redhillconfetti

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🌺 New Gardenware Stock 🌺

Metal birdbaths, gorgeous candle holders.

In stock now on Etsy

#birdbath #metal #metalgardendecor #gardendecor #yardart #candles #tealight #tealightholder #sustainable #sustainableliving

Standard Bird Bath

Extra Large Bird Bath

Hanging tree tealight lantern

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https://www.vinted.co.uk/member/79748927-redhillconfetti

🎀 Vinted Store Restock! 🎀 Loads of new items uploaded to our Vinted Store this weekend! Ladies sizes 8 - 30 (we are proudly size inclusive), name brand label menswear. Accessories, bags, and footwear. Discounts available for bundle deals. Childrens clothing edit to come!

#vinted #vinteduk #2ndhand #sustainable #sustainablefashion #sustainableliving #sustainablelifestyle

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Blog post 03-02-2023 - Sickness

When you decide to run a small business, the freedom it gives you to run your own schedule is always a huge draw when compared to being an employee of someone else’s business, however whilst things look great all the perks of self employment and flexible schedules can mean for a while you are looking through rose tinted glasses, but with all planning for fun and good things, you also need to plan for the bad and boring.

When I first quit my corporate job to go self employed full time, I had to look at my outgoing expenses each month, with the first being my pension. I had to reduce my monthly payment, but over time I've increased this gradually. This is something I was able to plan for and incorporate into each year’s projections. I also decided to pull off 20% of each week's earnings and just store them in an instant access savings account. It barely makes any interest, but my initial idea for this was to be a pot of instant money should I have any large expenses.

What this actually meant is I had a backup for when I was too sick to work. 

If the last three years has taught us anything, it's that a bad virus or illness can appear out of nowhere and throw everything on its head with regards to running a business. You can’t predict when you will be ill, and it can always come at the most inconvenient time. Unfortunately that’s what happened to me this week.

We’re now at the first few days of February, but since the start of January I had been feeling run down and had a slight tickle of a cough. As January is always a quiet month I have been able to reduce my working hours in order to get some rest and hopefully let my body restore itself. However, after a very busy two days last weekend, this Monday that cough rapidly deteriorated. I had a dry cough that would empty my lungs at any given point, every single bone and joint in my body ached beyond belief, migraine, nausea, elevated temperature, photosensitivity to light and also noise. I had definitely developed something far more severe than just a simple tickly cough. After testing for Covid and that thankfully coming up negative, a call to the NHS 111 service determined it was likely to be the RSV virus, something that has been prevalent in our area for the last few weeks.

I had little choice but to take the week ‘off’. I’m thankful my husband was able to arrange to work from home and thus take our son to and from school, and for the better part of the week I've been able to do little more than sip water whilst wrapped in a blanket and binge watch Criminal Minds on Disney+. What hasn’t helped my recovery is the lack of medicated cold & flu medications that pharmacies locally haven’t been able to source, but that lack of supply is more down to Brexit. But this isn’t a Brexit blog post so we’ll touch on that in the future.

With having a week off, I had to decide whether or not to shut the shops or not. In the end I decided to keep them on, and just allow the natural flow of orders to come in. I completely ignored social media this week, the admin has piled up, no new listing or manufacturing. Instead I packed what orders did come in then left them for 24 hours after sanitising them. If 2020 taught us anything, it's how to protect others and stop the spread of any viruses. After 24 hours and full sanitisation, my husband took the parcels to their drop off points meaning i didn’t have to leave the house.

Through all this I was thankful that I had that small reserve in savings. I could take my time this week to just get better without having the added pressure and worry that I still had to bring in a full week’s wage. My pension payment was able to be covered and this week’s bills have been paid.

Here in the UK if you are employed by a company, most of the time they will offer a certain amount of sick days where you get paid full pay, or a high percentage of full pay (in the past it’s usually been 12 days at companies i’ve worked for). After that the company can draw from the government what’s called SSP - statutory sick pay - which is just under £100 per week, payable for up to 28 weeks. It is only applicable if you are employed by a company. You cannot claim this if you are self employed.

