Do you know what the no.1 reason is that product businesses fail? It's not legal problems, it's not finance problems, it's not even marketing problems. In this episode, you'll find out what it is, and how to avoid it.

You'll learn:

• Why everything starts with the customer [03:47]
• The reasons why getting your target customer right will help your business [06:09]
• How knowing your ideal customer can help to develop a good partnership with a UK manufacturer [08:01]

Stay in Touch

British Brand Accelerator-A 6-month group programme for small businesses who want to manufacture and sell profitable UK-made products.

Make it British website

Join Make it British-become a member of our community and promote your business in our directory or UK-made brands and manufacturers

Make it British on Instagram

Make it British on YouTube- subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch many of the podcast episodes as videos.

Enjoyed this podcast? I also have a private podcast called 'British Brand Bedrock'.

The British Brand Bedrock private podcast feed answers more than 30 of your most commonly asked questions on starting and growing a British-made Brand.

Subscribe to British Brand Bedrock here

Mentioned in this episode:

Find the Right UK Manufacturer Every Time with our Quick Start Guide

Are you struggling to make UK manufacturing work for you? If so, you need our handy quick start guide to working with a UK manufacturer.

Quick Start Guide

Download my Selling Price > Profit Calculator that goes with this episode here.

Recently Bentley Motors announced their financial results for 2022, which revealed they'd had their best year ever. This is a luxury car brand, made in the UK, having a phenomenal year during a cost of living crisis.

In this episode I discuss what small business can learn from Bentley's recent success, especially when it comes to price positioning.

You'll learn:

• Why Bentley Motors had a phenomenal year in 2022 [01:48]
• What you need to calculate before you discount your prices. [03:21]
• Why profit is vanity and turnover is sanity. [05:37]
• Two valuable lessons you can learn from Bentley's pricing strategy. [06:28]

Read the Bentley Motors financial results for 2022 here.

Stay in Touch

British Brand Accelerator-A 6-month group programme for small businesses who want to manufacture and sell profitable UK-made products.

Make it British website

Join Make it British-become a member of our community and promote your business in our directory or UK-made brands and manufacturers

Make it British on Instagram

Make it British on YouTube- subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch many of the podcast episodes as videos.

Enjoyed this podcast? I also have a private podcast called 'British Brand Bedrock'.

The British Brand Bedrock private podcast feed answers more than 30 of your most commonly asked questions on starting and growing a British-made Brand.

Subscribe to British Brand Bedrock here

If you love factories, then today I have a little treat for you, as we are going on a factory tour with Contrado, who are a print on demand company.

Contrado are a truly impressive UK manufacturer. They not only print fabric, leather and other surfaces like glass and pottery, in their huge facility in West London, but they also stitch bags, clothing and accessories from their printed fabrics, and even make furniture as well.

Listen in on my tour around the factory with Chris Childs, co-founder of Contrado, and then a deep-dive into the story behind the business and where he sees the future of uk manufacturing going.

You'll learn:

• What kind of capabilities the Contrado factory has in order to keep up with customer demand [02:44]
• How a small business could utilise Contrado's low MOQ's to test out different product types [05:51]
• How Chris and his wife Fran started the business from humble beginnings [10:05]
• Why technology plays such a big part in the business [15:14]
• How Chris manages his skilled workforce to create over 500 different products [18:10]
• What systems Contrado has in place to guarantee happy customers [22:34]
• How the business has tapped into multiple international markets [27:11]
• Where Chris sees the business going in the next 20 years [32:46]

More from Contrado

Contrado on Instagram

Contrado Website

Bags of Love Website

Stay in Touch

British Brand Accelerator-A 6-month group programme for small businesses who want to manufacture and sell profitable UK-made products.

Make it British website

Join Make it British-become a member of our community and promote your business in our directory or UK-made brands and manufacturers

Make it British on Instagram

Make it British on YouTube- subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch many of the podcast episodes as videos.

Mentioned in this episode:

Find the Right UK Manufacturer Every Time with our Quick Start Guide

Are you struggling to make UK manufacturing work for you? If so, you need our handy quick start guide to working with a UK manufacturer.

Quick Start Guide

When you run a UK-made brand you need to wear a lot of different hats!

