Shownotes
Do you need prior business experience to build a successful product business? No.
Today's guest is proof of that. Sarah Dixon Dale, a self-made entrepreneur and owner of the fast-growing lifestyle brand Bombaby, was a secondary school teacher who decided to launch own product business specialising in handmade block print bedding and accessories.
A teacher for two decades, Sarah dived into the world of ecommerce nearly three years ago now with absolutely ZERO business experience - she'd never even filed a tax return and didn't know what SEO stood for - but my business is now VAT registered, has a strong online presence, and is working with many well-known influencers. Bombaby designs, make and import beautiful block print bedding, artisan made homewares and luxury boho fashion from Jaipur, India. Everything is designed in leafy Rutland but handmade by my teams in India.
Sarah shares the complexities of importing goods from India, emphasising the importance of building strong relationships with her suppliers and maintaining creative control over her products.
Sarah explains how upskilling in areas like marketing and design has contributed to her success and independence. We also discuss the very real challenges of balancing a demanding job like teaching with growing a successful ecommerce brand, a positive mindset has been key!
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Transcripts
Welcome to the bring your product idea to Life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products or if you'd like to create your own product to sell.
I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly, practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses. Let's get started.
Hello and welcome to bring your product idea to life. Today I am speaking with Sarah Dixon Dale from Bombaby. Sarah introduces herself as a self made entrepreneur with a fast growing ecom lifestyle brand.
Sarah's been a teacher for two decades and she dived into the world of e commerce nearly three years ago. Now with absolutely zero business experience, her business is now VAT registered.
She has a strong online presence, she works with many well known influencers and she has huge ambitions for the brand as you're going to hear. So what Sarah does is designs, makes and imports beautiful block print bedding, artisan homeware, luxury Boho fashion, all from Jaipur in India.
Everything is designed by Sarah in Rutland and handmade by her team in India. Sarah has a lot of joy and passion for her business, as you'll discover.
We spoke a lot about how to work with teams overseas as well as everything that encompasses starting and running a small business. And I think you're going to find Sarah really interesting and inspiring to listen to. Listen to. And I should also say, if you'd. Like to see Sarah as well as.
Listen, do not forget that bring your product idea to life is on YouTube. You can watch videos of all of our episodes.
So if you would prefer to consume the podcast there, just go to my YouTube channel which is Vicki Weinberg and linked as always in the show notes for this episode. So hi Sarah, thank you so much for being here.
Sarah Dixon Dale:Absolute pleasure. Very excited to speak to you.
Vicki Weinberg:Well, me too. Can we start with you please? Giving an introduction to yourself, your business and what you sell.
Sarah Dixon Dale:Okay, so my name's Sarah and I'm the owner of Bombaby, which is an e comm product based business which I started nearly three years ago now. And I sell beautiful handmade block print bedding, accessories and even some really, really cool boho clothing that's come in recently.
And I design it all in the UK and my amazing team in India makes it for me. And yeah, it's coming up for three years.
It's been a wild ride so far and I'm doing my utmost best to scale this business so I am seen as a brand leader and a strong competitor out there on the market. So I'm slogging my guts out.
Vicki Weinberg:That is all so exciting and I have so many follow up questions. Sarah, I'm going to start right at the beginning, which is when? Why? How did you start? I'd love to know.
Sarah Dixon Dale:Okay. It's quite a complex answer, and I'm sure it is for most people.
It's not a case that I just woke up one day and I thought, right, I need a big change in my life. If you didn't know, I'm actually a secondary school english teacher. That's my day job and I've been doing that for two decades and I love it.
It's my vocation in life. I'm also a safeguarding officer at the school I work at as well. So child protection is hugely important to me.
But I think it was in that lull after lockdown where so many of us were reassessing our lives and the direction that we were going in, that I think perhaps we were all a little more vulnerable to and open to different routes and directions in our life that possibly, if it weren't for Covid, I wouldn't be where I am now. So I think a very stressful stretch of teachings through lockdown did have me thinking about my time spent with my own children and my family.
And my youngest daughter has additional needs. And the older she gets, the more we need to support her. Now, my husband also has a very, very big and busy job.
So one of us needed to take a step back a little from the teaching world. We're both teachers. And it was a situation I'd never been in before.