I’m sorry if this week’s blog post is a little disjointed, i’m still in a bit of a fog of flu meds and lack of sleep, but hopefully next weeks post will be something a little more upbeat and fluffy!

Simone

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Blog post 28-01-2023 - Attending a Wedding Fair as a guest

Attending a wedding fair can be slightly intimidating for those people that may have never visited one before. You'll be walking into a room where every single person is an expert at all things wedding, and could end up asking you a whole load of questions you may not even have considered were options or things you need to think about.

My very first piece of advice is to set up a free email address (hotmail, gmail etc) for your wedding. This can be the email you put on your wedding invitation for RSVP's, and by using this to register with suppliers, once your wedding is all done you haven't had your personal email added to a hundred mailing lists.

Next is to make sure you wear the right clothing. You're not there to impress anyone, but you could end up being on your feet for hours, so wear comfortable shoes. Depending on the venue it could be baking hot or freezing cold, with no correlation to what the weather may be doing! If you're shivering or sweating you may feel like leaving earlier than you planned and could end up missing information or meeting a supplier that is just what you are looking for.

Plan your transport there, check for parking or public transport links. Google maps is your friend as some places can be hidden down narrow lanes or streets, or in a very rural location. If you have accessibility needs I would advise you to message the organisers in advance and ask if your requirements will be able to be met. Not all venues can guarantee to have a lift or a quiet space if you have sensory needs and can get overwhelmed by noise, crowds or lights etc. Try and send these questions to the organisers before the day of the fair, as on the day they will likely have limited access to their social media channels as they will be setting things up.

Once you’re in the fair, you’ll get approached by many people, the event organisers will usually meet you at the door and check your tickets. A lot of wedding fairs are ticket entry only, though the cost is usually minimal and simply for insurance purposes. As I covered in a previous blog, goody bags are a great perk of attending wedding fairs, and can be a useful little tote bag to store all the business cards, flyers, and samples you may get given on your visit.

When you are approached by the vendors, usually the very first thing you’ll be asked is ‘When is the big day?’, as this will give them an immediate way to start a conversation with you and gauge how far into your wedding planning you already are. You can give them as much or little information as you feel comfortable to. Some vendors will be very chatty, others will stand back and let you have a look over their display of their work. There may be an option to add your details to a mailing list to be entered into a prize draw for a free service or discount, this is where your wedding email account that i mentioned at the start of the blog comes in handy! If the product is something you are interested in, take a flyer or business card, you could even write notes on your phone or on the back of the card. If however its not a product you want or need, a simple ‘No thanks’ will suffice. No one is going to chase you across the room or force you to sign up for something you don’t want. I would also strongly advise against signing any deals on the day for ‘show bonus discounts’. Go home, do your research and make sure you are comfortable with the company. Check out their reviews and online presence in your own time rather than be rushed into handing over money the second you meet someone.

Take pictures whilst you are there! This is a great way to remind yourself of who you have met and what they do. Sometimes business cards can be very neutral and not give an indication of what the company does. If after the event you can’t recall a company that you would like to approach for a service, drop the organisers a message with where in the hall/event they were and a description of what their stand looked like, and they’ll be able to come back to you with contact details for that company.

I hope this blog post has helped give you an insight into what it’s like to visit a wedding fair. They can be extremely fun to go to as a guest, and a great source of inspiration for your big day. So that’s all folks,

Until next week,

Simone

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Blog Post 20-01-2023 - Wedding Fairs

Well another week has gone by and it's time for the weekly blog post, and this week i’d like to talk a little bit about Wedding Fairs.

For anyone that has ever gotten married or has been part of an organising party of such, you no doubt will have visited a wedding fair; an event where suppliers within the wedding industry exhibit and its an opportunity for prospective clients to see multiple businesses all under the same roof. They can be invaluable for those planning a wedding to get ideas and inspiration, and even secure quotes and favourable rates/special offer discounts from suppliers.

