Gift Focus inc Attire Accessories - July/August 2020

93 UP AND COMING For more information call +44 (0)7855 740 716 or visit www.myhappyjournal.com fingers will not spoil them! A trip to the bottom of the garden and the odd mud cake will not render them useless, a heavy hand or thick pen will not mean the other pages are illegible. Has the current economic climate affected yourself as a start-up? I am by nature extremely cautious so take most business decisions slowly, we can only manufacture new things or buy stock when we have the funds available. We have no loans or massive business overheads so when I want to do something new, I freelance at the weekends to feed the journal (for now anyway). Ironically, the thing that has affected us this year was the fact we didn’t have enough stock at the start of the lockdown! I was too cautious at Christmas 2019 and didn’t order enough stock to fill the demand spike from the COVID -19 lockdown. It has made me slightly more willing to take small risks in the future and it did mean we designed a hybrid edition special for Stay at Home, so every cloud has a silver lining. Are you planning on expanding into other product areas? I am keen to investigate all things which aid children’s mental health, creativity, and family connection. How do you market your business? Do you attend any trade shows? The London Stationery Show will be my first ‘proper’ trade show and I’m so excited. I have only done local markets and fairs up until now. We market on our website www.myhappyjournal.com, Facebook, and Instagram and I’m working on our SEO – another black art I’m learning! What’s your proudest achievement to date? Oh gosh – where to start! I try to celebrate all the little wins as it can feel like two steps forward, three steps back in business. I was utterly delirious the day the journal arrived on a massive lorry and it was a proper book. Unloading pallets filled with My Happy Journal was so surreal. I feel emotional and grateful every time I get an email from a parent saying how much their small person enjoys the journal or it has helped them bond or communicate more. I nearly fell off my chair when I received the email from the London Stationery show saying we had won a stand as part of Launchpad. I screamed so loudly the kids thought I was hurt. That was pretty huge for me – not the screaming, the winning a stand opportunity! It made me feel that we are real, a proper product and the most amazingly talented judges with global stationery companies liked our product.