Blog
Ten Lessons I Learnt from Running my Small Business
I first launched my creative blog back in April 2015, but it took me a further two and a half years to pluck up the courage to actually start selling my own products. In the five years that have followed, I’ve learned a LOT, some of it good, some of it bad.Since making the decision to shut my business for a minimum of six months, there has been so much reflection, and often I’ve been beating myself about some of the decisions I’ve made. I wanted to write a blog post to share some of those lessons with you, because I’m often asked what it’s like running a small business, and in all honesty, I wish I’d known some of this early on in my small business journey. I hope you find it useful!
Reflections on 2022, and an Update for 2023
It feels like I've been saying this for the past 5 years, but what a year that was! 2022 felt like a huge rollercoaster, both personally and for Nurture and Cheer. Selling online last year was incredibly tough. Supply chain issues, raising prices, a cost of living crisis, and then a whole load of postal strikes during what is traditionally my busiest period. There were some good points, I launched new items and returned to my first in-person markets in over 2 and a half years, but overall I ended the year feeling pretty flat. I launched my first solo...
Becoming Nurture and Cheer: What's in a Name?
In November 2019 I rebranded my business, moving from Em Makes and Bakes to Nurture and Cheer. Seven months on, and I thought it was about time I explained a little more behind my decision to rename!
Ikea Latt Table Hack: Geometric Makeover
Throughout pregnancy, I came up with a list in my head of all the things that I wanted to make for H. Some of them never happened (the personalised birthday t-shirt was a good intention, but there was also a cake to be made), others actually turned out to be quite successful (the handmade baby book), and there’s others that I mulled over for far too long, the Ikea Latt table hack definitely falls into this last category. It probably doesn’t help that it’s then taken me over 9 months to actually write up this post too! Along with the...
Ditching the Disposables: An Honest Guide to Cloth Nappies
I couldn’t let Real Nappy Week pass without a blog post dedicated to cloth bums. It was about this time last year (probably Real Nappy Week 2018!) that I began to look into using reusable nappies for H. I’d first considered them when I was pregnant but (wrongly) assumed that I’d struggle as I didn’t have a tumble drier. For the first 7 months or so of H’s life, she was in disposables. I started off with a well-known brand of nappies, and then made the switch to eco-disposables when she was around three months old. I know there are...