Small Enterprise sat down with Ruby Friel, founding father of Nonetheless Life, one of many three winners of the Small Enterprise x Sage pop-up store competitors.
The successful companies have been chosen by our professional panel to occupy a pop-up store area in Edinburgh’s St James Quarter through the festive interval.
Nonetheless Life focuses on well-made merchandise that always use pure supplies and native assets.
A former florist and product designer, Ruby has travelled the world for inspiration, exploring unbiased boutiques to supply Nonetheless Life’s merchandise.
Ruby opened up the store in March 2020 when she was on maternity go away along with her daughter, Edie. Now she’s joined by Luca, an artist and creator, and Rebecca, a florist. They intention to offer a pleasant, welcoming and inclusive procuring expertise.
Inform us extra about you and your online business
I’m Ruby and I’m from Nonetheless Life. We’re a homewares and life-style retailer in Stockport. We promote design-led homewares and life-style merchandise from manufacturers the world over. We additionally champion small native music makers.
What made you need to enter the competitors?
Now we have needed to do a pop-up for fairly a very long time. Once I noticed the competitors, I assumed, ‘Sensible, this can be a nice strategy to trial it with some help.’ I simply needed to see what the enterprise was able to with the next footfall. I need to broaden sooner or later, and it provides me slightly little bit of an perception into what could be a good suggestion to broaden into or the way to develop.
How did you’re feeling concerning the pop-up being in Edinburgh?
Considered one of my employees, Rebecca, loves Edinburgh. It was sensible as a result of she’s going to be the one doing it. That’s good. She’d additionally been to the centre, and she or he mentioned that it was a extremely, very nice place to do it. It’s only a lovely place to come back. So yeah, pleased!
What does the win imply to you?
It was very nice to have the popularity. I feel somebody from Sage mentioned that Nonetheless Life was an attention-grabbing model with attention-grabbing advertising and good potential to scale. That was a extremely, very nice praise to listen to.
To know that my employees are going to get a deal with as effectively, which goes to Edinburgh for per week. So yeah, actually good.
What are the primary takeaways you hope to get from the occasion?
The primary issues which can be good for us to get out of it are hopefully some gross sales, clearly. However then seeing what the enterprise is able to in an space of upper footfall, but in addition seeing how individuals react to that. The place we’re, and the form of store that we’re, we entice a really particular buyer. Are we industrial sufficient to be in an space the place there’s a lot of several types of prospects round? It’s a extremely good studying alternative from that perspective.
Why do you assume it’s necessary for manufacturers like Sage and Small Enterprise to champion small companies?
I feel it’s actually necessary for larger corporations that work with small corporations to work together and discuss to one another about what works for both facet in order that each either side can get their mannequin and their communication with one another actually easy and helpful to one another.
But in addition, as a small enterprise, you’re all the time going to must work with some massive corporations as effectively. And simply to know that they recognise what you might be they usually see for what you might be, they usually perceive your online business is de facto useful. The issues that they do or say or the way in which they strategy you, they’re approaching it with some information quite than only a company massive enterprise form of mindset.
Extra on the Sage pop-up store competitors
Sage pop-up store winner #1 – Kirsty Fergusson, GET IT GRL – Kirsty Fergusson, founding father of personalised present and girls’s put on model, GET IT GRL, talks to Small Enterprise about her pop-up store win
Sage pop-up store winner #3 – Pete Allison, Woven Whisky – Pete Allison, co-founder of blended whisky agency, Woven Whisky, talks to Small Enterprise about their pop-up store win
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