Seasons Greetings one and all!
This is a hideously late (but hopefully worth the wait?!) update from an incredibly windy South West. Apologies as always for the lateness of this post – I can’t even blame DMT (Dreckly Mean Time) for this one – I’m laying the blame squarely at the door marked “Christmas bonkers-ness”, and there it shall stay. Not only have I had a really busy month taking Rockpool on the road for Christmas (more of that later), but it’s also our first Christmas with my little’un, and in a fit of what I can only imagine was hormone filled madness, I’ve offered to host Christmas. (Am hoping mini-RT might distract the guests from what will almost certainly be a bit of a burnt offering…).
Anyway – excuses done with, and on with the show. We maxed out on fairs in December, and actually had a really good month by going down this road. 2013 has been our first year of really doing the craft fair thing, and OK, I could have done without the 6am starts, but I really enjoyed getting out, meeting customers, nattering to other stallholders and generally having a lovely time. The last fair (14th December) was an event organised by the fabulous Outset Plymouth, who gave us loads of helpful guidance and support when we were taking off. The fair was shared between Outset businesses and local Young Enterprise teams, so the day was…well, lets say…”lively”. A brief explanation for those who didn’t have the pleasure of doing Young Enterprise when they were at school: I don’t really know the ins and outs of it, but it’s an extra-curricular scheme where schools get to put teams together (often paired up with other schools), and have to come up with a product or service to sell – the aim being, of course, to teach kids about business. Coincidentally, I actually did YE when I was 16, and the fair on Saturday brought back A LOT of amusing memories, not least being the bizarre approach to sales which YE seems to promote. To give a general gist, there must be a memo floating around somewhere entitled “Your Young Enterprise Step by Step Guide to Sales Success”: 1. Shout. 2. If other people are shouting, make sure you shout loader. 3. If shouting doesn’t work, jump out in front of people. 4. If even further persuasion is needed, wear amusing headwear and offer free biscuits. Basically, Enthusiasm is King. (Ahhhh…. if only that’s all there was to it). Still – the teams at this fair were spirited and happy, and it was lovely to see. Hopefully some of these young’uns (Oh God, how old am I?!) will make the brave leap into the entrepreneurial world and, furthermore, will actually succeed. And if they do, I’m sure they can employ someone to shout on their behalf. Happy days.
Finally, a big THANK YOU to everyone who has supported RT over the last year, either by buying unique, handmade items from us, coming along to craft fairs, helping out behind the scenes, interacting with us on social media or supporting us in any number of other ways. We’ve had a crazy but wonderful year, and we can’t wait for bigger and better things in 2014.
In the meantime, we’re off to baton down the hatches, crack open the Quality Street and kick Christmas off with a mahoosive glass of mulled wine. As we say in the Westcountry… ‘appy Christmas to You and Yours! See you on the other side.
A snap of Tudor Evans (Leader of Plymouth City Council) opening the Outset Plymouth Fair. The Young Enterprise bods can be clearly identified by the festive headwear…