From a business point of view it can be an excellent way of meeting clients face to face, to be able to give insights into your business and discuss on the spot questions and enquiries from prospective clients. It can be a brilliant way to build a mailing list if you run one, and get your business ‘seen’.

But they can also be expensive to exhibit at, and as with this blog I like to give an insight into the behind the scenes of running a wedding decor business, I've been asked a lot recently if i’ll consider going back to exhibiting at wedding fairs.

In the short term; No.

But that doesn’t mean I won't have a presence at them. So let me explain the costs.

Take a fair at a leisure centre or large event space. It can cost the organisers of the fair thousands of pounds to rent a large hall for an entire day, anywhere from £2000 to £5000, or even more depending on the space and location. There will be a range of businesses there, and many will require varying sized exhibition spaces, so you would on average be able to have approximately 30 suppliers within one large ‘sports’ hall. Not to make this a maths lesson, but £2000 / 30 is around £66 but £5000 / 30 is around £166. This is the net cost of each 6ft x 6ft space. The organisers need to cover their costs and also make a profit (yes, profit!), so for simple maths lets call it that they mark up the costs to be between £100 and £200 per pitch for each exhibitor.

So say I am now hypothetically thinking of exhibiting. The cost to me just to rent the space is going to be £100 at a minimum. But I also have to provide all my own display equipment, and foremost it needs to look nice. This isn’t a market where items are just strewn on a table, I need to set the tone and portray an image for my product. I need a table, coverings, display shelves, baskets, business cards or promotional flyers, actual products, and samples to give out;

Sturdy Fold up table: £80

Tablecloths: £25

Shelves: £50

Baskets: £25

Business Cards/Flyers: £15

Display Product: £50

Samples: £50

This means, the outlay for a wedding fair comes to around £395. Yes some of these items are multi use items that once the investment is made can be used multiple times. But then there are also other ancillary costs to consider; fuel/travel costs, parking charges, lunch/refreshments. So all in all you can be looking at an investment of £400 to £500 for your first wedding fair, and then maybe £250 to £350 thereafter for future fairs.

It's a big investment, and as a small business you need to consider whether or not you can recoup the costs with sales that lead from meeting potential clients at the fair. If your product is valued over £500 per item, then this can easily be done, and with just 3 or 4 successfully made sales, you’ve not only covered your costs but made a tidy profit.

But when your product’s average purchase by clients is between £20 to £50 per sale, you would need to see 20 to 30 sales just to be in the same position as those big ticket items such as wedding dresses or venue exhibitors such as hotels. However the reality is that you don’t see that many returns versus footfall at a fair. People can be nervous and just want to look but feel if they stop and chat they’ll be talked into buying something and get the hard sell. As an introvert myself i fully understand this, but all hope isn’t lost…

Goody bags! These things are little gold mines. I myself am very fond of a goody bag. A little sack of treats, as if you’ve scavenged samples of the entire room. Details of who provided them and links to websites and social media so you can have a contact free look at the company’s products, whilst having your sticky little paws on a sample of what they make! Can you guess where this blog post is finally going?! On behalf engaged introverts among us, in 2023 you’re going to be able to find Redhill Confetti sample packs in wedding fair goody bags. The first two fairs you will find our freebie packs in are;

The Quirky Wedding Fayre, ‘The Venue on Middle Street’ Croydon, 28th January 2023

The Quirky Wedding Fayre, The Faversham, Leeds, 19th February 2023

Details for both can be found at 

https://www.quirkyweddingfayre.co.uk/

And we are currently in talks with a few other locations and events to be included in goody bags for other dates in 2023.

So there we have it, hopefully i’ve been able to give you an insight into the behind the scenes costs of wedding fairs, and if you are lucky enough to receive one of our freebies, drop us a line with what you think of it!

See you next week,

Simone

PS. 3 people didn’t like last week’s post and unfollowed us on instagram, so we’re down to 995 followers. I told you the 1000 follower mark is a magical unicorn!

