Julianna Barnaby, CEO and managing director of Barnaby & Co, explains why the business should win the Startup of the Year category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition:
Barnaby & Co. formed in July 2015 and launched in September 2015. Our goal is simple: to show the UK market that unique, small-batch production homewares and gifts can be affordable.
We work with a number of independent designers and makers, to showcase a range of items that are notable because of their fun and quirky style. We focus on sustainably produced items that are well made, rather than mass produced pieces that follow specific trends and seasons.
Since our launch, we have run pop ups in Old Street Underground Station, Boxpark and Pop Brixton, among others. We also trade through our online store.
The company has gone from strength to strength in its first six months of trading. Our first two-week pop up in Old Street saw us turn over £2,800 of sales and we have maintained strong sales figures since.
One of the ways in which we have expanded our customer base is through working with other businesses that complement our target audience and our company ethos. For example, we work with The Barbican, offering their members a discount on our online store. We also work with interior designers Topology to offer a discount to their customers, which has been effective too.
Another marketing strategy has to run a series of interviews with the makers of the pieces in the Barnaby & Co. collection. on our blog. We’ve found that people are very interested in finding out about the provenance and the personalities behind the items they are buying.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the top three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
