A week in the life of a (pop-up) shopkeeper

Back in June this year I received a tweet from Dalegate Market. 'Have you seen our Pop-Up-Shops?' I thought this sounded interesting so decided to go and have a look. 

Dalegate Market is a small shopping complex situated on the on the North Norfolk coast road between Hunstanton and Wells-next -the-Sea. It features shops such as Fat Face, Gone Crabbing, Relish Boutique, The Hare and Hen Gallery & Craft Shop, One Stop Nature Shop, Norfolk Hideaways, Deepdale Bike Hire and Deepdale Cafe.

Also on the site is Deepdale Farm which offers self-catering accommodation, independent hostel, campsite, group hostel and glamping (tipis, yurts & shepherds huts). 

For the first time this year they had decided to erect four colourful Beach Huts on the site to rent out as pop up shops to small independent companies for a week at a time during the summer months. I know and love that part of the Norfolk coast very well so thought it would be great place to have a shop, plus the idea of having my own little place for a week sounded a bit different and very exciting.

Photo Dalegate Market

After a bit of research I decided to book a slot and the last week of August was free. 

I arrived on the Weds afternoon was shown to my little hut which was really spacious and pink!

Now those who know me would expect at this point to see a scale mock up version of the hut with everything in place to make my life easier. BUT on this occasion I decided to just see what happens when I got there, not a good plan as all in all it took 5hrs to set up after moving tables into every position I could think of, lesson learned there I think!

I opened the shop on Thursday morning full of anticipation. There were a lot of people about and sales went well. I also had a few enquires about trade orders too. The next couple days were much the same, although the Sun, Mon and Tues was less busy because of the end of the school holidays. 

Hand screen printed bags with notebooks

Seaside postcard prints

Seaside postcards

Pug print

Most of my customers were dog owners, (I was in my element with all the sweet dogs to fuss!) so it was a great marketing exercise for my Top Dog range of cards. Everyday I looked at how well they had sold and put the top selling onto Facebook and Twitter which showed some interesting results which were as follows: 

Thursday's Top Dog was the Pug 

Friday’s Top Dog was the Whippet 

Saturday’s Top Dog was the Border Terrier 

Sunday’s Top Dog was the Chihuahua and the Springer Spaniel 

Monday’s Top Dog was the Border Collie 

and finally Tuesdays Top Dog was the Golden Retriever 

It was interesting that no two days were the same. Also the coasters, badges and magnets with the ‘Top Dog’ designs on went down very well too.

All four of the huts were rented out so it was nice to have some neighbours all of who were very different so gave some variety to the shops.

Photo Dalegate Market

Crafting Alison and Gemma’s Jewellery Box shared a hut and offered some lovely hand crafted papercraft items and jewellery

Crafting Alison & Gemma's Jewellery Box

Crafting Alison

 Gemma's Jewellery

Daniel Sa Designs offering unique hand made plaques from reclaimed wood. Photos on wood; the image becomes part of the wood with a special technique that takes up to 48 hours soak in.

Daniel Sa Designs

Daniel Sa Designs

Polly's Feltz only joined us for three days over the weekend a cottage craft industry with felted handbags and accessories designed and handmade by Polly.

Polly's Feltz(Photo Dalegate Market)

Polly's Feltz
(Photo Dalegate Market)

The owners of site site were extremely helpful and nothing was too much trouble. All the huts had electricity and free wifi which was good as I had bought my card reader along for the larger payments. The huts are situated at the back of the site and the team at Dalegate did a great job of promoting us on Facebook and Twitter and made signs and leaflets for the cafe tables to tempt people to come and see us.

Also on the site was a great cafe Deepdale Cafe with yummy breakfasts, pastries, sandwiches, coffee and hot chocolate!

If you are interested in a pop up shop then contact the team at Dalegate Market. All the information can be found on their website www.deepdalefarm.co.uk  They also have a popular Christmas Market every year which is on the 6th and 7th Dec this year, a great day out to get all your Christmas gift shopping done.

All in all I really enjoyed the experience of being my own shopkeeper for a week and hats off to all shop owners out there. Everyone I met gave me lots of positive comments and I made some great contacts too. 

Three today

Where did that year go? Its been a busy one:

I sent my first export order to Hong Kong

Image : Wikipedia

Took on my first agent in the South East

Increased sales and now stock all over the UK

Attended a successful Spring Fair

Launched a new age range "Jubliations"

Was asked by Lynn Tait of the Ladder Club to design a Charity Christmas Card for Action Medical Research. To be sold later in the year.

Photo by Action Medical Research

Photo by www.eddiemacdonald.co.uk

Exhibited at PG Live for a second year

Launched "Top Dog" at PG Live

and so to the next year and whatever it may bring!

Once again I send out a massive thank you to all my customers, family and friends for all your support over the past year.

Top Dogs

Launched at PG Live 'Top Dog' is the brand new range. It features big and bold portraits of some of the most popular dog breeds.

Digitally illustrated and mixed with collage on a crisp clean white background.

Comprising of 12 designs, 150mm square, printed on a lightly textured board and cello wrapped with a brown ribbed envelope. Sold in units of 6. Please contact info@redberryhill.co.uk for more information.

