Inspirational Women in Business #3 ~ Vicky Trainor, Stationery, Textiles & Surface Designer + 15% Discount For Readers…

Happy Friday morning my loves 🙂 As part of my new weekly feature where I interview inspirational women running their own businesses in the wedding industry, I'm really delighted this Friday brunch time {hello bacon sandwich!} to be sharing a feature about the wonderful Vicky Trainor.

Now, if you're perhaps unfamiliar with the name, let me tell you that Vicky is a designer, predominantly of pretty paper and fabric based products that are perfect for the craft-loving Bride.  Think everything from wedding stationery to pretty table decor and wedding favour ideas. Vicky was in fact one of the very first blog features to appear on Love My Dress back in 2009! 

I'd like to profile Vicky on Love My Dress because I find her and her product absolutely delightful, and I love the way she has worked hard to create something with an entirely unique appeal. Vicky has also always shown much encouragement towards me and my mission to develop Love My Dress as a trusted and respected online resource for Brides.

Now, before we get stuck in, I must mention too that  Vicky would like to offer all my readers a 15% discount on any orders from her Printed Collections.  Love My Dress readers can also use the code ‘FLOWERLADY’ to receive 15% off over at Vicky's Etsy store. Both offers are available until 28th February.

 

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Who are you and what do you do?
Hello!! I’m Vicky Trainor, I’m a textiles & surface designer who happens to be currently step stoning her way through a stationery world, loving every second of each day and the fact that every day is so very different.  I work alone in my home studio in my many different rolls from designer, to maker, to chief packer, to marketing and sales, to administrative duties to accountant.

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Katie Byram Photography & Becky Mitchell

Moi in the studio

I produce stationery for ‘loved-up couples’, occasions and business folk in both print and embroidery as well as freelance design work for companies in the uk and overseas.  My work is far better travelled than I!  I have also last year extended one of my collections, The Vintage Drawer, to include gifts, favours, greetings cards, brooches, cake and decorative ribbons. Lots of little snippets of prettiness and little styling delights which are sold on-line in my little shop

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The vintage drawer collection from vicky trainor seating plan and seating plan panels from £95.00 ind panels can be bought from £9.00

How would you describe the Vicky Trainor signature style?
“The Flower Lady”

'it's kitschmas' cards image 1

Handmade bookmark by Vicky Trainor, The Vintage Drawer Collection

How did you get into the business of stationery and when did you realise you wanted to set up your own business?
Many moons ago (1997) I had a business selling hand made greetings cards to trade based businesses.  I loved it.  It totally consumed me and took me on the most amazing journey.  It was hard work but I was younger, without a family, only myself to look after, no mortgage, could come and go as I pleased, be away from home for weeks on end and no-one would really notice. 

I worked with some fabulous companies such as Liberty, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, The Pier, supplied wonderful lifestyle stores and generally had a ball.

Ribbon

Handmade bookmark by Vicky Trainor, The Vintage Drawer Collection

But it was a busy life, and during this time I had met and fallen madly in love with Mr Hunter.  We married in 2001 (aka Mrs Hunter).  We talked about a family so I started a lecturing post at the local art college to keep some form of financial stability as I was about to run the business down slowly.   It took a few years to fall pregnant, (unexpected), so when I did, the crazy to-ing and fro-ing of the way I ran my business definitely had to stop. So it was time for that chapter to end and a new one begin. 

The beautiful little Miss Ava Hunter came along in 2004, wonderfully life changing!!

Vicky's studio and workspace…

The studio

The studio 3 Studio boards

Did you have any business experience before setting up VT?
I think running a business is such an organic process.  I was in my late 20’s when I ventured into the world of self employment so I qualified for a few start-up courses that took you through the basics.  Basically I learnt everything that I hate doing now such as accounts and business plans and how to produce spreadsheets (my nerve endings dance when I look at my account box on the floor under my desk).  So I learnt through experience and plenty of mistakes, some costly, some soul destroying, copyright sagas with a few ‘borrowing’ design ideas.

The beautiful vintage inspired bookmarks that Vicky produced as gifts for my guests last year at the Love My Dress Summer Soiree

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But I also learnt a lot about myself.  That I thrived on the adrenalin of running your own business, the excitement that you feel when you are moving forward and your product is being well received.  Every year I felt as if I was progressing, understanding another intrinsic layer, developing the collections, understanding what sells and why, building up a healthy book of returning clients.  

