Let’s Talk Shop

In this episode, I Talk Shop Alice Mayor from We Built This City, an independent shop in Carnaby street in London. We Built This City was started as a pop-up out of a desire to help artists sell their work and 5 years in, they stock 250 artists and has recently moved into a large corner unit in the opposite end to Liberty In the iconic West End. Alice and I spoke about: -How it all started and the...

In this episode, I Talk Shop with Vicky Simmons from Mean Mail. Vicky designs really fun and witty cards and retails them both on her website and through stockists up and down the country. She’s stocked by Papersmith, Liberty, and Conran and I just love how honest and real her cards are. Vicky and I spoke about: - Vicky’s background and how Mean Mail started - Challenges of running your own busine...

In this episode, I talk shop with Sidonie Warren, one of the founders of Papersmiths. Papersmiths is a small chain of stationery stores with a highly curated and beautiful range. Sidonie and Kyle started Papersmiths with just £500 and now has 5 stores in Brighton, Bristol and London. During our chat we spoke about: - The Papersmith Story and how it all began  - The challenges of growing an indepen...

In this episode, I talk shop with Megan Jones, founder of Curated Makers. Curated Makers organise pop-ups in national retailers to champion Northern makers on the high street. Bringing small businesses and maker that are local to the city into high street stores and disrupting how we normally shop. Megan is so passionate about helping all the talented small business owners out there and we spoke a...

In this episode I Talk Shop with Jen Beby, founder of Join, a sustainable home fragrance company that I came across whilst working in South East London at Thames Side Studios. I really admire how Jen is building a conscious, ethical and sustainable brand first. In this episode we chat about: - How and why Join came to be - What it means to be a sustainable brand and what challenges come with it -...

In this episode I Talk Shop with Catherine Erdly from Future Retail, Catherine is a business strategist who help business owners get more organised, feel more confident and make more money. Me and Catherine are both co-editors over on the Small and Mighty Co blog and we work together with some joint clients helping them grow their businesses. In this episode Catherine and I talk about: - How to cr...

In this episode, I talk shop with Molly Park who is the head of design of home and gifts at Oliver Bonas who now have over 70 stores across the UK. I love how Oliver Bonas has grown from just one independent store to a chain of stores that still manages to retain that same quirkiness and fun that the first store had back in 1993. In this episode Molly and I talk about: - The creative process at Ol...

In this episode I talk shop with Beth Austin owner and buyer of Vinegar Hill, a chain of 11 independent gift, fashion and lifestyle stores. Vinegar Hill is a real family affair with Beth, her sister, her brother and sister in law all working in the business. I love how passionate Beth is about the industry and how all the Vinegar Hill stores have their own personality. What Beth and I spoke about...

This episode I chat with Kelly Jennings, owner of Bookish and Bakewell, a gift company who make great gifts for all the book lovers out there. I loved chatting with Kelly, there were lots of laughs and I had so much fun. Kelly started wholesaling her range of pins, stickers and more last year and we chatted about: - Building a business and the flexibility it gives you and the challenges it comes w...

My next guest is Henri Davis, retail consultant and deputy chairman of the giftware association. With 30 years of experience in the retail industry, Henri has a wealth of knowledge and experience to share and I was so happy that she agreed to be a guest on my podcast. In this episode Henri and talk about: - The tough retail climate and the importance of continuing to innovate to stay in business....

 I’m so excited to share this first episode of Let’s Talk Shop with you and I hope you will enjoy listening. In this small business podcast series I will be chatting to guests from different parts of the home and gift industry, buyers, shop keepers, brand owners and industry experts all to hopefully start a conversation and inspire others to just go for it and to do my little bit in bridging that...

Let’s Talk Shop, a weekly podcast filled with business stories and practical advice from shop and brand owners, buyers and professionals in the Home and Gift industry. Hosted by me, Therese from the Small Business Collaborative. The first season launch this summer. Follow me on Instagram @small_business_collaborative and join my free Facebook group, Let's Talk - Wholesale.