I'd been plowing full steam ahead with a career in teaching with deputy head pastoral on my mind for my next step. And I realized that we couldn't both do it. My husband couldn't do what he wanted to do, and I couldn't at the same time.
And we'd always made that decision that the first person to get there essentially could go for it and the other person would support. And he got there before me. I could talk at length about women and the limitations imposed on us by society, but that is the harsh reality.
But I'm not somebody that can sit still. I never have been able to. And I knew that I needed something for me. So I pulled back a little from teaching.
I was going part time, but I just felt a bit of a void. And I needed some creativity. I wanted something for me. I've never been my own boss, ever. Now, I've always been a hustler.
I've always had things going on, on the side, whether that's eBay vintage, I've always had little projects going on. I love keeping busy. And I was actually approached by somebody on Instagram selling block print quilts from India.
It was actually a pair of women from Delhi. And I admired the fact that during lockdown, too, they were showing such entrepreneurial skills and reaching out.
And I was initially going to buy one or two quilts from them for myself. And they said, would you be interested in wholesale? And I thought, do you know what? If anyone can flip anything, I can, it's me.
So I thought, I'll give this a go. So I ransacked around and I found a thousand pounds that I had in one of those online app savings accounts that I'd completely forgotten about.
And with that thousand pounds, I placed an order of which most of that was freight, by the way, freight and customs when importing. Wow, that was a steep learning curve. And from there, I just discovered this whole new world that I never even knew existed.
So that was the starting point. A combination of factors in my own life, a desire for change and a chance encounter. And that's really what started it all.
Vicki Weinberg:That is amazing. And, yeah, I was going to ask how you found a supplier, but it sounds like they found you.
Sarah Dixon Dale:Well, they did initially. And what I would say is that finding suppliers in India from afar is one of the most niche things that you can do.
Most people will want to get on a plane and go out and meet people, but I didn't have that option. I've got young children, I've got a job as well, so I'm really limited with how much travel I can do. So I didn't have that available to me.
So I just started reaching out, making contact with people. It's not difficult to find suppliers if you start using your common sense. Look at competitors and who's following them on Instagram.
Who are they commenting on Instagram? It's not hard to find people. And what I would say with the block print sellers, there's a lot of gatekeeping there.
People are very secretive about who their suppliers are. I'm very open on my Instagram page. I want to empower as many other women as possible.
I want to give people support and advice and all the gatekeeping out there and the sort of whispered conversations, I find that peculiar because we should all be supporting each other. But it does take a nose for these things.
And the women that approached me initially, I don't work with any longer, and I have sought out suppliers for different things within my business. So I have one supplier that makes my beautiful king size quilts. I have a different supplier that makes my mother of pearl.
I have a different supplier that makes my children's quilts and my accessories and my bags because they are their strengths for each of those suppliers.
And I quickly learned, even though I have zero business experience at all, that actions, I've established those connections and it's taken time and I've had to ask questions and hustle and tread on toes. But if you want to make a success of yourself, you've got to be prepared to do that.
Vicki Weinberg:That's amazing. And I would love to know as well.
So it sounds like you took a really big step initially by going, okay, I'm going to buy some of these quilts and see if I can resell them. That in itself is a big undertaking. How did you get from there to.
I'm now going to create my own designs because I'm writing, thinking that you design your prints and then they're printed. How did you make that further leap? Sarah.
Sarah Dixon Dale:So I love beautiful, special, unique things that nobody else has. I fill my house with them, I fill my wardrobe with them.
And I'm always one of those people that others will come to when they want a recommendation, a new outfit. They want to buy someone a present. I'm that sort of go to person that can instantly conjure up, oh, well, have you tried this?
I don't want to sell other people's products in my business. I want to sell mine. It's an ego thing.
And I'm sure there are many other business owners who are the same, but I need to be able to sell my products with all of my passion and all of my sense of belief in them. And I don't believe it's as easy to do that with other people's products.
Now, I don't know if people necessarily appreciate this, but there are a lot of people selling block print items in the UK, around the world. I would say maybe 90%, if not more than that, are people who are buying off the peg items that are made for them in India.
So fabrics that are screen printed en masse and sold across all of the markets in Jaipur. Now, I quickly realized that the fabrics I was being offered by the vendors over there were fabrics that my competitors were selling as well.