Action Medical Research Christmas Card

Back in February I got a call from Lynn Tait who asked me if I would like to be one of the artists for the Action Medical Research Charity Christmas Cards this year. Of course I jumped at the chance to be involved. 

So I have joined up with 11 other artists all Ladder Club members from around the country to produce a range of Christmas cards where the beneficiary charity, Action Medical Research, receives all of the money. 

Lynn asked us all to design a particular subject and I was asked to do a cycling theme. Here is my card

The cards were formally launched at Progressive Greetings Live in London on 13 May and will be available to buy on the Action Medical Research website later in the year. Designers, printers and even envelope makers have all collaborated and donated their services for free. Last year’s range of ‘real deal’ cards raised £13,000 for the children’s charity.

Image by www.eddiemacdonald.co.uk

Image by Action Medical Research

The ‘real deal’ cards are the brainchild of Lynn Tait. Lynn, a gallery owner in Leigh on Sea, has owned a greeting card business for more than 20 years. A long-standing supporter of the children’s charity, Lynn again this year invited 12 Ladder Club attendees to design and donate an exclusive piece of artwork for the venture. The Ladder Club seminars are crash-courses in greeting card publishing run on a not-for-profit basis by Lynn.

Sherwood Press, The Imaging Centre, Enveco and G F Smith have all agreed to donate their services for free to produce the cards.  

Money raised will help fund medical research into conditions affecting babies and children. Medical research can save and change children’s lives. Yet surprisingly, medical research into conditions that devastate children’s lives is poorly funded.  Action Medical Research is currently supporting work around stillbirth, epilepsy, meningitis, cerebral palsy and brain cancer, as well as some rare and distressing conditions that severely affect children.

There is even a celebrity endorsement! Davina McCall is one of Action Medical Research's most steadfast supporters and here she is with a selection of the cards.

Image by Action Medical Research

PG Live 2014

I cannot believe it has been a year since I did PG Live. Back for a second year I was ready on time and was pretty calm during the set up (except for the driving in London!)

Once again I produced a mock up before I went so once we got there it was just a case of following the plan and my husband quickly had all the shelves up and the stand was ready for the start of the show, thank you Richard!

It was an early start on the Tuesday and when I got to my stand unfortunately some of the signs had fallen and got damaged but once up again you could not notice but it was such a shame.

It was a busy first day and I took a few orders, some of which were from repeat customers which was really nice to know the cards are selling well. I also met several brand new customers plus some export interest which is always exciting and had a photo call for an exciting Christmas card project I have been involved in (more about that in another post)

The new range 'Top dog' got good feedback with a few of the designs being added to the orders.

I also got to meet some Minions (secretly very excited!)

The second day was another photo call for all Ladder Club Members, this is such a great group started by Lynn Tait and helps fellow publishers on their road to success.

Photo by www.eddiemacdonald.co.uk

The rest of the day seemed to go by pretty quick, again I met some lovely new customers and got a lot of positive comments. Then before you knew it we were packing up to go home.

I had some great neighbours too Libby McMullin, I Drew This, Come for a dream, Your Life Tile and Wolf Whistle who were a pleasure to be around. It is such a lovely industry to be a part of.

All in all the show was a success for Red Berry Hill new stockists and some exciting opportunities!

Last but not least I must also give a big thank you to the tea/coffee lady who visited us very half an hour she was so helpful, always had a smile and remembered what you ordered, definitely the star of the show!

It's been a while

Wow where has the time gone. It has been three months since Spring Fair and this weekend I am preparing to exhibit and the next trade show PG Live at the Design Centre in Islington, London which starts on Tues 13th May until Weds 14th May. It is the second time I have exhibited at this show so I know what to expect, in fact I am all packed, ready to go and feel quite calm which is a little worrying!

All ready for PG Live

I have been very busy in the studio over the last three months getting together a new range to launch at the show. I can't say too much about it at the moment but here is a sneak peek at what is to come.

©Red Berry Hill

I will be back in the next few days to report on the setting up and thoughts on PG Live plus a post about the launch of the new range.

Spring Fair International 2014

Back to normality now after a busy week at my very first Spring Fair at the NEC. We arrived on Sat afternoon to my 3m x 1m space and my home for the next five days.

We got to work preparing the space which only took around 3hrs in the end

The finished product all ready for Sunday, so glad I had my little mock up!

After a relaxing evening (an anniversary meal out with my husband) we arrived nice and early on Sunday at the NEC to start the show.

I must admit it was a very long day but we met some really nice people and got a lot of interest in the cards including some agents

On Monday I was on my own so was a little nervous but it all went well I took some orders including a big one to Singapore and had some really great comments about the card designs.

Tuesday was another busy day with positive feedback, more orders, interest from agents and maybe a licensing deal too. Plus my friend also turned up today to help me for the rest of the week, it was good to see a friendly face and gave me a little break.

It was a long and tiring week but I really did enjoy it and I have signed up again for next year. Now lots of work to do fulfilling al the orders!

It was good to be home and I had a nice surprise when I got there of a sign made by my daughter two for the price of one as it also celebrated my wedding anniversary!

I would like to thank all my family and friends for helping me last week it was very much appreciated and could not have been done without you all.