In this episode we explore all of the different jobs you need to do and the skills you need to have, on top of producing fantastic products.

You'll learn:

• Why being the chief executive officer of your business is your first title [03:08]
• How managing marketing content plays a vital role in running a business [05:47]
• Why you need to be in control of your production and why you can't rely on manufacturers to do this for you [07:01]
• How managing your finances can make or break your business [08:35]
• What role plays a crucial part in determining your environmental impact [12:25]
• How to decide which of these jobs you might outsource first [15:22]

Stay in Touch

British Brand Accelerator-A 6-month group programme for small businesses who want to manufacture and sell profitable UK-made products.

Make it British website

Join Make it British-become a member of our community and promote your business in our directory or UK-made brands and manufacturers

Make it British on Instagram

Make it British on YouTube- subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch many of the podcast episodes as videos.

On today’s episode I am chatting to Maxine Wells, who is the founder of Intimate Apparel Samples, a small lingerie studio in North West London.

Getting lingerie made in the UK can be challenging. Whilst the UK once had thousands of machinists making underwear for the likes of Marks & Spencers, sadly there are only now only a handful oflingerie manufacturers left in the UK.

I took a trip to Brent Cross where Intimate Apparel Samples is based to ask Maxine why there aren't more lingerie manufacturers in the UK and the benefits of having a great relationship with your manufacturer.

You'll learn:

• How Maxine set up Intimate Apparel Samples after she had her own lingerie brand [03:14]
• Why Maxine believes there is such a lack of lingerie and swimwear manufacturers in the UK [05:30]
• The main pitfalls when it comes to making lingerie, and Maxine’s advice for how to avoid them [09:49]
• Why having a great relationship with your manufacturer is so important [12:43]
• How Maxine ensures she gets the fit right for her clients [14:49]
• Why Maxine enjoys meeting the clients she works with to build a working relationship [23:40]

More from Intimate Apparel Samples

Intimate Apparel Samples on Instagram

Intimate Apparel Samples Website

Stay in Touch

British Brand Accelerator-A 6-month group programme for small businesses who want to manufacture and sell profitable UK-made products.

Make it British website

Join Make it British-become a member of our community and promote your business in our directory or UK-made brands and manufacturers

Make it British on Instagram

Make it British on YouTube- subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch many of the podcast episodes as videos.

Welcome to Series 5!

After taking a couple of months hiatus to focus on writing my book, I'm back with a brand new series.

I'll be answering all of your most commonly asked questions about manufacturing, marketing and selling products that are made in the UK, and have some fantastic guests lined up for this series too.

In this episode you'll hear a snippet from Selling Without Social - a workshop I ran recently, which covers all of the different ways that you can market and sell your UK-made products without using social media.

You'll learn:

• What Make it British has been up to during the podcast break [01:29]
• Why you should look at other forms of marketing, other than social media [04:59]
• How UK brands and businesses are currently feeling about social media [06:26]
• Which other forms of digital marketing offer a higher return on investment [09:48]
• Why it's dangerous to rely on social media to build your business [13:40]
• Which marketing content has the longest lifespan [17:07]

Selling Without Social

An onlineworkshop covering 140 different ways that you can market and sell your product-based business without using social media!

Sign up at makeitbritish.co.uk/sws and you’ll also get a £10 discount as a podcast listener.

Stay in Touch

British Brand Accelerator-A 6-month group programme for small businesses who want to manufacture and sell profitable UK-made products.

Make it British website

Join Make it British-become a member of our community and promote your business in our directory or UK-made brands and manufacturers

Make it British on Instagram

Make it British on YouTube- subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch many of the podcast episodes as videos.

Hello and Welcome to Series 5 of the Make it British Podcast.

The new series is coming very soon. The first episode will be released on Friday 3rd March.

In the meantime, I wanted to tell you about a few things we have coming up, that if you are a listener of this podcast you will probablybe really interested to hear about.

Selling Without Social

An onlineworkshop that I will be hosting on Thursday 23rd February.

Covering all of the different ways that you can market and sell your product-based business without using social media!

Go to makeitbritish.co.uk/sws and you’ll also get a £10 discount as a podcast listener.

British Brand Accelerator

The doors for our group coaching programme, British Brand Accelerator, are opening at the end of this month (February 2023), but only for a very short time.

