Small Business Spotlight: Tilly and the Buttons
Tilly creates
easy to follow guides to sewing your own clothes, designed for those who have always wanted to give dressmaking a go but don’t know where to start. She started by blogging her ideas and patterns to inspire others to pick up a needle and thread. Now she also offers sewing workshops and has just published her first book.
We caught up with Tilly about her growing business success…
What have been your greatest successes?
It was an amazing feeling seeing my book
Love at First Stitchin print
. I worked so hard putting it together, although I loved every minute of it. The reviews have been wonderful to read, and it’s great to see its success in the non-fiction book charts. Most of all I love seeing all the gorgeous clothes that people around the world are making with my patterns!
What advice would you give to other small businesses thinking of taking the plunge and creating a start-up?
Start by testing out your idea on a small scale to see if there’s a market for it. That way you can get customer feedback and refine your offering. You can also start getting the word out without the need for too much time out of your day job or investment upfront. I started out selling patterns as PDF downloads to test the waters. When each design started selling thousands of copies I knew it was time to invest in printing!
When did you start using PayPal Here?
I began using
PayPal Here earlier this year at the
Makegood Festival. Some of my blog readers came along to buy my patterns and books from me in person, and I also got to sell to lots of new customers who were just passing by. It’s events like these when PayPal Here is really useful, as it allows me to take card payments from face to face customers who might not be carrying cash.
Has PayPal Here helped your business?
It’s great to be able to offer customers the option to pay by card, as not everyone likes carrying loads of cash around at craft fairs and pop-up events. I definitely get extra sales from it. It’s good I don’t have to ask people to go and find a cash point when they want to buy something, especially if it is an impulse purchase. A lot of my business is online, but it’s great to be able to get out and about at events and meet my customers too, and PayPal Here has really helped with that.
Imogen Howat