Afternoon tea

Haberdashery cards seating plan detail Hoops

How did you go about setting up your own business?
My stationery business now is very different. In the early stages I had two children under the age of two and a half so I had to let the new venture of stationery grow very slowly to fit the current speed of my life and realistically the hours I had spare were limited.  I had worked on a few stationery commissions previously and loved the freedom it gave creatively with your design work and the wonderful connection you have with your clients. 

So I built and designed my website with my ‘technical’ friend Jonny, set about sending samples to magazines, placed a few adverts, whispered a little about what I was doing and slowly the business started to grow.  I knew I could only take on so many orders so that I could maintain a healthy balance between the children and work.  That suited me and also gave me time to really understand my market and work out the direction that I wanted the business to go eventually…

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The vintage drawer collection from vicky trainor bookmarks that come with a decorated box £6.00

The nature of how I work has changed quite a bit,  I am in total control of the diary and orders. I can fit the business around family life and not the other way round.  The process is more creative as every client I work with has different requirements, ideas, interests, personalities.   I can have much more creative freedom and product experimentation with what I do…

What would you say are the fundamental basics required to establish your own business?
Patience, discipline, passion, motivation, time-management skills by the bucket load, ability to write lists that are novel like in their word count, and being savvy with the internet (it has taken me a couple of years to feel comfortable in this area).  I say the latter because as I work from home – Twitter and Facebook is as near as I come to a social life!  I don’t have a mobile phone, I don’t understand what an i-pad really does.  Catching up with technology is something I need to start working on…

'it's kitschmas' cards image 1

You have to be so disciplined when working from a studio within the home.  I have totally taken over, what was the living room, in the house, ‘the parlour’.  But it suits and yes there are advantages such as a 10 second walk to work, no clocking in, you are in charge of how your day operates, a consistent flow of coffee, if you need to take a day away from ‘the office’ you can.  There is also the house whisperer – “put the washing in”, “do the breakfast pots”, “pop to the shops”, “the living room needs a hoover”… I live for most of the week inside my house only coming out into day light when it is the school run.

And boy do you think you can conquer the world when you sit at your chair at 9 o’clock in the morning with the day in front of you and then something happens; time travels at an amazing speed, as the big hand is on 50 and the little hand is approaching three and it is ‘the run’ to school again…

The 1960's sewing machine that I have owned for 20 years

What would you say are the essential skills required to run your own business successfully?
Passion. Commitment. Confidence in your product.  A willingness to adapt and change as the market changes.  An understanding that networking with other businesses isn’t just a formal affair.  I hosted a Christmas coffee morning, in the studio, for the first time last year and it was wonderful. Lots of creative people all swapping details and experiences about being self employed.  I will be holding a summer garden party, so if you live in the North East/North Yorkshire area it would be lovely to see you...

The coffee morning photo credit www.beckymitchell.co.uk

What is your biggest business lesson learned so far?
Last year I got myself into a little rut, a little bit down and quite near the lowest layer of exhaustion I have ever experienced.  The business was growing and I was trying to juggle everything and ensuring everyone else was happy, forgetting about myself.  I wasn’t really seeing anyone. I was just making all the time, which I enjoy, and didn’t see it as a problem because I love my work.  Any spare time I had was thrown into running the business, loosing contact with old friends, not spending enough time with family and relatives…

So after persuasion and advice with people saying how brilliant social networking was I started a Twitter and Facebook account.  I made sure I went to organised events, arranged to meet people I was talking to on the internet for coffee away from the house.  It has made such a big difference.  That is the problem with working from home, you can enter the world of solitary confinement, if you let it, and make you slowly feel a little claustrophobic…

Cotton and lavender seating plan -www.photographybykatie.co.uk

So since that major marketing turn I have met the most amazing women (and the occasional man) this past year, all with their own stories about how and why they are self employed, learning off each other, supporting each other, laughing at how we manage things, laughing at how we don’t manage things….. friends for life.

I now have set days in the month to take time out to spend with family and friends, I do have to work it into the diary, but that is just my way of managing my time.

The vintage drawer collection from vicky trainor flat linen table numbers from £8.00

Your ultimate top 3-5 tips for any woman looking to take a leap of faith and set up her own business?

1.  Talk to plenty of people who are already in business, keep in contact, they may be good mentors for you while you start up and when you are established.  Hook up with someone who has had a ‘good’ experience of being self employed, someone who you see as successful and is maybe in a place that you would like to be in a few years time.

