Indie Designers Q&A: Mumpreneurs

Becoming a mum is an extremely rewarding experience filled with beautiful moments, but it doesn’t come without its challenges. Being a mum can be incredibly challenging, and balancing your family life and all other aspects of life can be difficult, especially when it comes to working. So, we wanted to take a moment to shine a spotlight on some of the hard-working, independent mums who design an amazing range of creative cards for Funky Pigeon.

We’re delighted to introduce you to some of these incredibly talented mumpreneurs as they tell us about what inspires them, the challenges they’ve faced, and how they balance working with being a full-time mum.

Evie Garnett Designs

1. Introduce yourself…

I’m Evie, I’m 34 and live in Sussex with my husband and two Sons. I have been a graphic designer for 15 years, and a greetings cards designer for two years.

2. What gave you the idea of starting your own business?

During lockdown and furlough, I spent 100% of my time with my lovely boys – which was great, but I really felt I needed to do something for myself. I needed a creative outlet that would work around home schooling my children – so I started designing greetings cards! From the get-go the business exploded, and I haven’t looked back!

3. How did you get started?

I started by just designing what I liked. I didn’t expect to have a lot of sales, I was just enjoying myself really. However, my card sales went through the roof and that’s when I started to pay better attention to my designs and really become serious about my business.

4. What challenges do you face?

Ensuring I have a good work/homelife balance can be tricky, especially when working from home. School half-terms can be difficult – trying to work about spending time with my children is challenging! I do try to ensure that weekends are for family and friends, and weekdays are for work.

5. How do you get around the challenges?

When things get challenging or I find I there are not enough hours in the day, I have to really prioritise my workload and become super organised. I live through my calendar and plan everything out.

It’s important to take time out for self-care and have regular screen breaks. Working from home can also be quite isolating, so seeing friends and family on a regular basis is a must for me.

6. Describe your typical work day…

I spend around 40% of my work time looking for inspiration, sketching out ideas and looking for trending topics to base my cards on. The rest of the time is spent designing and uploading

7. Do your children/family inspire your work?

My family are super supportive of my business, especially if I have to spend a bit of extra time in the evenings when working to a deadline.

My 7 year old Son is neurodiverse and comes up with the most unusual, creative and original ideas. He has inspired many of my designs and has even started learning how to design cards himself! I think I may have some competition when he’s older!

8. Do you have any advice for other Mums thinking of setting up their own small business?

My business is not just a job, it’s also a hobby and a creative outlet to calm my mind. I think this is why I have been successful. Setting up a small business is challenging, but if you love your work it’ll be fun, and not just feel like work!

9. What are your favourite cards that you’ve designed & why?

The first-class dad happy birthday card below with the train on the cover was the first card I ever designed. My husband loves trains and I wanted to create a steam train card for him from our sons. I didn’t realise quite how popular this card would be – it is one of my best sellers!

 

Laura Lonsdale Designs

1. Introduce yourself…

I’m Laura, and I’m a self taught Lancashire based designer with a serious card obsession! I live with my husband Ste and our beautiful miracle daughter Penelope May, who will be 2 in April.

2. What gave you the idea of starting your own business?

I never intended to start my own business as such, designing cards began as a way for me to turn my brain off and relax. In my first month designing, I sold 5 cards and I was absolutely over the moon! It then took off and has become my 2nd baby and business.

3. How did you get started?

Myself and my husband went through 6 rounds of IVF to have our beautiful daughter. Through that time I struggled a lot with anxiety. Shortly after finally becoming pregnant I was then made redundant in my job in Marketing.

I was elated to be pregnant finally, but it just felt like one thing after another. So, to help make use of my time off and keep my anxiety at bay I started designing cards. It wasn’t long before I became obsessed! I realised a talent and love that I never knew I had.

I continued designing cards as much as I could through my maternity leave, I would design a few cards while Penelope napped, or whilst she ate her breakfast. My collection grew and grew and before I knew it I had hundreds of designs that were selling in their thousands! I soon realised that it could quickly become a full time job for me if I carried on, so that’s what I’m working towards now.