Now I'd had a tricky situation where I'd actually been sold a fabric that was bespoke to one of my competitors and caused huge upset.
I was mortified by it and I halted production of that particular product and that particular fabric that I'd been sold, believing it to be a unique fabric.
And I realized through making that mistake and being sold something that wasn't actually to be sold to me, the only way that a, I could protect myself from my business and be completely unique was to make sure that my fabrics were my own. So I am quite different to what a lot of block print sellers in the UK are doing. I'm not sourcing ready made, mass produced screen fabrics.
My team print all of our fabric to order and they use the designs that I create here in the UK. So it takes a lot more work.
I'm not just picking fabrics from a catalog, because the reality is, if you actually want to buy block print bags, fabrics, quilts from India, it's very easy. It's really easy to find somebody on Instagram, on Etsy, who will sell you tote bags for seven pounds a pop.
But it's mass produced screen print fabric, which is not sustainable, it's not ethical. And who knows where that's coming from? Who knows who is making those products? And they were the issues I had flying around in my mind.
I think it's because I'm a control freak. I wanted supreme control of everything. I want to know where my fabric's coming from, what the design is, and to know that it was entirely mine.
Vicki Weinberg:That makes a lot of sense. And I hadn't actually thought about that. But you're right. Quite often I see things. I'm going to use Etsy as an example.
Quite often I will see something on Etsy and if you're looking for something very specific and you scroll far enough, you'll see the same. What appears to be the same item or very similar item.
Sarah Dixon Dale:Absolutely. There are photos of my products are all over the Internet and Instagram.
There are people in India who are making identical products to mine using photos of my website. It's very, very common that copyright laws and intellectual property don't exist in the same way in India as they do in the UK.
You do just have to rise above it and ignore it the best that you can.
I was that person on the receiving end of that on one occasion where I was sold somebody else's fabric and it was an incredibly stressful situation for them and for me. So I resolved there and then that everything would be my own.
Vicki Weinberg:And how. How are you dealing with when other people are sort of using your patterns? Is that something you're just going on?
Actually minds the original and I'm going to let that go.
Sarah Dixon Dale:It's really hard. So printing your own fabric is one of the best ways to protect yourself.
So my team would never in Jaipur because I know them, I visit them, I work closely with them. The risk you have is if you're using block printers in Jaipur that producing mass amounts of fabric.
If you place an order they might print extra and sell it on to other suppliers. My team would never do that and they only print to order for me. So that's how I protect myself.
But realistically spending too much time looking around around for people that might be copying you and ripping you off is just energy wasted isn't it? And I just need to focus my efforts on always being one step ahead.
Vicki Weinberg:And it sounds like you're doing all you can already. I mean there's not much more you can do without spending an awful lot of energy and causing yourself unnecessary stress.
And it's amazing by the way that you are using your own designs because you're right, that does set you apart from your competitors. Because as you say there were lots of so important to me selling similar products. Well you have to have a USP don't you?
You have to have something that makes you unique.
Sarah Dixon Dale:Realistically I want this business to be paying my mortgage and then some. So I have to be paying myself. I have to be making a return.
And when I see the prices sometimes of the other products being sold online, you know a tote bag being sold for 30 pound 40, I just don't know how people are making money on this because I know what they're paying in India and I know what the freight and the customs are costing.
And then when you've got VAT to add onto it too that we have to price realistically nowadays in this market because we've got to be able to pay ourselves.
And if I want to see any longevity in my business, I can't price myself against competitors who are buying off the peg fabrics and ordering vast amounts from India that they can sell on wholesale at a fraction of the price. Mine is exclusive, it's bespoke, it's unique. We only ever make in small batches and my customers value that.
And that's all I can put my heart into selling as well because it has to be right for me so I can go at it full tilt.
Vicki Weinberg:It's really nice to hear you talk so confidently about pricing because that is something I have a lot of people I know struggle with is seeing the value in your products but not only your products of the time and the time that and the skill that goes into the production, all of those things.
Sarah Dixon Dale:Absolutely.
Vicki Weinberg:You're one of very few people that I've spoken to that says I price my products at this and this is why.
Sarah Dixon Dale:And I think that's what I really struggle with it. I have to be honest, I have massive impostor syndrome often and pricing is something that scares the living daylights out of me.
