As you know the world has changed, how we shop, consume and spend is different these days. And as a small business we've done our best over the past seven years to keep up with these changes and keep our customers happy, and for the most part, we have got it right however the bit I'm not getting right at the moment is earning enough money to pay all the bills on time and that is stressful!
Why am I telling you this - well transparency, I've always been open as I can be about what is going on with the business, our community and sometimes even my personal life it is affecting the shop. Some of you know that we have been here before, we've done crowd funders to dig us out of holes and you've supported that - eternally grateful!
Things I've done already to get us back on track:
- put our prices up on products to cover increase in supply costs.
- cut down all our old subscriptions and apps etc.
- listed some of our unused equipment on gumtree.
- I'm looking at our essential supplies and tried to make sure we are getting best value but ethical and environmentally sound.
- cut down our staffing costs - I no longer take a wage and working freelance again. It means we continue to employ a local personal 4 days a week at living wage.
What is left to do?
- not all of them you'll still have cards, mugs, Glasgow Soap discounts and repeat purchase discounts.
- Drive more traffic to the website through making sure we are consistent with our social media, newsletters and ask you guys for help when we need it.
- New partnerships with venues for our workshops.
But the big one for the moment is cutting the amount of discounts we offer, so we are removing our 2-8 person workshop vouchers for our public classes. They unfortunately just aren't sustainable for us at the moment and we love doing our workshops so need to make sure they are profitable! You can still get a discount for hosting a private Braw Wee workshop session - more details coming soon!
However I am giving you the last chance to buy before I remove them from the site on Sunday evening! So get over to the website and grab one before they go https://braw-wee-emporium.com/collections/workshops
Thank you for your continued support of Braw Wee, it is a small family run business that works with other small family-run businesses and we want to continue that!
Take care,
Jennifer. x