Wow. It’s the end of the second decade of the new millennium and almost 20 years since Blue Eyed Sun launched. It’s also been 100 years since the GCA launched. It’s been a busy year full of new learnings and shifts in perspective. Here are some of them:
Success and Failure
Until recently, I used to get very attached to winning or losing. I believed that if you weren’t attached it meant that you weren’t really committed. It’s been a major shift for me to pull attachment and and commitment apart from one another and enjoy being committed without being attached.
For example, sometimes it’s simply enough to complete the Brighton marathon (as I did in April), rather than worry about my finish-time. For most marathon runners, completing the course is the triumph, the speed at which it is done is less relevant.
Having said that, it was incredible to see Eliud Kipchoge become the first to run a marathon in less than two hours this year. To do this, he had to run 100m in 17.08 seconds 422 times in a row at a speed of 13.1 mph. Try and run a single 100m in 17 seconds and you’ll see just how remarkable this achievement really is.
Instead of being attached, I am now committed to things I’m doing that may move forward and may not. This year, some worked and some didn’t. Some just where what they were. I got that I got and I didn’t get what I didn’t get.
What Worked
Our financial year ended with Blue Eyed Sun sales up 30% thanks to our best-selling BambooCup and new eco-gifts. In the current climate this feels like an achievement in itself. The brand has been further boosted further by a recent independent study by Stiftung Warentest that showed BambooCup by chic.mic to be was the number one choice out of twelve popular bamboo cup brands.
Our new card range, licensed from Jade Mosinski has been very well received and is selling through nicely. We are also pleased with the response to our Doodle Girl licensed cards.
This year we expanded our sales agent force to thirteen agents on the road with only Wales left to cover. It’s a challenging time to find good agents and we are very grateful to have some of the best in the UK doing a great job for us.
I also took part in Plastic Free July for the first time and spoke about my experience at Autumn Fair. It was a fascinating challenge, which I shared with my followers on social media through a series of videos. Sustainability and taking care of the environment is becoming increasingly important for all of us.
What Didn’t Work
Despite being runner up for a Gift of the Year award with Origamo cards at Spring Fair, we did not progress with distributing the handmade Italian popup and quilling card brand as the business model did not work for us.
For different reasons, new interiors products W-Lamp and Canvas Gallery both failed to take with our customer base. I’m glad that we limited our exposure and didn’t have large stock holdings on these products. We were able to test and move on from them without it damaging us in any major way.
For all of us in business, we have to try things and see what works and what doesn’t. Whilst we all want the outcomes to be good, it’s important to be assessing and adjusting regularly to sail through the current choppy climate.
The other thing that I’ve realised doesn’t work for me is…
Trying to Look Good
This year I learned that I used to do a lot of things to ‘look good.’ Trying to look good comes at a cost, as it’s difficult to say no. Which means one can over-commit and not have much free time to oneself.
Being so busy also means that I don’t always come up smelling of roses, because I inevitably let people down from time to time. For example, I filmed the speakers at the GCA Speed Dating with Dragons event earlier this year and it has taken me many months to edit and load the footage up to YouTube.
So, I’ve cut back. I recently stepped down as Treasurer of the GCA and, after 15 years of speaking at the Ladder Club, I chose not to attend this November. It was scheduled on my birthday and on a Thursday when I spend time with my son. As much as I love helping others, it felt good to do what I wanted and focus on what’s important to me, rather than how I think others might perceive me.
After filming, editing and loading up twenty six videos for the GCA’s YouTube channel, I have decided not to do any more. The association now needs someone to help them with these, so if you know anyone who can film, edit and load onto YouTube then please drop Amanda Ferguson a line.
We’ve also had a couple of things come to an end this year at Blue Eyed Sun.
Endings
A decade after launching, we have now closed our wedding division, Ivy Ellen. During that time, we created 117,251 gorgeous wedding invitations for 2,019 weddings and won several awards whilst building a well loved and recognised brand in another lovely industry. It’s been a blast and now we want to focus on other things.
After 16 wonderful years our long standing colleague and friend, Lewis Early, is moving to new pastures. During his time with us he worked his way up our business from packing boxes in our warehouse at the tender age of 16 to becoming our invaluable General Manager. He has lived and breathed Blue Eyed Sun with us and we will all miss him greatly and wish him all the best.
New Beginnings
Rising Retail was launched this year and the date has been shifted to the 1st June 2020 to allow more retailers to get the most of this TED style networking event, with 14 incredible speakers, designed to share best practice and help businesses to thrive. It’s still being held at the Shard and promises to be an awesome day.
At Spring Fair we are all being moved into Hall 2. I’m excited about Blue Eyed Sun’s new stand and, after the success of our move at Autumn Fair, am looking forward to similarly strong results with this change. I will also be speaking about Sustainability in Retail on the Inspiring Retail stage at the NEC.
We’re looking forward to launching our new Bioloco brand of environmentally friendly products. We have some lovely new double walled water bottles that have tested really well. These will be a good compliment to our best-selling BambooCups, lunch boxes, children’s beakers and SlideCups. We are also expanding our greeting cards offering, particularly with our Jade Mosinski license, which will soon be over 100 beautiful designs.
The Future
This year, the EU voted overwhelmingly in favour for a new law to dramatically reduce the 150,000 tonnes of plastic waste tossed into European waters each year. Single-use plastic cutlery, cotton buds, straws and stirrers are to be banned by 2021. Oxo-degradable plastics and food containers and expanded polystyrene cups will be banned. There will also be a more stringent ‘polluter pays’ principle and 90% collection rates for plastic bottles are being targeted by 2029. The legislation stipulates that labelling on the negative environmental impact of littering of single-use plastic cups and other items should be mandatory. Despite Brexit, the UK will undoubtedly follow a similar line regardless of who wins the forthcoming election.
This is fantastic news for anyone operating in the environmentally conscious space and helping consumers to cut back on their consumer waste by encouraging the use of reusable bags, containers, cups and bottles.
It also means that the card industry’s drive to reduce plastic could not have come at a better time. Around 68% of all cards sold in the UK are expected to be naked by next month. We believe more will follow as the customers of independent retailers begin to reward those that make plastic-free changes.
How to attend Rising Retail in 2020
What I learned at the Landmark Forum this year
What I learned doing the Plastic Free July Challenge this year