4. What challenges do you face?

I currently juggle working a part time marketing job, running my card business and being a mum. It can certainly be a challenge at times but I just have to tell myself I’m doing all of this for Penelope 😊
I think it would be much more difficult if I didn’t love it so much. For me, I love nothing more than sitting down on the sofa to do some designing after a long day! I feel like I’ve found a real passion and that’s so rewarding.

5. How do you get around the challenges?

I do a lot of forward planning, I plan everything from my social posts to what cards I need to design. I carry a little notebook everywhere I go and I’m constantly making to do lists!

I literally have to maximise every spare minute of the day, so for example when I go for my lunch break at my marketing job I go home and catch up on emails and work on my business. I also sometimes get up earlier to get some hours in then!

6. Describe your typical work day…

It’s very different depending on if I’m working at my part time job, but a usual day is getting up at around 6am, catching up on any emails and perhaps doing a bit of ‘card admin’ before the day begins. I’ll then go to work which is a marketing job only up the road. Then, on my lunch I’ll come home and either upload a few cards, or maybe design some.

I then get home, put my little girl to bed and squeeze in as many hours as I can, I usually work on my cards until I can’t keep my eyes open any longer!!

7. Do your children/family inspire your work?

Absolutely, in fact most of my cards come from my own personal need or what I would personally like to send! I designed a range of kids cards purely because I couldn’t find any I like for Penelope’s 1st Birthday.

8. Do you have any advice for other Mums thinking of setting up their own small business?

My advice would be rather than thinking of it as a business as such, think of it as finding something you love doing and finding a way to make money from that.

Don’t try and be someone you’re not, and let your work come from the heart. The best business ideas come from your own passion or something you love! If you love it, the chances are someone else will too 😊

9. What’s your creative process?

My creative process is really quite basic. I don’t ever sketch out ideas, I’m too impatient so I like to get straight to the design part ha! I carry a little pink notebook everywhere with me and it’s filled with new ideas, so I work up new designs straight from my book of ideas. I use Adobe Illustrator to design, it’s something I’m completely self taught on and I love it.

I’d love to say I have a fancy office where I design and bring to life all my ideas, but it usually takes place on my sofa in my pyjamas after a long day in the office!

10. What do you like most about designing cards and where do you get inspiration?

There’s a variety of things that inspire my Mother’s Day designs but one thing is our experience with infertility. I had some really tough Mother’s Days through our time trying to have a family. Despite having my own mum who is so wonderful, all I ever wanted in my life was to be a mummy, so the day was so painful for me for a long time.

I used our experience to create a range of cards just for those who might find the day hard for whatever reason. Those designs are so close to my heart.
Whether someone is longing to be a mum themselves, has miscarried, or lost a parent…. I know I would have appreciated a card like mine through our experience, and I hope they bring comfort to those who are struggling.

11. What are your favourite cards that you’ve designed & why?

These are my absolute favourites! They’re the ones that best represent my own humour, life experience and passion! They also happen to be my best sellers, just proving that if you love something the chances are someone else will too 😊

The IVF one in particular is so close to my heart given that’s what drove me to start my business.

 

Pack-A-Punch Designs

1. Introduce yourself…

Hi, I’m Sophie! I live with my boyfriend, 9 year old Daughter and miniature schnauzer Otto in Bridgwater, Somerset. I’ve lived here my whole life. I was 21 when I became a Mum and was a single parent for a few years after that. We have a really close relationship even though she thinks I’m bossy and worry about her too much.

2. What gave you the idea of starting your own business?

I have a dark sense of humour and have been blessed to be in a family where we all like making each other laugh. I started my business at the end of 2016. I was working part-time in the same admin job I was at before I had my Daughter but I needed some escapism. I would stick patterned paper onto card blanks and then print out funny captions to stick on top. I only did this a few times as it was pretty labour intensive and I cannot for the life of me use a guillotine.