But I know that I can't grow this brand if my prices are less.
And if people want me to be bringing them these fabulous products for their home, for their wardrobes that bring joy into their lives, I need to be able to continue doing that. And I need to be able to pay myself. And I'm not saying I should caveat this. I'm not saying I'm necessarily paying myself vast amounts at the moment.
No small business owner is. We're all plowing everything back in. But I'm building for the future and I can't just whack my prices up one day because I decide to pay myself.
Finally I need to have the prices in place now.
So when I'm in that position I can confidently say, yeah, we can move forward with this and actually earn an income and bring people beautiful things.
Vicki Weinberg:I think that's great. And as I said, I think it's admirable. And I also think that I can tell that you're not someone who's just put in a high price on for the sake of it.
Because you've talked so much about how it's sustainable and ethical and your products are unique and the quality. So you absolutely should be charging what.
Sarah Dixon Dale:They'Re worth, you have to value your worth as well. My time, but also the time of the guys in Jaipur who are working incredibly hard. I don't ever negotiate on price with any of my suppliers in India.
I pay them what they ask for because I know that it's reasonable.
And if that cost is transferred onto my customer because I have a brilliant team who work incredibly hard to produce much better quality items than the fast produced products out there. That's how it works. And I know my customers value that.
Vicki Weinberg:Absolutely. And the ones that anyone who doesn't isn't your ideal customer. Because of course you're not looking to reach everyone. One coming back to the design.
I would love to know, have you got a design background Sarah, I don't know what you meant.
Sarah Dixon Dale:Absolutely not.
Vicki Weinberg:Because again I'm actually really impressed by how sort of from where I'm standing and this of course may not be the case where you've just gone. Yeah, I can do that and you've just gone and done it.
Sarah Dixon Dale:Well, if somebody had told me before I started a small business that you needed to be a product designer, you needed to be a graphic designer, you need to be an influencer, let's be honest, you need to be an accountant, you need to be a photographer. I mean, the things you need to be able to do are just so vast.
But I guess if it's a bit like having a baby, if you knew what it was like first time around, you wouldn't do it. That's such a good analogy, but it's true.
And there's no point telling somebody because they've got to go through it and experience it for themselves and make those sometimes catastrophic mistakes too. But in terms of the designs, full transparency here, I have no design background whatsoever. What I do have is a really, really good eye.
I've got a brilliant eye for beautiful things. I always have done. My home is beautifully put together, mainly with color and vibrancy thrown in. I don't follow rules in any way.
And I've always found myself drawn to the children's department store sections. Like when you go to John Lewis or somewhere and you're looking for bedding. I am just not a sort of neutral person, as I'm sure you'll know.
And the choice out there is so limited that, you know, I want to have bedding with hearts and stars all over it and rainbows, and I want bright neon prints, but they're just not available. So I did find myself shopping in the children's section in department stores on several occasions. And it just prompted this idea within me.
What I would say the beauty of block printing is in its simplicity. Okay.
You don't need to be a brilliant designer or a print designer because you might be a brilliant print designer or textile surface pattern designer, but you might not be a brilliant businesswoman. So being entirely creative in this industry is brilliant, but there are very few that people that are going to bring every aspect.
So what I do is I play to my strengths. So my good eye and I do work with designers in the UK who will put it down on paper for me, for the team in India, it's not a difficult process.
The way in which they carve the blocks is a very simple tracing process initially, so I just need to provide them with a very basic PDF. If I take my tiger design, for instance, or my heart design, they're very simple. The beauty is in the simplicity.
And then the block designers can then go about carving those out and one of my best mates. She's a designer. I'll call her up and say, emma, I need you to do something with clouds for me. It's in my head. I can't get it down on paper.
I'll scribble you a few things and put in some colors. Can you do it for me? Can you put it into, you know, can you create it for me?
So the ideas I have in my head, I get the skilled people who can draw to do that for me. And then that goes to India, because that's my limitation. I have the ideas and the creativity.
You can't draw for toffee, and there's no two ways about that. So I get brilliant people to help me do that and then we send that over to India.
But as I said, block printing, the simpler the better, I would say, with that.
So you don't need to have an extensive sort of past experience of textile designing and surface pattern because there are brilliant people out there that will help you do that.
