP1-D110). Officially launching at this well loved show is an fresh new range range of design-led cards. We also have sneak previews of our wonderful Spring 2020 selection, as well as our top selling range of market leading reusable BambooCups made from bamboo fibre so be sure to stop by and see us.

    Quote Voucher code HG19 when ordering during the show (online or offline) for FREE CARRIAGE.

    About Home and Gift 2019

    This annual trade show is a highlight on buyers' calendars for it's relaxed Summery atmosphere and great range of products on offer in the run up to Christmas. It runs for four days from Sunday 14th July to Wednesday 17th July from 09:00 - 18:00 at the Harrogate International Centre. It really is a pleasure doing business at this show, so don't miss it!

    To register for Home and Gift please click here.

    Where to Stay at Home and Gift 2019

    The closest hotels to the show are the Holiday InnTravel LodgePremier Inn and The Old Swan a short walk away with prices from £65-£150. A good tip if you can't find a room is to stay in York, a short train ride away.

    Where to Eat at Home and Gift 2019

    Harrogate has many wonderful restaurants and cafes including the world famous Betty's Tea Rooms. We've sampled lots of them over the years and have short listed some of our favourites for you to try below:

    4 Great Restaurants near the Harrogate International Centre

    How to get to Home and Gift 2019

    The roads into Harrogate can get very congested so allow plenty of time if you are coming by car. The Harrogate International Centre post code is HG1 5LA and there are 400 car spaces on site with a daily cost of £13. These spaces get pretty full so you may like to use the park and ride scheme running from the Great Yorkshire Showground on the A61 (Post code HG2 8NZ).  All parking will be available on a concrete surface, which will be safe for use for any visitors.

    Trains run every half hour from Leeds and every hour from York. There is a free shuttle bus from Harrogate train station to the show. You can fly to Leeds Bradford airport (20 minute drive from the show). Buses go every 90 minutes and take half an hour.

    How to find DP 1 at Home and Gift

    When you get to Harrogate do remember to come and see us in DP 1 on stand D110 just near the Majestic Hotel.

    Can't make the show? Click here to request access all of our designs online.

    Home And Gift 2019 - Show Map

  • How to brands stay relevant over time

    Brands

    One of the great things about building a successful brand that is known for a specific specialty is that you have focus. Buyers know what you are and what you stand for, as do you. The flip side of this is that you can feel like you have all of your eggs in one basket.

    That’s fine if the basket is still relevant and what people want. If the world changes and this becomes less true or if there are opportunities in other areas of your industry that are growing faster it can be hard to shift how you are perceived in the mind of the purchasers of your products.

    Sub Brands

    It’s always more expensive and time consuming running multiple brands, so you have to consider your options carefully when taking the plunge. Our friends along the South Coast, Five Dollar Shake, have diversified with their sub brand Counting Stars, for example. Like the original brand, the cards are still handmade and well captioned, so why bother with a sub brand? 

    A sub brand can mitigate cannibalisation and erosion of your current core offering. You don’t just want your customers simply dropping one range for another. It also allows you to take risks and try new things. When you have a core look and feel that your brand is known for it is hard to try new things without the new label.

    When people buy Blue Eyed Sun cards they have certain expectations. Despite creating new and different cards we love, we have occasionally found that customer and market expectations of our brand have been a stumbling block to the success of alternative ranges. One has the feeling that if a different publisher had published some of our more 'different’ products they may probably have fared better in the marketplace.

    What buyers want from your new products is something that they recognise as key to the brand and yet different enough from last season for it to still feel fresh. It’s a challenge when you constantly want to evolve and grow as a publisher. You have to recognise what is unique to you and be able to tailor that signature into your offering whilst still being able to play with new ideas.

    Brand Legacy

    I recently visited the Christian Dior exhibition at the V&A and was fascinated with how the brand had managed to maintain it’s essence of elegant femininity despite the changing times, a range of global influences and six different creative directors each having their own interpretations of Dior. 

    Having survived earlier financial disaster Dior established the fashion house in 1946. He ran it for 11 short years before his untimely death, after which point his 21 year old assistant Yves Sant Laurent took over. How on earth the company failed to fail is quite remarkable and undoubtedly down to the fortuitous hiring of the young designer who later went on to create his own global brand.

    As you cast your eye over the range of garments and products on display in the exhibition, including the outlandish, colourful, flamboyant creations of John Galliano, there is still something holding the brand together in its look and feel. Perhaps it is elements like the pinched waists that accentuate the curvaceous female form, a delight in fabrics and materials or even the garden influences that extend beyond flowers to the feel of petals and butterflies. Its inspirations are global and yet there remains a timeless femininity to the Dior brand.

