(Small Business Superstar) Supporting and collaborating with local businesses to succeed together

This week’s Small Business Superstars are Danielle from Red Beau Party Box and Jenette from Hardy Soft Play. A little bit about Danielle’s amazing business… Red Beau Party Box sells eco-friendly crafts and activities for children. Prior to the pandemic, Danielle had a lot of business for children’s birthday parties. A little bit about Jenette’s amazing business… Hardy Soft Play Hire offers a hire service for bouncy castles, soft play and fun stuff for party events. What one marketing thing made a difference to their businesses? After the pandemic struck in March 2020 and both businesses were hit hard due to no parties being able to take place, the pair decided to contact lots of local businesses and ask them to create a small video about their products. Danielle and Jenette then packaged up the videos to promote these small businesses and their amazing products. They then set up a Christmas virtual fair via a Facebook group where businesses could showcase their products to potential buyers. What difference did it make to them and their businesses?  They had 230 stalls within their Facebook group and nearly 7000 shoppers to shop! All the people in the group wanted small businesses. The majority of the stallholders found their sales had increased since joining the group. Lots of stallholders also collaborated to form new partnerships. Danielle and Jenette are now so much more visible on social media since lockdown which will help them later on with their businesses. Where you can find Danielle Instagram: @redbeauboxFacebook: @redbeaupartyboxWhere you can find Jenette Instagram: @hardysoftplayhireFacebook: @hardysoftplayJoin the Virtual Fair – Virtual Fair – Support a Small Business Transcript below Hello and a very warm welcome to this week's Small Business Superstar Podcast. How are you doing? Uh, you'd think have to all these episodes. I don't know how many Small Business Superstar's podcasts I've done, but you'd think I would find a much easier way of saying it. But anyway, I still stumbling my words every single time. So this week I'm not just bringing you one guest, I'm bringing you two. So please welcome Danielle Barker and Jenette Hardy to the podcast. Hello ladies, how are you doing? Jenette: Hi, Teresa. Danielle: We're doing well. Thank you. Teresa: Good, good. Just so you know, obviously I know people get. Like a little bit freak about different social distance stuff. We are all on zoom. The ladies are in their own, their own homes where they are. So ladies, let's start by introducing what you do separately because you're very similar, but then you came together to do something hands so got two of you on. So Danielle, let's start with you first. Tell my lovely audience who you are and how you got to do the thing you do today. Danielle: So I'm Danielle and I have a business called Red Beau, spelled B-E-A-U, and I make eco-friendly crafts and activities for children. And before COVID, um, it was primarily for children's birthday parties. Um, hence why we found a new Avenue. Jenette: And I'm Jenette, and I'm in a half an hour away from Danielle. I'm also going to Party based business. Called Hardy Soft Play Hire. So predominantly we hire out bounce castle, soft play and all the fun stuff packed in events. So come sort of March last year, 2020. Um, obviously our business went a bit wrong because no events and parties were happening. So yeah, we needed to concentrate on something else. Keep our minds active, keep the money coming in and yeah, just, just to keep us maybe forwards. Teresa: So did you two know each other when you started your subsequent businesses or do you meet through your businesses? Danielle: Yeah, we met through our businesses, although we do have some personal connections that we found out that later. But we've, we happens to go to the same network and events locally. We're both farm-based, um, both rural in the North West of England. So yeah, we, we came together with a lot of similarities. We both got two children, um, and now we have lots of mutual business friends. Teresa: Love it, love it. So you both have these party based businesses, which like you said, literally fell on its backside when COVID hit. What was your first initial. Like how did you first think about it? And what did you think you were going to do about it? Danielle: Well, I have no, no doubt that Jenette find a way to do it. She's very creative, very inventive when it comes to business. Um, so I knew there was, would be a, a thing that she could find to move forward. And, um, Jenette can tell you about this, but at the right, at the beginning, we, Jenette had a great idea that we collaborated on. If you wants to tell them about that Jenette? Jenette: Yeah. So all I have a Facebook, they're all of these funny little videos and all the young farmers and stuff were doing, whether they were passing things between each other and sharing them and getting great engagement. And I was like, there's so many brilliant small businesses. But have so much to offer even in a global pandemic and I'm really wanting to showcase that. So, um, I put my head together with Danielle and we've contacted loads of local businesses across our area. And they all made these amazing little video clips for. It was just a few seconds long where they showcased one of their products and such of three weeks. Took us off screen while we, and then we parceled it out to show that, you know, just because it's locked down and you can't go to a shop and you can still send amazing, wonderful gifts for local businesses in your area. You know, this is the array that's available locally, get in touch with these businesses and do it. And that's where our subsequent idea stemmed from all around the local businesses. Been able to still offer amazing products and services, just not in the normal way. Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. Was there ever a thought of, you know, cause then guessing you both said you live on farms, so that, that was going to continue obviously, no matter what. Was there ever a point where you thought "Do you know what we're going to be homeschooling the kids, the farm still carrying on? I might just put my feet up for a locked down and well see where we'll go." What was that never really a consideration. Danielle: Well it never occurred to me, it's just, I would keep going, keep working and see what I could. The more you work at something, the more things that open, open, the more ideas you have.Um, and I thought at the very least I could educate myself more on business processes and refine how it work, refine a product at the very least, but we still found a way through. Teresa: Yeah. Yeah, no, that's awesome. So we're loceked down. You've put together this awesome thing, which again is amazing. This is what like, saying I love about locked down that is really hard because obviously no one really loves it. But you would never have done that collaboration. You did never contacted those businesses. You'd never have done that networking. If it hadn't been for the scenario that you were in, would you? Jenette: No, it was, it was brilliant. It really gave us the opportunity that connects us businesses and build those relationships. Yeah, it was really good. Teresa: And do you think as well? I'm just thinking about this, like pre COVID. I think I've had this conversation with someone literally this morning about how pre COVID we would have been like "We'll keep everything close. We're in our own bubbles." Where, or "Our business isn't the same as the are them, or we aren't the same type of people as then." And then I think what COVID did is it made everybody just go, "Oh my God, we are all in the same boat for the first time." Probably ever. We were all experiencing the same difficulties and that I don't know about you too, and what you think. But that, for me, felt like it opened up the door to just be like, "Come on in everybody, you know, we're all friends here." Is, did you feel that when you were contacting those businesses? Danielle: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah. And we noticed once we, um, we found this other wrapping you, and we're speaking to all these different businesses, it became even more apparent because we knew for a fact that the role in the same boat and all trying to scramble to find the same outlets. Teresa:...