Vicki Weinberg:Thank you.
And that's another thing we talk about so much on this podcast, is getting help with the things you need help with, because as you've already spoken about, when you run a small business, you need from day one, really your everything.
And then as time goes by, hopefully you can find people that can support you with the different aspects that you either don't like doing or aren't great at doing, or sometimes both. So, yeah, that's great. And speaking of working with others, I would love to come back to. We've obviously, we've talked about this a lot.
You have a team in Jaipur. How do you work with them? And do you have any advice for others in that situation? Because obviously you're in a different time zone.
I don't know if you have any. If there. I don't know if there is a language barrier.
Sarah Dixon Dale:Yeah, absolutely.
Vicki Weinberg:You know, I'm sure that's not always easy. And I would love to know how you're doing it. And, yeah, especially any advice that you have.
Sarah Dixon Dale:Do you know what somebody said to me not that long ago, considering you have no business experience, Sarah, and you've been a teacher for two decades, to leap into business for the very first time and decide to import from India, you have literally chosen the hardest thing to do of them all. Why did you do that? And it's so true, actually. I feel such a strong connection to India. I've been pulled in that direction for a reason.
And the suppliers that I work with and my supplier in particular, Abdul, we have such a strong connection. We are family. We know each other's families. And I do feel like our paths were meant to align on this journey of life.
And that's so important because trust, for me is the most important thing when working with people overseas. So time zone. Yes. Tricky seasons. Now, that's even harder.
So we've not been able to print for about the last two months because it's been monsoon season over in India.
So I'm watching my stockpiles go down, down, down, thinking, because we can't print any fabric at the moment and because we print to order we don't have piles and piles of it sitting around, we try to be really mindful in what we create. Working with India is honestly one of the most bonkers things I have ever done in my life.
Their approach to everything is completely the opposite of ours. They're very relaxed deadlines.
I wouldn't say they necessarily always adhere to the same strict deadlines that we need to seasons and Christmas and all sorts. But you know what? It brings such joy to my life working with India. But it is incredibly complex. The time zones are mad.
Yes, things can get lost in translation.
tion could mean a shipment of:But it just brings so much joy, vibrancy and excitement to my life because they are brilliant people. You have to have a good nose again for the right people to work with.
There are people who, of course, in any country overseas that are going to see you coming a mile off. So my advice also would be to get out there as well and meet your team. You want to see where your products are being created.
You want to know that the people are being treated well and that they have all the right vibes. And it has been an incredible journey. But I can't imagine my life now without the India aspect to it.
And all my friends and family laugh constantly at the piles and piles of DHL boxes from India stacking up by the front door and the debris of, you know, sort of print samples lying across the house and me dashing off to go and call Abdul at a crazy hour. My children will walk past the screen when I'm talking to him and, all right, Abdul and his children will pass too.
And actually, just to show you the extent of that warmth my youngest daughter, Tilly, designed her own block print recently and Abdul and his team had that made into a block and they've printed her her own backpack, pencil case, wash bag and jacket and sent it over recently, which was just magic. So they are wonderful people to work with. Bonkers. And it takes some patience, definitely. And massive amounts of humor.
Vicki Weinberg:Oh, that's wonderful. And I think it's so important, isn't it, to have a relationship with people you're working with.
So rather than just being a transactional thing, because if we're here to build a business within it for the long term, and we hope that these relationships will be long term. So I think having that relationship where you not only can work together, but like each other is so important. Absolutely.
Sarah Dixon Dale:We see each other as business partners. Abdul isn't somebody that provides me with my stock. He's my partner in this, and that is so important.
And we discuss our lives as well as we discuss our business, too.
And I'm already excited about when I can next get over there, which is logistically so hard when you have a job and you have young children, you know, finding that time to go over for ten days and to get the seasons right, too. I mean, the best time for me would be the summer holidays. I can't go in the summer holidays because it's monsoon season over there.
There's no printing going on. So the good time for me to go would be during term time, and so I can't.
Vicki Weinberg:That's really difficult.
Sarah Dixon Dale:It's really hard.
Vicki Weinberg:Now that we've touched on your job, Sara, so are you still working part? Are you still teaching part time or are you back to full time?