#wedding fair #wedding supplier #behind the scenes

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Blog Post 13-01-23 - Know Your Worth

Now that we are well and truly into January and the year is settled in our minds and calendars, with the chaos of ‘back to work’ gone and a schedule that we are all optimistically following and hope will continue. But as we get into the swing of work days so come the enquiries where they may make you as a small business stop and think, could i do that? And more importantly, should I do that?

Even with a company such as myself with a mere 998* followers on instagram, I will get daily requests from influencers or people working at companies asking for free items in exchange for promotion or exposure. Many people have spoken out about this and that exposure does not pay the bills, but when the requests come from charities or people you know, you may sometimes feel compelled to say yes to something that if a stranger was asking, the answer would be no.

A big pretence that a lot of these requests will start with will be wanting to ‘support local/small businesses’, piling on not a guilt trip of such, but leaning strongly towards heavily discounting your price for the sake of local promotion. But where will it get you? In the past I have agreed to these ‘at cost’ pricings for wholesale quantities, but all it has resulted in is further companies in the same industry coming looking for the same deal. If the end user gets the product, will the ‘exposure’ lead to an increase in turnover? Unless it's a product each and every single recipient actually wants more of, then no.

But I can also remember what it's like from the other side, from the corporate side where you are tasked with creating a product with as little budget as possible, even when the company you work for is part of a multi million (sometimes billion) pound industry leader. The kind of company that answers to shareholders more than staff, and any ‘goody bags’ at staff events will end up in one of two places; the bottom of their desk drawer or handed over to their spouse/kids/housemates when they return home.

Since the start of the year (mere 12 days!) I've had three enquiries for a sizable quantity of products, even to compile complete ‘goody bags’ for one particular company. All three enquiries started with carefully worded emails where a strong emphasis was on ‘budget friendly’ and ‘mass exposure to a large market’, but once costings were compiled and quotes were sent out, a sense of indignant shock was met with each one that i would be so crude as to charge them for my time and my work, and even more shocking; to make a profit (how dare i?!).

So let's look at the breakdown of such a ‘goody bag’. What it would have been is a small gift box, with a selection of my own handmade products inside, plus wholesale sourced items such as cookies and chocolate. Each would have an internal wrap of tissue paper, with shredded tissue to pad it out and prevent breakage. It would include my business card, a flyer from the customer (which i would have to print). It would be sealed with a branded pre-printed security seal, and have a custom printed sticker on the top of the box, with a final touch of satin ribbon tied around the outside of the box in a coordinating colour to match the client’s corporate colour scheme. These supplies would have to be sourced from 5 different online suppliers, plus involve in-person sourcing from wholesalers. The total time to create 100 of these boxes would be 15 hours of my time. When all net costs were worked out, the price quoted heavily favoured as the client was one i knew of and had dealt with when i was still in the corporate world, but meant that just the raw product materials would equate to 80% of the final cost price. That remaining 20% not only had to cover my own hourly wage, but also profit and overheads. That 20% was £1.20 per unit meaning that for the whole job over the course of almost three days work, would mean my take home amount was £120.00 for my time, overheads, and my profit.

That’s £8 per hour pay for me if i don’t count overheads or profit. Less than minimum wage, and certainly way below a livable wage. And profit was nowhere to be seen. And yet the client was horrified that I suggested charging £5 per goody bag. This client has an annual turnover over £400 million pounds a year, but yet baulked at paying £5 to a small company to individually hand make gift boxes for their staff. And was the third such company in the last two weeks to have had the same response.

This attitude towards small companies is one of the many reasons why I left the corporate world. I knew my worth, but I also knew the worth of the small companies, where the individuals put in considerably more than 40 hours a week. The big companies do not value their employees, even to the point of spending a fiver on each member of staff to say thanks for their continued servitude.

So, as I wrap up this week's blog post, which may have surprised those reading it with the subject matter, I know what my time and work is worth, I know that I can provide a quality product to a standardI would be happy to receive myself. And I know that I am putting the price of my corporate goody boxes up to £6.50, because I too would like to turn a profit, although maybe it’ll take a few more accepted quotations to get to a £400 million annual turnover just yet.

