“I am the proud Founder of Creations by Roxy; a beautiful small greeting cards business. I am delighted to say that I have reached the one year anniversary. Creating beautiful cards whether it is bespoke or cards that let my imagination and ideas run wild allows me to enter a therapeutic and enjoyable creative place. I love creating, I love the great feedback and I love when people want more! Although I enjoyed some aspects of craft as a youngster; I wasn’t really aware that I had a creative ‘flair’ until maybe a few years ago or perhaps I wasn’t too fussed then with the idea of creating. I have been working in John Lewis for 4 years and every now and then I embark on some merchandising duties where I have been told on the odd occasion that I have ‘the eye’- the creative eye, I guess. I would say that I do enjoy merchandising and making things look pretty. What’s better is that I have full control over my creations and where to put what where, what colour matches best with the other and so forth.”
RL: Before my journey began, I enjoyed using moon pig to create lovely cards for my friends and family, the choice of uploading pictures to the cards were what I loved the most. I remember thinking to myself- why can’t I do this by myself without the need for moon pig!? Later, I then had an idea of designing and creating cute and courteous thank you cards for my niece’s first birthday, I remember going to the photocopying shop to scan my nieces picture for the inside of the cards and thinking to myself being in possession of a scanner/photocopier would very much so come in handy for days like these. On completion of the cute teddy bear thank you cards I received many compliments which made me smile, not forgetting how fun it was to create them! Through the teddy bear thank you cards, continued compliments, the enjoyment of using moon pig and giving a unique card to my friends and family; I decided that I would make cards myself for leisure, this lead me to embark on my business Idea. From here- plans were made, equipment and stock was purchased and Original Creations by Roxy was born. I had no idea of where it would soon lead me, all I knew is that I would have a lot of fun designing, creating and selling cards!
RL: I began my journey with very little resources; therefore I faced a few challenges such as time spent completing cards were doubled because at the time I hadn’t had the equipment in order to speed things up (simple things like organised storage has made all the difference). I am still in the early stages of my business so I still face a few challenges. I am working on developing a website for my business; having no website faces obvious challenges such as being noticed less online, not reaching my target market as much as I would like.
RL: I cannot identify one individual in particular who I would say has been my greatest influencer, however what I would say is that there are many successful business founders who I recognise. They have once had a dream, started out similar to myself and are soaring through the business world. They have kept me motivated through my journey. I would love to be where they are one day and that is what keeps me moving and also it keeps me setting goals.RB: What is the vision for your business and where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
RL: Many people love cards, to give and to receive. My vision is to reach more of those people who enjoy unique cards through making my greeting cards available in multiple retail stores and also I want to finish my website in order to sell online but also to reach people in search for cards like mine. I have already put in place offering more than just greeting cards but I have plans of branching out even further and expanding my range in the future, I will keep you posted on that, I have great plans.