Sarah Dixon Dale:At the moment, I am part time, but I work at a boarding school, a seven day a week boarding school, and I actually live within the boarding school as well. So I do work part time here, but I think for many people it would be considered probably full time. I teach on a Saturday morning, for instance.
So doing things like events up and down the country has been something I've never been able to do. So it's just one of the limitations, but it is what it is, and I just work with it rather than seeing it as a block.
Vicki Weinberg:And do you have any advice for anyone? Because I think lots of us are trying to build businesses around something else, whether it's a. A job or other things.
How, how are you doing it and what advice do you have?
Sarah Dixon Dale:I think mindset is a huge part of this, and in recent years, I've really worked hard on my mindset, and that's part of the job that I have in teaching as well, working with young people and trying to inspire them and trying to pull the best out of them. But when I'm feeling overwhelmed with the amount that I've got to do, I remind myself this is all of my own creation. This is my narrative.
This is my story. It's no coincidence that any of this has happened. I've created it. And I'm hugely grateful for that. To the opportunities that it brings me.
The people that I meet in the bomb baby world bring such richness to my life in the same way that working with young people is my passion, too.
And I'm not saying that doing both of them will work for forever, because in many ways, I am my biggest limitation at the moment to my business, because I can't give myself a hundred, you know, full 100% to the business that will have to change inevitably if I want to scale this as big as I can. But when I feel those moments of overwhelm, I just remind myself that this is all of my creation and it's about that narrative and that perspective.
And when you look at it with gratitude and think, wow, how lucky am I that I work with all of these incredible people and I have all of these things going on in my life, that is amazing.
And I'm not saying on a sort of dark Sunday when I'm dragging myself up to go and fulfill 40 orders that have come in over the weekend, and I've got two sets of books to mark that I don't feel really, really overwhelmed with it. It's not a magic formula, but generally it is something that I always keep in mind. This is what I want to do, and I'm not scared of hard work.
Vicki Weinberg:That's brilliant. Thank you. And I think you're right. Having a passion for something really helps get keep you going.
And I can tell how passionate you are about Bombaby.
Sarah Dixon Dale:Absolutely.
Vicki Weinberg:So we're coming. So it's was the end of our chat, Sarah. Sadly, it's gone so fast. I guess I've got two more things I'd like to ask about.
One is because obviously you mentioned you've always taught, teaching's been your background, this is what you've done, and now suddenly you're running your own small business. I say suddenly. It's been a couple of years, but you know what I mean.
Sarah Dixon Dale:No, it has been sudden. In many ways, you're absolutely right.
Vicki Weinberg:What advice do you have for other people who maybe are thinking, okay, I'd like to do something, you know, they're listening to this podcast thinking, I'd like to. I'd like to sell products.
I'd like to create something, but having that feeling of, but I can't do that because I come from this background or I've never done that, or I don't know how to. Do you have any advice, people in. That situation, I suspect you were.
Sarah Dixon Dale:Imposter syndrome is a crippling, devastating feeling to have, and I do really struggle with it. The majority of people in my industry tend to have a background in interiors.
So they're interior designers that are now moving into this sphere, the interiors, the quilts, the lampshades.
So little old me that's been teaching for the last 20 years of her life in that same arena, without that background and without that well established kudos is really, really hard. And it takes being surrounded by some amazing people that will constantly reassure you.
I wish I could give some incredible advice that would give people that light bulb moment, but it is about confidence, and it is about taking a leap and believing in yourself, and that doesn't happen overnight. It is, you know, it's something we have to be constantly working on, too. But I honestly believe that there's nothing that I can't do.
There really isn't. And I believe that for every single person, maybe that's the teacher in me, because I always, always look for the best in everybody.
You have to, if you're a secondary school teacher, believe that anyone is capable of anything.
And I really believe that if you show up every day and if you have that mindset and that determination to learn, and that will take me on to my final point and question, you'll probably want to ask me about my best advice, but I do think that we all have it in us. You just have to have the self belief. We can all learn anything at any age, but you've got to have the grit and the determination.
Vicki Weinberg:That's brilliant. Vice, Sarah, thank you. And, yes, you have preempted my final question, which is I didn't want to.
Sarah Dixon Dale:Give the full game away without letting you introduce it.
Vicki Weinberg:Oh, but thank you, because you've led into it perfectly seamless. Sarah, what is your number one piece of advice for other product creators?