    I’m obsessed with how to create diversity within a clearly defined brand at the moment. Mainly because I feel an urge to try lots of new things. I’m also acutely aware of how this can confuse customers and may cause a brand to lose its way.

    Challenging Changes

    Sometimes you can be so well known for something that it is almost impossible to move on from it. Take Smythson, for instance, arguably one of the most established and well regarded stationery brands in the world. 

    The craftsmanship in some of their creations is outstanding. Their ornate and intricately printed greeting cards can retail for up to £30 each. They have been producing invitations for the world’s most illustrious gatherings since 1887. Interestingly, despite their attempts at new and innovative offerings, their top sellers are still the classic invites customers were ordering 60 years ago. Nevertheless, Smythson is a premium stationery brand adored by the rich and famous.

    Owned by an Italian leather goods manufacturer, Smythson has also diversified into fashion accessories like handbags and brief cases. So far so good, you have a nice Smythson diary, custom printed letterhead, business cards, diary, etc. Why wouldn’t you buy a bag from them? Their bags look pretty classy too, and yet a Smythson bag is nowhere near as coveted by consumers as the likes of Burberry and Louis Vuitton bags.

    A brand lives in the mind of the consumer and retailer. It is an idea that exists outside of the logo and is signified by trade marks and design elements. It is not always successfully controlled by its owner and it can be tricky to shift the perception of how people see it. People know and love Smythson for stationery, but not for their bags? Not so much.

    Brand Authenticity

    There’s an element of natural authenticity that needs to be built into any brand’s extension into new territory. For Christian Dior, he knew from the start that he that accessories and even perfumes would be part of what Dior was. With Smythson the diversification into bags doesn’t feel as natural, even though it kind of makes sense.

    Perhaps it’s because the personality of someone who loves stationery is slightly different from that of someone who adores fashion. Ultimately, for any brand to succeed in diversification one needs to know their customers deeply and appeal to them in a consistent and authentic way. Most importantly the change needs to make sense and focus on the customer’s needs above all else.

    It’s interesting to watch the abundance of new sub brands springing up within the card industry. Paperlink have Meraki, Woodmansterne have Proper Mail Company, Brainbox Candy have Unknown Ink, even Hallmark have been playing with launches that have the look and feel of smaller companies. 

    I see this as a new form of consolidation in the greeting card marketplace as larger businesses with stronger sales, marketing, operations and distribution attempt to fill the gaps normally filled by smaller startups. This is hard for newbies to compete with. It’s also costly and time consuming for larger companies to maintain authenticity in their sub brands.

    Brand Licensing

    I expect to see more partnerships and licensing deals between larger businesses and smaller publishers as the latter realise the uphill struggle ahead of them and the business acumen and capital required to compete in a marketplace that has never been more competitive. 

    At PG Live we are excited to be launching Doodle Girl a new range of hand finished cards designed by Marnie Maurri and featuring a licensed character that has appeared in two successful children’s books published by Shuster & Shuster. The cards are printed on FSC board and use biodegradable glitter. We also have more exciting collaborations in the pipeline that I’m looking forward to sharing with you soon.

    Brand Risks

    Over the last year I have been mindful of the danger to Blue Eyed Sun’s greeting card brand of diversifying into giftware products like BambooCup. Our business instincts have born fruit though and the move couldn’t have happened at a better time for our business. Sales have flourished and the cross pollination of product categories is opening new doors to retailers that might not have looked at our cards previously as well as adding value to those that already love our cards and our great customer service.

    Our next step is to evolve the look and feel of our greeting card product line to sit more naturally with our giftware products. I also want to establish our new values and brand position in the mind of our retailers and consumers. I’m excited this challenge. Next year Blue Eyed Sun will turn twenty. I can’t tell you how profoundly grateful I am that our customers still find our brand relevant after all this time.

    The importance of brand story

    Marketing: Then vs Now

    What is Social Selling?

  • How companies can increase environmental awareness - Podcast

    Sage Advice Podcast - Environmental Awareness

    I've been speaking more and more about environmental awareness at the major trade shows like Spring Fair and Autumn Fair at the NEC as well as in my column for Progressive Greetings Magazine and on this blog. It's a subject I'm passionate about and still getting to grips with in my daily practice.

    I was recently invited back to the Sage Advice Podcast to talk about how companies and individuals can get involved and some quick wins they can get started with.