2.  Use your time wisely – make plans – write lists (I have lists to tell me what my lists are for!).

3.  Stay away from social networks until the ‘serious’ work on your list has been conquered and then spend time catching up with people!!  I have worked on a few interesting projects/commissions that were found through twitter last year.   It is a fabulously powerful marketing tool and also a great way to meet new people who work in your industry. 

4.  We can get trapped in the world of the email.  Try and talk to your clients either in person or on the phone where you can, even if it is only in the beginning stages – Life is so busy that we tend to communicate within a limited amount of characters or one sentence answers but it is so refreshing these days to hear a voice!! 

5.  Take time off.  Because you DESERVE it!! Ensure you have some time away from the business.  (I only say this because this is the part that I still can’t solve and have problems with – it is my focus for the year ahead)…

The making table 

What tips do you have for balancing work/personal and family time?
Oh my goodness I don’t!!   I would appreciate any advice in the comments below! 

After miserably failing to balance the above last year I have now gone into 2012 with some gusto.  I try and stay away from the computer until after I have taken the girls to school.   (Staying away from the computer first thing in the morning is like trying to keep away from cake when you are starving). I take the girls to school and work til 3.  I am now aiming to not work on the business from 3 o’clock until 7 in the evening. 

This free slot, I have promised to myself, is the time that I play with my children, make something that resembles a family meal, and pop on my domestic goddess piny and try and make the house look like a habitable area for once. (this normally means shoving piles of ‘things’ under furniture and spraying a bit of polish in the air so I fool everyone that I have been indeed sticking to my ‘keeping on top of everything plan’).  But I don’t know about anyone else. I strive to find the answer.  I find trying to implement some form of routine impossible, because every week is so different, and every week has different deadlines and commitments, so I just have to adapt the best I can.  Most importantly not feel guilty when sometimes I fail.  I can, at times, forget if homework has been done, when a party invite has just sat in their school bag, monitor if they have had their 25 nutritional food values a day…

The vintage drawer collection from vicky trainor place ties £4.00 each

But running your own business is the most amazing and rewarding experiences of your life.  The people you meet, the confidence you gain, the opportunities it brings, it’s challenging and uplifting, it-is-fabulous…and most importantly I am here in my home (most of the time) with my children which is one of the reasons why I seriously took the walk to self employment again.  But don’t get me wrong I couldn’t function if it wasn’t for the support of our parents.

Not only do they rescue us when we are drowning in a sea of work commitments but they also intuitively know when we need help.  My husband is a teacher, so he always has boxes of work coming through the door with him and we try and work in the same room at night.  I used to be stubborn and try and prove that I could cope with everything life threw at me, not anymore, it is impossible to even try and contemplate being super woman.  So I accept help offered graciously and appreciatively. 

Vicky working on the shoot - www.photographybykatie.co.uk

What/who inspires you/how do you stay inspired?
It is important to me to have music on in the studio and that inspires me to keep motivated and there is nothing like a dance when no-one is looking.

My inspirations change on a daily/weekly basis.  An illustrator, a vintage dress, a Sunday stroll, a trip to the theatre, a leaf in the park, antique fairs, old photograph albums, holidays in my caravan.  It’s a continuing addictive process of taking photographs, drawing, I’m obsessed with filing and scrapbooking and buy far too many lifestyle books and magazines, I drive everyone mad as I never want to throw anything away, I’m a hoarder of treasures.

The vintage drawer collection from vicky trainor bookmark  that come with a decorated box £6.00

I spend far too much time reading, scanning magazines, blog-scaping, a two minute coffee break can turn into a 2 hour marathon of totally indulgent research.  I continually revisit the paintings of Bonnard, Carolyn Quartermaine’s styling, Robert Rauschenberg’s varied use of media, Warhol’s fashion illustrations, Eugene Atget photography, Angie Lewin’s botanical designs, the prints of Celia Birtwell, the addictive visual world of Emma Cassi, Midwinter ceramics, the sketchbook paintings of Sabrina Ward Harrison, Charley Harper’s bird illustrations, Elizabeth Blackadder’s watercolours, the musical poems of Bob Dylan, the paintings and prints of David Weidman and Olle Eksell.  I could spend hours, days and years immersed in the V&A, formal gardens, the lake district, and hours, days and years writing a list of what influences me, it is such a continual and enriching cycle.  My current obsession are the floral paintings of Vernon Ward.

