As the cost of living crisis continues, many people have been looking for ways to make some extra cash with side hustles.
A 35-year-old has explained how relentless dedication and consistency has helped her achieve great success with her business, Bobbin and Bumble, which is now turning over £250,000 each year.
After endless hours of hard work, late nights and early mornings, Emma Cattell turned an idea and a £5 sewing machine into a £250,000 business.
In March 2016, she ordered a highchair after lots of recommendations but when it turned up it came with a striped cushion cover for the insert. Unimpressed by the design, she started looking for alternatives that were easy to clean.
After realising she couldn’t find any easy wipe covers, she went to her local car boot sale and bought a second-hand sewing machine for £5.
She then bought a meter of oilcloth fabric and used the sewing skills her mum had taught her to sew the cover.
From there she started making high chair cushion covers that are easy to wipe.
The mum of two told the money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: “I started posting pictures of my daughter online, not mentioning the chair cover or even promoting it – but people would notice it and ask where I had got it.
“When I told them that I had made it they would respond with, ‘You should sell them!’ Well, I didn’t think you could make a business out of chair covers, it just seemed a bizarre concept!”
Eventually, she started to list the covers she made on Etsy and they started to sell worldwide. They were selling in Iceland, the USA, Australia, Tel Aviv, France and Germany.
She added: “That’s when panic set in – I couldn’t actually sew. I had fumbled my way through my own under the watchful eye of my mum but that’s the first thing I’d ever made! ‘How was I going to make these orders?!’
“In the beginning, I didn’t know what I was getting into. I never intended it to grow to what it is today. So I’ve really been learning on the job from the very start. I was literally learning to sew as I went along!”
As the business started to grow, Ms Cattell didn’t want to take any money away from the household to buy more fabrics, so she got two part-time jobs to fund the business.
She worked at an after-school club in the evening and then began a role at Tesco on a weekend, so both jobs she could do around being a full-time stay-at-home mum.
She started them both in 2016 and was able to quit them to solely focus on the business by 2018. The mum of two didn’t take a penny from business until 2021 when the profits were steady.
Ms Cattell said: “It wasn’t until 2020, when everyone was online shopping, that the business exploded as people became aware of the concept of ‘glowing up’ their highchair.
“I started on my dining table with a cardboard box. As the business grew, it took over my dining room. During the lockdown, it took over my entire house and two sheds I purchased specifically in the garden. I got my first commercial property in 2021, which is over 1700 square feet.
“I now turnover in excess of £250,000 per year. I honestly thought when I started that one sale a week would be amazing as it would just give me something to do.
“I remember for the first couple of years if I made one sale a day as the bare minimum I was over the moon – so 365 orders a year. I now do closer to three times that in a month.”
She encouraged aspiring entrepreneurs and those who may have just started their own business to “go for it, don’t wait.”
Ms Cattell concluded: “Nobody knows what they’re doing and it’s common to be learning on the job. Don’t wait for the situation to be perfect because nothing is ever perfect.
“You have to be prepared to work harder than you’ve ever worked before, but hard work puts you where good luck can find you.”
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: “Emma’s story is truly inspirational. She has gone from struggling to find direction in life to crushing it as a business owner. It must have been hard to keep going at times but she has pushed through and now the results speak for themselves.”
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