    Click the play button below to listen to the short nine minute podcast:

    Links to other podcasts I've done

    Listen to Jeremy on the Marketing Disenchanted Podcast

    Hear more about Jeremy's story on this interview with Janice B Gordon

    Jeremy's previous Sage Podcast interview on How Businesses can turn to Exporting to Grow

  • PG Live 2019 - Essential Information

    PG Live 2019 - Essential InformationBlue Eyed Sun will soon be exhibiting at the PG Live 2019 trade show . Officially launching at PG Live 2019 are our beautiful new Christmas cards 2019 which includes our new Doodle Girl licensed range, our best selling Fiesta seasonal cards and a new range called Noel. You can also see what's new in our BambooCup offering and pre-order our latest everyday cards. Be sure to stop by and see us (especially if you have a golden or sunshine ticket - we do love to meet lucky winners)!

    Quote Voucher code PGL19 when ordering during the show (online or offline) for FREE CARRIAGE.

    About PG Live 2019

    The International Greeting Card Show is a highlight on card buyers' calendars as the UK's only trade exhibition dedicated to the greeting card industry. It runs for two days from Tuesday 4th June to Wednesday 5th June from 09:30 - 18:00 at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London.

    To register for PG Live please click here.

    Where to Stay at PG Live 2019

    The closest hotels to the show are the HiltonPremier Inn and Double Tree by Hilton a short walk away with prices from £75-£150. However as the show opens next week they seem to be fully booked now. You can search AirBnB for apartments and rooms nearby.

    Where to Eat at PG Live 2019

    Islington has many wonderful restaurants and cafes. We've sampled lots of them over the years and have short listed some of our favourites for you to try below:

    5 Great Restaurants near the Business Design Centre

    How to get to PG Live 2019

    The Business Design Centre is easily accessible from Angel Tube station on the Northern Line and is close to Kings Cross and Euston rail stations. The Business Design Centre's post code is N1 0QH. It's outside the Congestion Charge Zone  and there are 250 car spaces on site with a daily cost of £3.10 per hour.

    You can plan your journey with the TFL journey planner or you might like to download the mobile app CityMapper which we love using for journey planning in London.

    For more information on travel for the show click here.

    Can't make the show? Click here to request access all of our designs online.

  • How to go the Distance in Business

    Going The Distance In Business

    Ten years ago I ran my first 26.2 mile race in the inaugural Brighton marathon. Since then, I’ve taken part in several events including London, Paris, Berlin and Edinburgh marathons along with many halves and 10ks. Then, three years ago my life changed and I stopped running. 

    Last month I returned to the Brighton marathon for a second time. Even though I love to run, it felt like starting over. Worse still, my training was disrupted by two separate injuries, a busy work schedule and a short illness. All of these meant I was frustratingly ill prepared. The race was incredibly challenging, messy and nowhere near any previous time I’ve completed other marathons in. Having said that it was fun, energising, life affirming and a reminder of the tenacity that we can have to triumph in the face of adversity. 

    Running a marathon is lot like being in business. There are moments when it feels like a breeze and others, when no matter how hard you try, you don’t seem to be getting anywhere. There are times when have no idea where your energy comes from. Sometimes things don’t go to plan and you feel like giving up.

    Time is Man Made

    One of the best ways to ruin a run is to get hung up on time. It’s the same with your business. It’s important to remember that the numbers are just measurements. They are not who you are nor are they an indicator of your value or self-worth. Time doesn’t exist outside of human kind. It is literally man-made, as is its meaning. 

    It was near mile eighteen when everything inside me screamed “STOP!” My energy was gone, my inadequately trained legs were struggling and all I could think about was ducking through the barriers and walking the short 500 metres to my home.

    As in business, you have to accept the reality of your situation. Especially when it feels hard. You then have to decide to to stop or keep on going. If you choose the latter, you need to be realistic and reassess. I realised that I had to forget about achieving a time based goal. I simply had to focus on completing the race.

    Accepting my fatigue, I thought about how I’d feel quitting and then how I’d feel completing the race, regardless of time. I decided to stick it out and began to walk for 50 steps and run for 100. Counting the steps kept me focussed on a very simple task: each step. That was it. For you, it might be counting the sales you make. One by one.

    Keep it Fun

    One of the things that’s wonderful about marathons like Brighton is the number of families out on the streets offering sweets, orange slices and fruit to the runners. When you run a marathon your glycogen (sugar) stores deplete after 2-3 hours. If your training has gone well your body will have learned to burn fat at a rate that holds this off for as long as possible. 

