In March 2022, Research and Development Consultant, Leanne Tickle, started her own furniture and home décor business out of her garage at her home in Great Orton, near Carlisle.
In those early first days of the business – which is called Little Tickles + co – Leanne contacted Cumbria Business Growth Hub for start-up support. After almost a year of trading, we caught up with her to find out how things were going…
Leanne’s passion for fixing and making things started at an early age, but her love for woodwork grew during lockdown as she used the extra time she had to build beds for her two children and an outdoor play castle, as well as other bits she needed around the house. After having success selling her products to friends and family and on Facebook Marketplace, Leanne decided to turn her hobby into a business and Little Tickles + co was born.
Since then, Leanne has expanded the Little Tickles + co range into tables, bookcases, and smaller home decor items which she sells through her Etsy page and at craft fairs around Cumbria. In the run up to Christmas, her Christmas tree and house ornaments were selling like hot cakes!
The Scandinavian influence is clear in the style of Little Tickles + co’s products, as well as the current trend for emphasising the natural quality of wood by for example, leaving the bark on wooden shelves, an effect called ‘live or waney edge’.
During this first year of trading Leanne’s Cumbria Business Growth Hub adviser, Gail Gravett, has been on hand to assist and advise. As with all her clients, Gail has drawn on her expertise in setting up and running successful businesses, finance, marketing and customer relationship management to help Leanne in her new business venture.
Leanne said:
”The Growth Hub has enabled me to organise my ideas and helped steer me in the direction I wanted to go. I can’t thank Gail Gravett enough for all of her help so far.”
Gail was also able to contribute to one of the core principles of Leanne’s business, sustainability, ensuring that the products of Little Tickles + co are made in an environmentally responsible way.
Leanne’s sustainability strategy involves using recycled materials, either picked up locally or sourced from the Rebuild Site in Carlisle, to make her products. The Rebuild site sells surplus materials from construction sites which would otherwise go to landfill. When recycled wood not an option, Leanne uses locally sourced wood and offsets this by donating to the Realise Forest Project, a tree planting initiative led by Realise HR in Kingmoor Park in Carlisle, which is due to start in early 2023.
Another of Leanne’s aims with Little Tickles + co is to engage children in woodwork by doing workshops in schools. A recent workshop involved making wooden Christmas tree ornaments out of pallets.
“I have seen on the faces of my children and their classmates just how much they enjoy being creative. I would love to expand this more in the coming year.”
Leanne admits than her business has “grown quite quickly without realising it.” And that, due to the amount of satisfaction she gets from managing Little Tickles + co, “it doesn’t really feel like work.” Looking to the future, Leanne plans, “to continue to be better. To hone my skills, to keep putting myself out there and I’ll see where it takes me.”