Sarah Dixon Dale:I have thought long and hard about this because I would love to go back to Sarah two years ago and offer her some advice now because I just was so clueless. So there are other sarahs out there who are at the beginning of their journey, and I want to be.
I really want to bring something meaningful here because there are so many things that you could say for me.
The one thing I've learned on this journey is that you have to upskill yourself in absolutely every area because otherwise you are handing control over to other people. I'll explain what I mean by this.
I've worked with people who are marketing professionals, I've worked with financial advisors, I've worked even with graphic designers and professional photographers who have not delivered to me what I needed. And it made me realize very, very quickly that if you want a good job doing, you're going to need to do it yourself.
And if you're a small business, you will not have the funds to be paying somebody to run your Facebook ads for you. You will not have the funds to be paying a graphic designer. So you will need to learn how to use canva pretty fast.
You will need to learn how to move yourself around business manager on meta pretty quickly if you want to be able to do Facebook ads.
Now this takes a huge amount of determination and graft, but what I have done is I have become an expert, if you like, in every area of my business because I am not prepared to hand that control over to other people.
A mistake I hear so often with small business owners is I'm going to get someone to design a website for me and I always say to them immediately, why are you doing that? Why arent you doing it yourself? Well theyll say oh, so and so is doing it for 500 quid. If I just get it done, then its done. This is a massive error.
A website isnt something that you just create. Stick it out there and expect the customers to come flying in through the doors and the cash to come rolling in.
A website, just like if you had a bricks and mortar store needs constant TLC, you're always moving the stock around, you're constantly changing your window display.
And you know what, if you had a fire or if you had a leak, okay, you might need to bring in the occasional expert to come and repair something or give it a lick of paint, okay? But on a day to day basis, you're unlocking that door in the morning and you're locking up again at night. So you need to know how to do that.
If you hand the power over to somebody else and pay them vast sums of money, you will never know how to do it yourself.
I am on my website every day of the week, updating, changing, bringing additional content on there to make it a place that my customers will go and enjoy browsing. When you walk into a shop, you want to enjoy walking around and browsing. It's the same on a website. You've got to create that experience.
Now, I'm using the website analogy here, but it's the same with things like Facebook ads and social media. You can go and hire a social media manager, but it won't be your voice being put out there.
You can hire somebody to do your Facebook ads, but again, you're paying somebody to do something you can do yourself. So I have tirelessly upskilled myself in every area possible. So I have full control of my business because it's mine. It's my name above the door.
Something goes wrong in the middle of the night and my website crashes. But Pete, who designed it six months ago, is on annual leave for the next three weeks. Just duffed.
So give yourself the power is my advice to anybody in a small business.
And if you don't have the determination, the work ethic and the sheer grit to do that, it's not for you, because it is a gnarly old workplace out there. It is. At the moment, it is tougher than it has ever been. So you have to be fully prepared to put your all in.
So don't hand that power over to other people. Keep it.
And don't get me wrong, I've got a fabulous guy in Bangladesh that does all my coding for me on the website because I have no idea how to code. But I'll pull him in when I need him. The day to day stuff, that's mine because it's my business. It's my face there. It's my name.
It has to be all within my control. And the friends I see are the small business owners that perhaps aren't seeing the growth, for instance, in their own businesses that I am in mine.
Time and time again, what I see is people who are delegating too much to other people, not to mention the money that you're handing over to people here who just see you as another project to get done and dusted so they can move on to the rest. Pour yourself in, every part of you, because you will reap the rewards.
Vicki Weinberg:That's brilliant advice. Thank you so much, Sarah. Thank you.
Sarah Dixon Dale:That was helpful.
Vicki Weinberg:That's really helpful. Thank you for everything you shared. We're going to link to your website and your socials and everywhere else people can find you in the show notes.
So thank you again.
Sarah Dixon Dale:An absolute pleasure. And thank you for letting me be a part of this.
Vicki Weinberg:Oh, I've loved talking to you. Thank you.
Sarah Dixon Dale:Thank you.
Vicki Weinberg:Thank you so much for listening. Right to the end of this episode, do remember that you can get the full back catalogue and lots of free resources on my website, vickiweinberg.com.
please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it, and also share it with a friend who you think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.
