Small Wins

As we've been building a marketplace website, growing our community of sellers, and launching the shop, there have been different milestones that we've celebrated between us. We started #SmallWinWednesday as a mid-week pick me up on our social channels as we're big believers in making sure that small business successes are celebrated. And those little things are just as important as the big ones, so here are some things that we think earned us a pat on the back.

Getting to grips with lots of new skills

We're no strangers to building websites and managing projects - that's our day job - and with all our agency experience to draw on we managed the basics quite naturally. But then what about the things we're not normally in charge of - the social channels, PR, payment system negotiations, admin, accounting - the list goes on. The challenge, and joy, of running a small business is getting all of the plates spinning, and we think we're getting there!

Sales

This is surely a success measure of a retail website, but we've found ourselves celebrating the sales along with our makers. It feels personal as someone loves those products as much as we did when we first saw them listed on the site. Knowing that we're doing our bit to help makers find buyers and hopefully a new audience for their handcrafted and painstakingly created makes is a huge win for us.

Reviews

And on a similar theme the first 5 star review was a lovely small win, and we know we'll continue to celebrate each one of these. Getting feedback from customers that have used Small Market and the whole process from buying to receiving those great items made someone feel so positively about the experience that they wanted to make the effort to leave a review is amazing news. It's been designed in as a part of the selling process on our site to try and encourage those reviews as we know how important they are to future sales. We obviously give 99.9% of any credit to the fabulous makers, it's their product and talent getting the plaudits - but it's still a small win for us too!

Website performance

As Chris has such a passion for the tech that he's built which powers our bespoke platform I quite often get left very behind in the details. When we launched the site there were a series of metrics around accessibility, performance and SEO, and I've never seen anyone be quite so excited about a 100% SEO score. I will never understand the intricacies of that, but I know it sounds great and for a system that's been created from the ground up it's an amazing small win for us that is very own-able.

Getting our friends signed up

Small Market was born out of a love for the work that our friends were making, and the world of craft that we all inhabited. It's been amazing to have them along on this journey, helping to test the system, providing feedback, and now coming back as sellers so that they can be part of the marketplace. It's genuinely one of the most heart-warming aspects, because it means the whole thing is working as it should. We're also really enjoying making new friends with the sellers that have found us and signed up - even though we've never met it's part of a great community of like-minded sellers that share our passions and values, and that's something that we hoped for, but are now starting to realise. And that's an important small win too.

And it's not all business. With numerous lockdowns and a brand new perspective on the world we know how important small wins have been to everyone to maintain and boost our mental health. Here are a few of our favourites from the last few months:

Snow days - Opening the curtains and seeing the fresh snow. Made all the better by the fact that you're working from home and can enjoy it without having to clear the car.

The Great Pottery Throwdown - Bakeoff for pottery if you haven't seen it, an unmissable TV show that makes Sunday evenings like a big hug.

Snowdrops - The realisation that nature keeps on going, even if we're stuck has been a comfort to many of us, and the first indications that spring might be on the way are a very welcome sign.

Threading the sewing machine needle the first time - And we all have our craft equivalent of this, opening the kiln with a sign of relief, finishing a calligraphy flourish without a smudge, or lifting the screen to reveal a perfect print. When you're in the flow and things are going to plan there's no better feeling.

What are your small wins? We'd love to hear about them and for you to join us in our #SmallWinWednesday social chats.