3. How did you get started?

I dug out my old laptop that took about 10 years to load up and bought a £30 printer from Argos and started printing any caption that popped in my head onto card blanks. I had no logo and used Microsoft paint to draw (badly) and type captions. I didn’t even have a card template – I would print the cards and if they were off centre just trim them down. I can’t believe I used to do that but everything is a learning curve, not long after I realised I really wanted to do it seriously and so bought hammered cardstock, a decent laptop and printer and really focused on my ‘brand’. My business will be 6 years old this year and I never imagined in that time it would eventually be my full-time job.

4. What challenges do you face?

Mum-guilt. I have a pile of letters and cards my Daughter has written saying I work so hard and she wants to spend time with me, it really pulls at the heart strings. I’m lucky to work from home now after closing my bricks and mortar shop so I have more time to spend with my family. Of course I have to mention home-schooling and trying to get orders out during the pandemic. It was the busiest I have ever been work-wise and trying to teach a very strong-willed child at the same time was extremely difficult. I spent alot of it googling ‘what is *insert basic curriculum thing that I definitely should know as a 30 year old woman* here’

5. How do you get around the challenges?

To be honest, I am rubbish at dealing with guilt. I am working on it though. Sometimes I just have to say out loud ‘I AM TRYING MY BEST’ to silence those voices that tell me my Daughter is going to end up in therapy because I didn’t play Guess Who with her that day.

 6. Describe your typical work day…

I get home from the school run and walk my miniature schnauzer Otto. Then I print and pack my orders and if I have time I’ll brainstorm ideas for new cards. Some days I can sit with my thoughts and come up with a load of new designs. It’s important to me to be original so once I’ve thought of them I will pop the keywords related to each card into google / etsy and the main print-on-demand card websites to make sure they haven’t already been thought of. Thankfully 99.9% of the time they haven’t.

7. Do your children/family inspire your work?

My family absolutely do. I have 4 brothers and growing up as the only girl could be hard. Even now we like to wind each other up and joke about who is Mum’s favourite (she claims she doesn’t have one but it’s definitely Carl)

8. Do you have any advice for other Mums thinking of setting up their own small business?

Just do it. It may be a few years of juggling and you will most definitely question whether you’re doing the right thing but your children will grow up witnessing a Mum who is chasing her dreams. Also don’t be afraid to ask for help with childcare from somebody you trust if there is an event that is going to enhance your business. A few months after I started, I visited Spring Fair and that really inspired me to take my cards seriously. Had my Daughter been with me I would have been far too stressed navigating an event that huge with a 4 year old in tow to take it all in.

 9. What are your favourite cards that you’ve designed & why?

My favourites are probably cards that were inspired by my family. I have a design that says ‘I hope your birthday isn’t as sh*t as you are at answering your phone’ that was inspired by my little Brother who never answers his. I also LOVE taking a meme and putting my own twist on it. I think joking about what you’re going to do with your parents when they’re old always make people laugh out loud (as long as your parents will appreciate the joke – otherwise you may find yourself written out of the will)

10. What’s your creative process?

As most of my cards are typography based, I will type out my ideas onto a template, play around with a few fonts and voila! I do a lot of pop culture cards or cards that are related to a tv show so they normally require an image to make them really stand out. I used to spend days trying to illustrate but I now pay someone to do it for me. It saves me crying into my cup of tea about how rubbish I am at drawing and is money in a very talented person’s backpocket. It’s a win win.

 11. What do you like most about designing cards and where do you get inspiration?

I just like making people laugh. The idea of someone seeing one of my designs and thinking “omg THAT is my Mum” gives me a buzz. My Mother’s Day cards are mostly centred around sibling rivalry, nursing homes and just Mum-isms (is that even a word?) For instance, growing up we rarely had an ice-cream from the ice-cream van because we didn’t have a lot of money but we always had choc-ices in the freezer. I’m sure it was the same for a lot of 90s kids, so I turned that into a design and it’s currently one of my bestsellers.