I also stay inspired by constantly looking outside of the market I work within. My new collection (launching in February) is a series of personal paintings and drawings inspired by the painter Bonnard, Vernon Ward, fifties bouquets and layers and layers of colour, mark making and dancing florals…

Lace window with oversized brooch - image credit www.beckymitchell.co.uk

How do you go by setting yourself apart from your competition?
By not looking at their work too much.  Don’t get me wrong, I have a very good understanding and knowledge of what is happening out there in the stationery world and know some of my competitors very well, some are my friends.  I appreciate and admire what they do.  It is so easy to be inspired by the market you are in and what everyone is doing particularly if you submerge yourself in their world far too long than is really required.  To me it is important and so exciting to work in different ways.

I tend to be more interested in interiors/lifestyle inspiration and artisans/designer makers than what is happening in the stationery world.  I always want to strive to work in different directions.  My degree is in Textile Design and I specialised in embroidery so it was great to be working with fabric again with the launch of The Vintage Drawer last year.

Love birds

What are your career highlights to date?
It has just happened.  I have been wanting to organise and work on a photo shoot for a while.  But again didn’t want it to be solely about stationery.  After meeting photographer Becky Mitchell at the Love My Dress Soiree we chatted about wanting to do something that was more about my passion for colour, pattern and styling as well as a creative collaboration between businesses from the industry.

I have learned so much, it was challenging and away from my comfort zone but so rewarding and four months of planning ensured that the days we were working ran smoothly. I am just waiting to see the final results, lots of editing to be done.

**Watch out for the full photoshoot appearing on Love My Dress soon!**

Tea cups

Any career/business lows, and how did you overcome them?
In the early days of my stationery business, I was still teaching part time – my bread and butter money.  But I was juggling far too much and resulting in not doing a good job of anything. What seemed like the most stable and financial thing to do would be to keep the lecturing post, but I didn’t!!  I took the plunge in 2010 to work full time for myself.  Unfortunately 5 months after this happened my husband was made redundant, it wasn’t a good time in Teesside for many families at this point with the closure of Corus.   We do talk a lot about ‘chapters new’ in our household, making life interesting.

So we took the opportunity available for Jamie to make a career change and return to his early passion of teaching.   This meant that eventually we would both be working in an area that we both were passionate about.  So I took on  more orders while Jamie could help around the house more, while he studied, and we got through it.  Looking back I don’t know how, as it was a challenging and scary time, but we did, and everything is so good now.

Brooches

Any books/magazines you would recommend?
Oh Comely, Mix, old copies of the Bloom journals, old Vogue magazines from the 60’s and early 70’s, HeartHome, Country Living, Selvedge and anything by Pia Jane Bijkerk. 

What are your thoughts on wedding blogs, and the role they play in the wedding industry?
As a small and creative designer/maker of stationery the support of blogs has played an integral part of the development of my business.  They have allowed me to have a voice regionally, nationally and internationally.  They inspire, inform and challenge the way we approach this industry and re-affirm that it is important to stay true to your style and what you believe in.  They are also a great way to introduce brides and grooms to clients, businesses to businesses, a cross pollination of ideas and approaches to this exciting industry we work in…

New haberdashery stationery-image credit www.beckymitchell.co.uk

If you weren't a super star wedding business owner, what would you be?
A folk singing, guitar playing florist.

Do you have any thoughts on the 'vintage is a fad and on it's way out' debate of late? 
An appreciation of previous era’s is a continual cycle in the world of design and art, we have always looked back and we will always continue to do so.  It has always been a way of life for me, I have always been a collector, a hoarder, a junk shop potterer and have permanently got my head stuck in the door way of a charity shop.  But my Nana always used to say that everything has it’s time again. 

 

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Thank you so very much Vicky for taking time to share your story with my readers, who I hope are feeling as inspired as I am 🙂

To find out more about Vicky Trainor, please visit the Vicky Trainor website or blogThe Vintage Drawer websitite, or Vicky's Studio Snippets blog. You can also follow Vicky on Twitter and Facebook.

Remember, Vicky would like to offer all my readers a 15% discount on any orders from her Printed Collections.  Love My Dress readers can also use the code ‘FLOWERLADY’ to receive 15% off over at Vicky's Etsy store. Both offers are available until 28th February.

You can read my previous interviews with inspirational business women here – and next week, my interview subject is set to fill these blog pages with rather a lot of pretty sparkle and shine 😉

Much love all,

Annabel

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

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