    Once your glycogen is spent, your energy levels drop and you feel like you’ve hit a wall. It’s the hardest part of running a marathon. With good training you can usually stave this off until somewhere between mile 20 and 22. This still means you have at least 30-60 minutes of running on empty and using all the will your mind can muster to reach the finish line.

    My energy had dropped off even earlier. So I stopped running past kids with bowls of sweets and began stopping to say hi and carefully choose which colour I wanted. They were delighted and it made my run a lot more pleasant. I also began to high five supporters and chat with runners around me. It feels so much better when you choose to smile and make it fun, despite it feeling tough.

    Why are you even doing your business anyway? To make money it’s easier and less stressful to get a job. If it’s your business then it's up to you to make it fun. If it doesn’t feel like it then lift your head up and look for the fun in it. There’s opportunity for wonder and delight in so many moments of our every day lives that we can miss them because we are so busy running along, caught up in our own little meaningless missions.

    I say meaningless not to be cruel, but because for the most part it is true. What’s important to us is invariably irrelevant to most other people. And yet we can’t understand why they don’t get it. Everybody enjoys a laugh and a smile though.

    On an industrial estate, halfway through mile 21 I stopped smiling as we doubled back along the seafront into an icy cold wind blasting at us for the last few miles. Yippee. Despite the earlier sun, it had been a cold start and fortunately I still had a jacket tied around my waist and a pair of gloves, both of which I slipped back on. Not long after though, I stopped jogging completely and walked steadily forward as several pace makers, carrying balloons labelled with those precious times I’d hoped to conquer, chugged past me.

    HELP!

    Back amongst supporters at mile 23 I tried to start jogging again. Big mistake. My thigh muscles pulled sharply into a tight spasm and I couldn’t move my legs without searing pain. The cold was causing me serious issues.

    I don’t know about you, but as much as I love to help other people I haven’t always been that good at asking for help from others when I need it. Not only that, but there have even been times when I haven’t paid attention to the fact that I needed to ask for help. 

    This can happen in business too. We often feel like we need to do it all on our own and somehow we are failures if we reach out to others. Perhaps we are afraid that we will look weak or vulnerable. We feel ashamed. We may also feel that our achievements won’t be our own if we do. 

    Balderdash. Sharing vulnerability is brave. Take care of yourself when you are finding it tough and ask for help when you need it. Most importantly, accept the help when it is offered. Especially if you really need it. Don’t let your pride get in the way of your well being. Caring and be cared for are two sides of the same coin.

    I spotted three people in a Brighton beach hut nearby and staggered over to them hoping to get warm. They were wonderful and offered me a seat and a blanket. I eyed the chair nervously wondering if I’d be able to get up once I sat down. My legs felt even worse when I did sit. The blanket warmed me and I enjoyed their company as my body recovered. They poured me some lemonade and I scoffed handfuls of crisps from a bowl on their table. 

    The warmth, sugar, salt and compassion all helped and five minutes later I was able to move my legs. I thanked my samaritans and ambled off towards the finish.

    Cheers!

    The support at most marathons is great, but Brighton is really special. The cheers and whoops from the crowd really pull you through the last three miles along the seafront. Soaking up the energy of the crowd is a real boost to anyone on their last legs at the end of a long race. Buoyed up, I even managed to run the last mile to the finish line.

    Every business has fans so remember to spend time enjoying their cheers whenever you can. Testimonials are a great reminder of why your business is special, as are referrals. Keep a book of compliments your business has received as a reminder. Read it when things feel challenging.

    Your business is a long distance event. It’s not a sprint. Even the biggest companies are built for the long haul. Remember it’s not just about the money. Remind yourself to keep it fun, ask for help when you need it and celebrate your victories (no matter how small). When in doubt. Just keep on running. Everything passes in the end.

    How to do things when you don't feel like it

    15 Ways Marathon Training can Help your Business

    Why facing your Fears is so Important for your Growth

  • Blue Eyed Sun launch new Christmas cards for 2019

    Fiesta Christmas Cards

    Christmas falls on Wednesday 25th December 2019, and we like our retailers to be prepared well in advance of this key retail period, so here's what Christmas cards are new from us this year...

    FIESTA (above) are based on original stitched artworks by Jo Corner. Foiled and hand glittered this lovely new range includes 30 best selling captions. These wonderful 160mm square Christmas cards are blank inside and come with a red envelope. Also available in Everyday.

    NOEL are based on beautiful original artworks by Jo Corner. Each cute card is hand finished with jewels and the range includes 30 gorgeous Christmas captions. They are 120mm square and come with a red envelope.