If you know you’re serious about launching or growing your business in 2023, then make sure that you sign up to the waitlist. We will then send you all the details ahead of the official launch, so that you can get first dibs on a spot.

Go to makeitbritish.co.uk/apply to save your spot on the waitlist

British Brand Bedrock Podcast

British Brand Bedrock is a private podcast feed covering over 30 of the most commonly asked questions that we get asked at Make it British.

Want to subscribe to this special, private podcast feed? Go to makeitbritish.co.uk/bedrock and you’ll be able to sign up.

Make it British - The Book!

Something really exciting that I wanted to tell you about, is that I am writing a book!

That’s part of the reason why I took a break from recording the podcast for a couple of months, as I wanted to focus on starting on the book.

The book will, of course, be about manufacturing products in the UK. And will include case studies on some of the very best UK manufacturers and British brands.

If you are interested in being one of the first to get hold of a copy of my book go to makeitbritish.co.uk/book to get more details :)

As always, I love getting your feedback about the podcast. Please do keep those comments coming, either as a review in your favourite podcast app. You can find a whole back catalogue of over 250 episodes atmakeitbritish.co.uk/podcast

If you want to contact me about anything you hear on the podcast please drop me an email to [email protected] that way your message will go into my VIP folder and won’t get lost in the Make it British inbox, which can be a very busy place at times.

Having worked with hundreds of British brands over the last few years, and speaking to them about what is working for them right now, and what they see working in 2023, here are 11 ideas you can use for growing your British brand in 2023.

Discover:

• 02:31 Why being a small business means you're in a great position right now
• 05:12 The 11 ways that you can grow your brand in 2023
• 29:35 How joining British Brand Accelerator can help to hit your goals in the next year
• 30:27 Why now is a good time to reflect on the past few years of business

Mentioned in this Episode

YouTube Live - How to Build a Brand in 2023

Stay in Touch

British Brand Accelerator-Find out how you can work with me to build your British-made brand

Make it British website

Join Make it British-become a member of our community and promote your business in our directory or UK-made brands and manufacturers

Make it British on Instagram

Make it British on YouTube- subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch many of the podcast episodes as videos.

Meet Siwan Oldham, the founder of ByBiology, a business that is giving to scientific research by creating the most beautiful luxury silk scarves. Siwan talks about how her business idea came about, the reason she decided to manufacturer in the UK, and her journey so far in building the brand. Discover:

• 03:59 What Siwan's background is and how the idea for her business came about
• 05:10 Why Siwan knew she always wanted to print her silk scarves in the UK
• 07:52 The challenges Siwan faced during the process of lauching her business
• 10:58 How Siwan prepared for her launch to ensure it would be successful
• 18:04 Why Siwan believes it's important to invest in the key parts of your business
• 22:20 How working with UK manufacturers means Siwan can test the market with different products

More By Biology

By Biology Website

By Biology on Instagram

Mentioned in this Episode

British Brand Accelerator-Find out how you can work with me to build your British-made brand

Luxury Silk Scarves Celebrating the Art of Science- Watch on YouTube

Stay in Touch

British Brand Accelerator-Find out how you can work with me to build your British-made brand

Make it British website

Join Make it British-become a member of our community and promote your business in our directory or UK-made brands and manufacturers

Make it British on Instagram

Make it British on YouTube- subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch many of the podcast episodes as videos.

Sarah Turner is the founder of Little Beau Sheep, a brand that celebrates the best of British wool through a unique range of hand-made laundry and body care products.

Flying the flag for British wool, the Yorkshire-based entrepreneur came up with the idea of eco-friendly laundry balls to help families save money on washing. In this interview we chat all about how British wool has influenced Sarah and her brand.

Discover:

• 04:01Why Sarah invented her cute wool laundry balls.
• 07:34 How's she's grown the business from being a maker to employing staff to help with the manufacturing.
• 08:22 What the benefits are of using British Wool.

More Little Beau Sheep

Little Beau Sheep Website

Stay in Touch

British Brand Accelerator-Find out how you can work with me to build your British-made brand

Make it British website

Join Make it British-become a member of our community and promote your business in our directory or UK-made brands and manufacturers

Make it British on Instagram

Make it British on YouTube- subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch many of the podcast episodes as videos.