Nurture
This week, the first full week back in January, I’ve finally had a bit of time to start making some plans for Land Tales in 2025. It’s something I’ve been looking forward to doing ever since I wrapped up and posted the last Christmas order back in December, but had to put on hold for a couple of weeks to focus on family time.
To help me start planning, I’ve chosen a word of the year for Land Tales, to help guide me and the business through the next twelve months.
When choosing my word, I toyed with “balance” as it captures a lot of what I’d like to achieve this year: balance the books, balance the mix of products and prices within the range, and achieve a balance between work and life.
But I also wanted a word that reflects the growth I’d like to see for the shop over the next twelve months. So, I’ve chosen the word “nurture”. I like that it captures the idea of caring for something small and delicate, and helping it grow healthy and strong.
I see 2025 as a year of slow, gentle growth for Land Tales. The online shop is still less than a year old – it'll turn one in May – and while it’s tempting to start running away with grand plans for more pop ups, collaborations, and new facets to the business, I think this is a time to stay focused on working towards small-but-meaningful goals, and really getting the basics of online shopkeeping right.
With this word in mind, here are three things I’ll be focusing my energy on nurturing over the next twelve months:
The range
I’m incredibly excited to develop the range of products in the Land Tales online shop this year. I hope to bring in a small number of new makers whose work I think will sit beautifully alongside the existing products, and I’d also like to work with my existing makers to come up with new ideas and bring back some sold-out customer favourites.
After a busy couple of months leading up to Christmas, there are definitely a few gaps appearing on the shop shelves, particularly when it comes to ceramics which are such an important part of Land Tales. This is a chance to fill those gaps with some gorgeous new things.
The challenge will be to do this in a way that’s manageable for the business. Margins, especially with ceramics, can be very tight (especially when you factor in the cost of wrapping and postage for ceramics, which can be high). It’s a fine line to tread, keeping the shop stocked at the right level and keeping the books balanced. I’m gradually learning how to get this bit right!
The online shop
Whilst I do enjoy hosting an in-person pop up shop every once in a while, Land Tales’ main home is online, and I want the online shop to be as good as it can possibly be.
So I have plans to add and improve lots of aspects of the site. There will be a new wishlist feature so that you can curate a list of your favourites, and dedicated Maker Pages to share a more in depth look at the people and places behind the products – the “tales” bit of Land Tales. I’d also love to add new photos to show products in different lights and at all angles.
I have lots of other ideas and improvements in the pipeline, which I hope will make the experience of being a customer with Land Tales – whether you’re discovering the site for the first time or you’re a regular visitor - as enjoyable and shoppable as possible!
The community
The small but growing community of Land Tales email subscribers is very special to me indeed. If you’re signed up to receive Land Tales emails, you might have noticed I like to share little treats with email subscribers, whether it’s a first look at new products, a behind the scenes view from the shop, early access to a sale or occasionally a little extra with your purchase.
This is something I want to develop further, by creating seasonal offers for those signed up to the email list as a way of showing how much I appreciate them. So if you’re signed up to Land Tales emails, expect to see plenty of goodness landing in your inbox this year. And if you’re not signed up yet, here’s a link to join the list!
I’d also love this to be the year I dedicate some proper time to nurturing the Land Tales Instagram account. If I’m honest, this can be a bit of a demoralising task, when so few followers get to see each post thanks to the fickle algorithm, and I'm good at coming up with excuses not to do it! But I’m determined to approach it with new energy and optimism this year and to see if I can connect with more people who, like me, are excited to support good things made all around the UK.
So that’s it: my word of the year is nurture! Nurturing this little seedling of a business and helping it to grow into something strong and steady.
Whilst the plans might not sound overly bold or radical, I’m so excited to get started and to see what a year of nurture brings for Land Tales.
If you’d like to follow along in 2025, don’t forget to sign up to join the email list, and follow on Instagram.
Hannah x
Sounds wise and good for everyone – customers and shop!