    DOODLE GIRL (bottom) is a new licensed range based on beautiful original artworks by Marnie Maurri. Each card is hand finished with jewels, the range includes 12 cute Christmas captions. They are 150mm square and come with a red envelope. Also available in Everyday.

    We have a large selection of Christmas cards online in the trade only section of our site, including many that are on special offer. To stock these ranges in your shop click here. If you'd like to see them in your local shop please tell them and point them in the direction of www.blueeyedsun.co.uk or you can recommend a shop to us by clicking here. You can also visit our stockists page to find a store near you that may be selling them.

    You can see these wonderful new Christmas cards first in person at:

    PG Live 2019 at the Business Design Centre in London 4-5 June 2019 - Stand 524

    Home and Gift at the Harrogate International Centre 14-17 July 2019 -  Stand DP1-D110

    Autumn Fair at the NEC in Birmingham 1-4 September 2019 - Stand 6A43

    Doodle Girl Christmas Cards

  • The Rise of the Ethical Consumer and how Retailers need to Adapt

    Rise Of The Ethical Consumer

    The Rise of the Ethical Consumer is a recent trend that is having a profound and rapid effect on the current retail landscape. Over 14 million viewers were shocked to witness vast swathes of plastic waste in our oceans in  David Attenborough’s BBC documentary ‘Blue Planet II’ with the majority galvanised to take action in the war on plastic. 

    Dubbed “The Blue Planet Effect,” a report by Waitrose found that almost 9 out of 10 people (88%) who saw the final episode about the effect of plastics on our oceans have changed their behaviour as a result. That’s over twelve million people! The numbers will be even greater still when you consider the widespread proliferation of the shocking footage and images continually being shared online via social media.

    Being mindful of how we consume has become a priority in today’s world. Our health, the health of our loved ones and that of the planet are changing how we shop. We are becoming more conscious of what we buy, where it comes from, how it’s made, how we will use it and how we dispose of waste.

    Sixty percent of us now choose a refillable water bottle and coffee cup more than we did. Sales of reusable coffee cups, water bottles, bags and the like have been booming as a result. Millennials are a key driver behind these changes. With their spending power soon to be greater than all the generations ahead of them they are not to be ignored.

    They great thing about Millennials is they love to share stories around these issues. If you get it right they will lift you up. Get it wrong and you will suffer online. So, what can you do to adapt to the changes that are happening?

    I firmly believe that you cannot encourage change in others without truly understanding the change yourself. Practicing what you preach helps you realise some of the challenges involved. So before we go through some simple steps, you need to commit to change yourself.

    1. Refuse

    Refuse unnecessary packaging in your personal life. The biggest one for most of us on a daily basis is food packaging. Our plastic food packaging uses around 800,00 tonnes of plastic per annum, less than a third of which is recycled. Choose food that isn’t wrapped in plastic and ask your supermarket to remove it. Styrofoam does not biodegrade, so refuse it whenever possible.

    Ask your customers if they need a plastic bag. Retailers who use this phrase see lower consumption than those that ask their customers if they want a plastic bag. You can also help your customers by offering reusable and non-plastic alternatives.

    If you can’t eliminate plastic then try to…

    2. Reduce

    Laminated products are not recyclable so try to cut back on them. Tetra Pak cartons that we drink our juice and milk from are the worst culprits. Switch to soda stream, filtered tap water and glass bottled milk rounds to help cut back on these.

    As an example, the card industry is making huge strides to reduce the use of polypropylene bags by going ‘naked’ or switching to compostable bags. Blue Eyed Sun are trialling both options this year with rollouts planned for 2020. The major supermarkets have recently been making the switch leading to massive reductions in single-use plastic consumption.

    3. Re-Use

    Switch from single-use plastic-lined coffee cups and plastic water bottles to reusable alternatives. Use a lunchbox instead of buying plastic wrapped sandwiches at lunch. Carry a reusable shopping bag with you when you shop (always take them with you to the supermarket). Reuse boxes from your deliveries when you ship to customers.

    4. Recycle

    Recycle whenever possible. Clean your used plastic before adding it to the recycling as food contaminated plastic cannot be recycled and can even spoil other clean recycling in the bins. Donate items that are not being used to charity. 

    Understanding the Ethical Consumer

    If you want to understand the Ethical Consumer best you need to start living like one. Don’t try to be perfect, just take a step forward in the direction you want to go. In time you will realise what’s important to you on this new path and be closer to your customers as a result.

