Mum working on her franchising

Taylor’d Bundles – A Gift Business

Tell us your name and a bit about your family? When did you become a Mum and to whom?

My name is Caz Taylor and I’m the owner and founder of Taylor’d Bundles. I became a Mum for the first time on 1st July 2011 to the lovely Florence and it was over the days after her arrival that the idea for Taylor’d Bundles came to me. Since then, we have also welcomed another little bundle to the family called Elliott who has only recently turned 1. I’m married to a wonderful man called James and we all live in our cottage in Hampton Hill.

What’s your business called?

My business is called Taylor’d Bundles – the name is a bit of a play of words (and spelling) as each of the gift sets we create, are all curated by myself and have the ability to be personalised in a variety of ways.

Can you describe it in one sentence?

Taylor’d Bundles is a maternity gifting service that offers our customers bespoke gifts sets to help mark and celebrate new Mums and baby’s safe arrival, all of which are created and delivered within 7 working days or less.

When did you become a Mumpreneur and what inspired you?

Over the years, I had organised many maternity leave gifts for colleagues, friends, family and clients. What was available was becoming all too predictable and not personal enough, I was always looking for a gift that was to be remembered for all the right reasons but felt that was available was becoming a little too predictable and wasn’t going to make the impression we were after. So when we received a vast range of beautiful handmade and personalised gifts to celebrate Florence’s safe arrival, my mind was opened up to a world of bespoke and truly thoughtful gifts that got me thinking about creating a business that offered exactly that. Gifts that went that extra mile, that genuinely showed thought, effort and love that no one else would own. It took me 2 years to find the right makers, products and to create processes that would ensure we could offer gifts with a short turn around time, not the long lead times that are normally associated with quality handmade gifts. Bundles began to be sold and the overwhelming positive feedback and sales made me think that it was time to leave the day job, and go it alone so on the 1st May 2014, the website went live and bundles were to be sold in 2 locals shops too. 2 years on the business is going great guns, we are growing year on year, we have a wealth of large corporates we work alongside creating it maternity gifts for and we have a 3 year plan that looks very exciting and can’t wait to see whether the plans take us.

How did you fund your start up?

During the 2 years it took for me to find the right makers and products, I saved to fund the business and marketing myself. I’m in a fortunate position to own the business outright and as I’m surrounded by Accountants (Dad and Husband), my accounts are kept a close eye on which has also enabled me to plan within my limits.

How do you manage working around your children?

I tend to work and plan in the evening and weekends but a lot of my social media is planned in advance to cover me when days are busy or when I’m out with the kids or at meetings. I also have a very supportive family and friend network too who help out too.
Can you describe a typical day, what tasks do you have to get done, how do you manage your time?
As soon as I wake up I check social media and email and then make my list for the day for anything that needs to be responded too ASAP. When Elliott takes his naps during the day, I spend these hours checking orders, fulfilling orders, ordering and managing stock and talking with the collaborators about plans and their businesses too. I have a monthly plan of what I plan to promote and talk about and like to actively support my collaborators in all they do too. Once the kids are in bed, I finish anything off that’s left to do from the day and spend a lot of the evening searching the Internet for more makers, events and fill my planner with new ideas and projects for the coming months. I truly love what I do, and very rarely does it feel like a chore working on Taylor’d Bundles – the makers, the products, the feedback, the customers, they all keep me highly motivated which I feel incredibly grateful for every single day.

What challenges have you faced in your business and how have you overcome them?

The unpredictability of sales was a struggle at the beginning meant one month I would be sending out hundreds of bundles, when another I may be sending out less than one hundred. The business costs me a certain amount each month, so for the first year, it was the priority to ensure that the business didn’t cost me anything to run so it was when I was approached by a large corporate to pitch for their maternity gifts, this opened up the answer to my problem. We now work with a large range of corporates organising their maternity leave gifts for their staff and clients so now I can forecast stock accurately and love the fact I am offering a solution to the issue that I had when I organised gifts such as these myself.

What’s the best thing about being Mumpreneur?

Working your socks off and directly reaping the rewards. Sharing wonderful feedback with the collaborators who created the gifts is so brilliant and to be able to directly support the design talent we have in the UK is a great feeling.

What are your plans for the future?

We have a 2 huge projects for 2017 that we are working on at the moment that will help grow the business enormously. Whilst I can’t say anymore than that, what I can say is there will be be more products, makers and collaborations for the business that I’m so excited about. Watch this space…

What advice would you give for someone just starting out in business?

Create a business that you have a genuine interest in and use any existing skills you have as much as you can, in as much as you can. Your experience helps to drive you when times are hard.

www.taylordbundles.co.uk
www.instagram.com/taylordbundles
www.facebook.com/taylordbundles
www.twitter.com/tayl0rdbundles

 

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