Stay true to yourselves,

Simone

*i think the magical 1000 followers on Instagram is like a magical unicorn, maybe one day i'll see it if i believe enough!

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💐Wildflower Meadow Seed Paper.💐

Lots of packs being assembled, these ones are heading out for a wedding fair goody bag for @quirkyweddingfayre in Croydon on 28th January and Leeds on 19th February. These little favour packs will also be added to our Etsy shop later this week so you can buy favours ready assembled.

Bulk bags will also still be available as always.

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Let us know where you'd like to see us!

#market #farmersmarket #ecofair #ecoliving #sustainable #valentines #valentinesday #mothersday #redhill #redhillbusiness #reigate #reigatebusiness #reigatemums #surrey #surreyhills #croydon #caterham #horley #westsussex #eastgrinstead

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Blog Post 06-01-23

Confetti

Well, another week has come and gone, and as the working hours of Friday float away, my mind goes to think of Confetti fluttering on the wind.

The act of throwing confetti comes from Northern Italy in the middle ages, however it was far from pleasant, with anything from old leaves to rotten eggs launched at noble folk as they made their way through town. Over time this changed to the nobles tossing small sweets from their carriages at the common folk, many of which were Sugared Almonds or Coriander Seeds. The almonds are known as ‘Confetti’, and this is how the name came to be. In the late 1800s the first recorded instance of throwing paper confetti came into place in Paris on New Years Eve, and from there the tradition of throwing paper confetti during a celebration stuck.

Confetti is what started it all for Redhill Confetti. Ten years ago when I was planning my own wedding, I knew I wanted a vintage style theme for decor and such, and having seen some mass produced paper confetti online for a considerable price I knew I could not only make it myself, but do it much more economically. So armed with an old romance novel and a heart shaped hole punch, I spent many an evening in the run up to our big day simply punching paper hearts out of the torn sheets of the novel.

With the wedding over and the honeymoon a long and distant memory, we were still left with a large box of confetti, and rather than throw it away I bagged it up and put it on Ebay. Within a couple of days it had all sold, with people messaging me to ask if I had any more. An idea formed in the back of our minds and at that point the starting blocks of Redhill Confetti were set into place.

Our very first made-to-order product was actually Fifty Shades of Grey confetti, with the book series at the height of its popularity, people loved the idea of delicate small paper hearts fluttering down around them, only for Great Aunt Maud to spot a rather salacious word or two as they settle. With all our copies sourced second hand from charity shops or just given to us where people had heard of us through word of mouth, for a good 18 months we were inundated with those books, before expanding into other titles with everything from fairy tales to golf manuals. Sheet music was another very popular design, with this being very easy to get hold of and always looked beautiful with its aged paper.

When the time came to start a family, the business had been quietly ticking by in the background and in the summer of 2014 I quit my full time job as a logistics coordinator and made a go of the business full time. At the same time I discovered I was pregnant, and in a huge leap of faith I stuck to my plans and finished at the shipping company to work full time in the wedding business. This was by far the scariest but also the best decision I have ever made. With the time and clarity that came with that resignation, I was able to source a UK manufacturer for our Seed Paper, and found the oldest mechanised papermill in the world right here in the South of England.

The seed paper confetti was a huge hit. Handmade from recycled paper pulp, with wildflower seeds actually in the fibres of the paper, we soon found this product so popular we were sourcing at wholesale levels, all whilst hand punching every single piece individually. It certainly gives our arms a workout, though we haven’t yet considered any arm wrestling tournaments.

In 2018 we were offered the chance to stock Forget-me-not seed paper in addition to the wildflower, which has become very well known in the Funeral trade, with the idea of planting new life whilst remembering those that have passed being a timely reminder of how much we miss our loved ones. We now supply numerous charities and NHS Trusts with these seed paper shapes so they can include these small tokens in memorial boxes.