    Business and the Environment

    What Consumers Want from Retailers

    The War on Single-use Plastic and how we can all Help

  • I am not a Greeting Card Publisher

    Not A Greeting Card Publisher

    I recently met up with an experienced retailer friend of mine. I love seeing him as we both enjoy shooting the breeze about business and life. I also value his good honest feedback about our business. We were discussing the blind spot in the Johari Window (things that we don’t know we don’t know) when he said something to me shook me to my core. “You are not a greeting card publisher, Jeremy. You are just a guy who has helped his talented partner along their way.”

    I flinched when he said it. It came out of the blue and I recoiled as if to avoid it, whilst at the same time knowing, on some level, that there was truth in what he said. It amuses me to think that Blue Eyed Sun has come so far without me being a greeting card publisher, but that could well be the truth. And if it’s the truth for me, it could also be the truth for a huge number of others in our industry. 

    That’s not just for publishers by the way, but retailers too. Another industry friend regularly points out that there are a huge number of amateurs in retail. If you don’t know what your best sellers are, who your most profitable customers are and which products generate your biggest profits then you may well be one of them.

    What my friend meant is that I hadn't targeted gaps in the market and filled them with appropriate offerings. It appears that one is somehow able to stumble along into something that appears to be success, but has an inherent flaw hidden from one's view. Like a mirage that you believe to be true. The truth is I haven't developed, created or produced successful greeting card ranges. My good fortune may have been down to luck, fortuitous timing and the talents of others. It would appear that, contrary to my previous understanding, I may not be a greeting card publisher after all.

    What to Do

    It’s easy to hear something about yourself like this and feel defensive or angry. Especially after years of hard work in your business and industry. I believe that feelings are like metal detectors for hidden gold. If you feel a reaction then there is work for you to do around those feelings and treasure to be liberated from the muck. 

    Blue Eyed Sun has been reliant on the talent of one remarkable designer for many years. Part of the reason I knew that my friend was right is the fact that I have repeatedly tried and failed to create ranges with other designers. They have all bombed. It’s not like the business is complete crap either though. We have built something quite remarkable with our blood, sweat and countless tears. So I don't feel like I am an imposter, but I can see what my friend was getting at.

    The first thing I decided to do was to take stock of the value within our business. These are other truths that can keep one from jumping off a cliff, when the rug is seemingly pulled out from under your feet by the reality of your blind spot that you have previously been unable to see.

    Our Value 

    Blue Eyed Sun has built a widely established brand presence within the trade marketplace, painstakingly forged over nearly two decades. We are well known within the industry, with years of coverage in hundreds of magazine articles, many award nominations (even some wins), a well-read industry blog and a solid presence at the UK’s leading trade shows.

    We have excellent distribution across the UK having built and maintained good relationships with the majority of the leading greeting card retailers. Our wonderful team of experienced sales agents across the UK are well regarded and active in their territories. We’ve also gathered years of experience working with most of the brokers who tap into areas of the market not normally accessed by smaller publishers.

    We have excellent international presence in over twenty countries. In 2016 we won the Queen’s Award for International Trade on the back of our successful expansion abroad with a fantastic network of top distributors around the world. Some pretty amazing companies have won the Queen's Award, so it's something special to be included amongst them.

    We also own a well run manufacturing and distribution centre in Sussex, which has the capacity to hand-finish and distribute a huge volume of greeting cards a year giving us control over quality and efficiency. Last, but by no means least, we have an awesome in-house team that operate this facility. They are a loyal, hard working, customer focused group of individuals who have produced and delivered millions of handmade cards over the years.

    My Value

    Whilst Blue Eyed Sun is a pretty good business, it appears to have one major weakness from a greeting card publishing point of view: me. 

    Again, it’s not like I’m complete crap either. I am strong on bringing people together. I have a sense of humour. I’m good with people. I can lead. I am a great story teller. I can write. I can develop and grow brands. I am a strong marketeer. I am good at seeing the bigger picture and creating effective systems (the business was grown with me working part-time since 2004). I’m creative, adaptable, forward thinking and empathetic. I have grit, determination and focus. I'm also a survivor and a fighter (who happens to also love greeting cards).

    I’m weaker on the details. I hate forms and bureaucracy. I’m bored by the mundane and by repetitiveness. I’m best kept away from running things that are everyday or I can disrupt them to make them more interesting (the opposite of what’s needed). I have also been a people pleaser in the past. Something which gets in the way of developing great product. You need to feedback the truth if product is to be developed into anything good.

    I believe that people are most valuable when playing to their strengths. That’s what I’ve always tried to do within our team. It’s more efficient, less arduous and most likely to result in mastery. Focusing on fixing weaknesses, on the other hand, is a constant uphill battle. It can feel demoralising and is most likely doomed to failure in the long run anyway.

    The big question is whether or not me ‘not really being a greeting card publisher’ is a weakness that is going to be difficult or impossible to fix or whether it’s something I can remedy by where I focus my attention. 

    Holding Back

    One of the things that has been both Blue Eyed’ Sun’s strength and weakness over the years has been our reliance on one designer. I always saw this a bottle neck within the business that prevented us from growing further.

    This was further exacerbated by a classic conundrum within most small businesses: You need to grow, but you are way too busy to hire and delegate to anyone else. Plus, there’s the added risk that trying to do so and failing will waste more time that could have been spent doing the thing you do that adds most value to the business. 

    What if I’m the bottleneck within our business though? If I‘ve never shown up within our business as a greeting card publisher then that is a bigger issue than our designer not training and delegating to others. And how on earth did this happen?

    The legacy of this issue is rooted in the way I always saw my role, as one of support and encouragement. It’s a safe place to be. The one behind the talent. You never have to expose yourself to criticism and failure (two difficult pills for people pleasers to swallow). The downside is you never fully explore your own talents, because you are always focused on those of the other.

    Moving Forward

    This past year I have been experimenting with different business models and partnerships. I know that we have everything we need in terms of infrastructure to take great product to market. The sensational success of BambooCup is evidence of this as we’ve seen double digit growth at Blue Eyed Sun in the last twelve months. So, we have solid operational foundations from which to launch new products and projects.

    My next step is to find people who are weak in these areas and strong in areas where I am weaker. I am on the hunt for more talented designers and more awesome product on which we can work our marketing and distribution magic. I’m interested in licensing, partnerships, distribution deals and working together with businesses with fantastic potential for growth that struggle to cope with things that we do with ease.

    I am not interested in any weak product (cards or gifts that don’t sell because the designs don’t work or they’re overpriced). There’s got to be love in the product. I may not be a greeting card publisher yet, but I do know business. Both myself and Blue Eyed Sun are valuable assets for any team and we’re looking for other solid players to build even stronger teams.

    Drop me a line if you have something exciting that you’d like to discuss with us. Watch this space for interesting new projects over the coming months. I am grateful to my friend for helping me to see into my blind spot. Now I need to act on it and see what happens. For now I am a story teller and, who knows, one day I may become a greeting card publisher too.

    The Hidden Value of Feedback

    The Secret to creating Best Selling Cards

    The Importance of Taking on New Challenges

  • Discovering the hidden value of Feedback

    The Hidden Value Of Feedback

    The American architect and leader in sustainable development, William McDonough, once taught me that, “Any system without a feedback loop is, by definition: stupid.” What he meant is that any system that isn’t testing the assumptions it’s founded on and then adjusting to feedback isn’t actually learning. 

    This was a wake up call for me at the time because, even when we have the best of intentions, if we are don’t create and pay attention to feedback loops in our businesses and in our lives, we are being stupid.

    The Map is Not the Territory

    The terrain we encounter on the ground is rarely identical to the map we use to navigate it with. Geography is not naturally grid shaped and it changes over time. Grids (like words) are our representations of reality. They are not the reality itself. Just as money is not wealth and a menu is not the food that sustains us. The plans we make for our businesses are seldom the everyday reality we face when we implement them. 

    Billionaire businessman Scott D. Cook put it in more relatable terms when he said “for every one of our failures, we had spreadsheets that looked awesome.”

    One of the main reasons for this is that our knowledge is limited. We know what we know (Jane knows she can drive a car). We know what we don’t know (Jane knows she doesn’t speak French). We don’t know what we don’t know (Jane doesn’t that there are rich oil reserves beneath her property). Being aware of the limitations of our knowledge is hugely important when it comes to recognising the value of feedback.

    The Hidden Gold

    So how do we discover what we don’t know what we don’t know? How do we tap into the hidden value of this knowledge? How do we find the gold in the ground beneath our very feet?

    It starts with recognising that you don’t know everything. Then we have to understand ourselves and how we tick. In 1902 social psychologist, Charles Cooley, identified our own internal feedback loops through his concept of the looking-glass self: “I am not who I think I am; I am not who you think I am; I am who I think you think I am.” 

    You might need to read this a couple of times for it to sink in. Essentially what Cooley is saying is that society is an interweaving and inter-working of our mental selves (a series of feedback loops). In other words, we develop our sense of self through how we believe others think about us.