Throughout the pandemic with the restrictions in place for gatherings, many people came to us for seed paper memorial pieces, and I can now imagine there is a new crop of flowering blooms that appear in the memory of those no longer with us.

Now with the pandemic a long way behind us (hopefully), I look to the future to where we can develop confetti supply and what we can offer. At the tail end of 2022 I was lucky enough to be contacted by a local family whose music teacher Aunt had passed away after over 70 years of teaching piano to local families, and with that had amassed a huge collection of sheet music. They were going to simply send the whole lot to the recycling centre before someone put them in touch with me, and three full car loads later my workshop is now full floor to ceiling with music books dating back to the 1930s. With this we are looking to ramp up production of sheet music confetti, with new cutting tools arriving this week.

Well that’s it for another week, the new year settles into place with lots of exciting new things in the works for 2023.

Enjoy your weekends!

Simone

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Blog Post 31-12-22

A Year in Review 2022

As i sit here on the final day of 2022 to reflect on the past 12 months, i feel a little trepidation at the thought of starting a new challenge for myself in a year that was hard to get through.

When we came out of the pandemic there was a cautious hopefulness in a lot of small businesses about what 2022 may hold. We entered the marketplace again after two very tough years where many of our contemporaries were no longer there, whether succumbing to illness or the business not able to last multiple lockdowns, restrictions and even Brexit. Those of us still trading were thankful for every single customer and sale, for the support we received from friends, family and even strangers.

As the Winter months moved into Spring we started to see that the trend of wedding supply requests were slower than we’d traditionally seen, so we added more effort into a side enterprise we’d started in 2021; our Redhill Collectables vintage store.

We already had a brilliant network of house clearance businesses and thrift shops that would come to us with materials such as vintage papers which we’d use for wedding decor, but as disposal fees increased for them, we looked into taking more products off their hands, sorting, mending, and offering these items through our Redhill Collectables ebay store. This gave us the financial stability to continue to offer wedding supplies to those customers that were still looking to add a small sprinkle of magic to their special day.

In April i had been due to have an operation that would have changed my life and health for the better but was also major surgery, a procedure that took a lot of emotional and mental preparation. Just 24 hours before i was due to have surgery the operation was cancelled as the anaesthetists did not deem it safe for me to proceed with the operation.

When the warmer summer months encroached, the wedding season finally kicked off, with our home grown petal confetti being incredibly popular, as was our seed paper confetti. But with that I also had to deal with the mental aftermath of having my operation permanently cancelled. I took a step back from social media and it was with the help and support of my family that I worked through the feelings I was left with. One of the first ‘rules’ of business is to never let on if you’re struggling, but to be battling depression at the same time as trying to run a business and keep our heads above water financially was exhausting. When you’re self employed you don’t have the option to go and see HR, its you and just you, though i am forever thankful for the support those closest to me gave.

With the heat and chaos of summer giving way to the cooler Autumn months, the true toll of the Cost of Living Crisis took hold and became a firm realisation that the only way i was going to make it through the rest of the year is to increase my hours and to also make big changes. When i’d been sorting through some old boxes i’d stumbled upon a business projection plan i’d optimistically written in late 2019. The ‘goal’ was to increase turnover, slim down our product lines, and with careful planning and promotion get to the point where we could invest in a small electric vehicle to use for local deliveries and errands. The most shocking part of the projected numbers was as of October 2022 we were at that increased point financially, but every single ‘spare’ penny was now simply going towards household bills and groceries, and supplimenting any increases in courier costs as we started to have to work around the Royal Mail strike action.

By the end of November 2022 I was regularly putting in 70 hour weeks. This was obviously not sustainable whilst trying to be a parent, wife, and run a household too, and was the final deciding factor in the direction i wanted to head in for 2023. Now having had a couple of weeks to rest and recharge, i'm looking forward to how i plan to develop the products and services that Redhill Confetti offers, with more focus on weddings rather than generic crafts. Our vintage side of things will continue with Redhill Collectables, and for us to become fully focused on reducing waste and recycling.

Finally, the 'challenge' that i alluded to at the very start of this is my aim for 2023 to write a blog post weekly. This will hopefully be an insight into running a small business, the highs and lows, and a behind the scenes look.

Happy New Year!

Simone

X

#business blog #redhill confetti

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We have been approved to become a @sassandbelle stockist for 2023!

I've absolutely loved the brand of Sass and Belle for years, and for a long time have been looking at expanding the range of products we offer. As 2022 has drawn to a close i've been working behind the scenes to source products that are ethically made, encourage recycled materials, and suit the Redhill Confetti brand and what we already offer. Over the coming months new products will be integrated alongside our wedding and craft ranges. Watch this space for a full introduction to our new range!

#2023 #newproducts #sassandbelle

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🎄 Its just 15 days until Christmas eve and we are happily getting gifts out to everyone! 🎄 We have made sure our delivery elves aren't on strike, and have 2 dispatches a day to ensure orders get out as quickly as possible! 🎄

Please support the small businesses this Christmas, we have no plans to fly into space, we just want to heat our houses and spend time with our loved ones 🎄

#christmas2022countdown #Christmas #christmas2022 #smallbusiness #smallbusinessuk #redhill #reigate #reigatemums #reigatebusiness #redhillbusiness #surrey #surreymummy #surreymums

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🎄 Delivery Announcement 🎄

Today didn't start out well, and to be honest it only got worse. By 3pm i'd had reports of 8 lost parcels, many of which were sent weeks ago and my customers had been very patient awaiting for them to arrive but to no avail. So i've now made the difficult decision to remove Royal Mail as a postage option for all domestic UK shipments.

I had already moved all parcel deliveries to Yodel who have proven so far 🤞 to be very reliable, and so have decided to move the letter sized dispatches to them as well. However there is a small cost increase. Overall the price difference is £1.50 per parcel more, however i have made the decision to absorb 50% of that increase and only raise prices by 75p for my customers. Minimum shipping cost is now £2. This is still considerably less than Royal Mail's cheapest trackable service though, and generally orders are reaching their recipents within 3-5 working days, which is 5 days quicker than RM quote for 2nd class deliveries.

I do fully support the workers at Royal Mail, they do need to earn a livable wage and am pleased their union is doing what they can to fight for their rights, but i also have a small business myself and need to make sure i also earn a livable wage, but if i have to keep losing on shipments that are lost, its not a feasible decision to stay with them.

Now to get back to work; the little one is off school sick, and the suspension has just gone on my car, so i'll be burning the midnight oil just to try and claw back some work hours and pay for yet another unexpected bill 🥺😭

[redhillconfetti]

🎄 As payday is a little way off yet for a lot of people, in order to try and beat the mail delays and get things sent out earlier, we've snuck in a cheeky sale across the whole of our Etsy shop! 🎄

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✨️ BLACK FRIDAY NAH! RAINBOW WEEKEND YES! ✨️

20% OFF EVERYTHING IN OUR ETSY SHOP ALL WEEKEND, SALE STARTS NOW! ✨️

#blackfriday #blackfridaysale #antiblackfriday #smallbusiness #smallbusinessuk #Christmas #shoplocal #shopsmallthischristmas #shopecofriendly #redhill #redhillbusiness #reigate #reigatemums #surrey #surreyhills #surreymums #surreymummy #brights #brighton #vintage #vintagechristmas

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✨️ Shop Local ✨️ Shop Eco ✨️ Shop Small ✨️

#stopmotion #stopmotionanimation #thiswasharderthanitlooks #shoplocal #shopeco #shopecofriendly #ShopSmall #shopsmallbusiness #shopsmallthischristmas #blackfriday #antiblackfriday

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🌲 Christmas Tree Herb Seed Paper 🌲

I am so pleased to finally be able to launch this limited edition seed paper, containing Parsley, Basil, Rocket (Arugula) and Dill seeds!

All packed up in our NEW style plastic free packaging, these are a perfect Christmas gift for any budding gardener!

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