    As you can imagine, this theory has grown in popularity with the rise of social media. Online you can represent different versions of yourself, receive feedback, judgements, etc based on follows, likes and so on. Most businesses miss the value of social media in this context. As Ashton Kutcher once told me at a conference: “Social Media is not a broadcast tool, it’s a conversation with a feedback loop.”

    There are two paths to the hidden gold available to you. Both start from within and both require you to step outside of your usual patterns of behaviour to find them.

    Just like navigating any jungle, first you need to stop and listen: internally and externally.

    Internal Feedback

    The body is an incredibly effective feedback loop. Most of the time it is functioning without you doing anything to it. We breath 12-20 times a minute without thought, our hearts beat 100,000 times per day pumping the equivalent of 2,000 gallons of blood through our bodies. All without your focussed conscious attention. When toxins are discovered, they are purged. When our bodies need rest, we feel tired. When hungry, our stomach rumbles reminding us to eat.

    Most of us consider our body as serving our brain, which is the area we tend to feel that our sense of self resides. But, consider for a moment the idea that our brains and the entire system of our body is actually at the bidding of our gut. 

    Did you know that 80% of the neurotransmitter serotonin (also known as the happy hormone) is produced in our guts? Serotonin regulates our mood and social behaviour, appetite and digestion, sleep, memory as well as sexual desire and function.

    What has this got to do with feedback? Well, the first thing to pay attention to the feedback is what is happening inside yourself. Shut off from all of the outside influences and listen to your body. Where is there tension? How are you feeling? What is the likely cause of these sensations?

    To do this effectively, make sure your stomach is not empty, you are in good health and you are not tired. Set aside a quiet time and space and then breath. Move beyond the thoughts you have about yourself, your business and the world around you.

    Remember that you are not your thoughts. Your thoughts and decisions come and go like hiccoughs. You are the presence behind your thoughts (if you want to go really deeply into this you are the entire cosmos - but we’ll save that for another time).

    If you take care of your health and well being, your gut will often guide you more clearly than the estimated fifty thousand plus thoughts we have each day. Nobody can dispute how you feel about things and only you know your own feelings.

    Listening to your internal feedback is the place to start when you want to consider what you know and don’t know. Sometimes your internal feedback can even take you into territory that you don’t know you don’t know. 

    Once you are in tune with your own internal feedback you can start to pay attention to the feedback from others on things that you don’t know that you don’t know as well as things you do know but have forgotten to pay attention to (you know - the ones most commonly and frustratingly identified by consultants).

    External Feedback

    From Cooley’s perspective, external feedback is really filtered by your own internal bias anyway (I am who I think you think I am). This causes people like Jane issues when she is struggling to pay his bills and she doesn’t know that there’s a deep rich well of oil beneath her. How could she ever discover this?

    Even if Jane were to ask experts to help her she may well be hampered by beliefs that she might have built up about her unworthiness. Stories that her family, friends, school, etc may have shared with her and which she in turned believed and built into the way she sees the world around her. Aside from that, how would she even know to ask for the type of expert that would help her to uncover oil reserves.

    The fact is, external feedback is our best chance of improving our lot. Even when we find it hard and don’t like it. Perhaps even more so when we have an emotional reaction to it. Just as we need to pay attention to what’s going on inside ourselves, we also need to have our ears and eyes open to the world around us. 

    We need to find others in our lives who offer honest, unbiased feedback on how we are doing. We need to actively solicit feedback and be open to hearing it’s message, even when it’s difficult and our egos are stinging from it. It’s most helpful though, when we have a clear idea of where you want to go.

    The Right Direction

    Lewis Carroll once wrote “If you don’t know where you want to go, then it doesn’t matter which path you take.”  We need know what we want and in which direction we are heading. We then need to listen to our internal and external feedback loops as we go to determine if we are heading the right way and adjust accordingly.

    Where is the abundance currently concealed from your view in your life? Where do you want it to be? What can you do to uncover it?

    What you focus on will guide you. Slow down. Pay attention to what is working and ignore what isn’t. If you have an emotional reaction to a feedback loop then there is almost certainly a lesson to be learned from it and, who knows, perhaps even gold hidden within it.

    Why Customer Complaints Are Good for Business

    How to make your Business Fly

    Why Facing your Fears is so Important for your Growth

  • Trends at Spring Fair 2019

    Watch our one minute video on the trends that were popular at Spring Fair 2019.

     

Items 61 to 70 of 411 total

Page:
  1. 1
  2. ...
  3. 5
  4. 6
  5. 7
  6. 8
  7. 9
  8. ...
  9. 42