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JEREMY’S JOURNAL Business blogging by publisher Jeremy Corner of Blue Eyed Sun.
Step By Step Jeremy Corner, owner of greeting card publisher Blue Eyed Sun and distributor of BambooCup, looks back on The Ladder Club. It’s been 20 years since industry friends Jakki Brown and the late Lynn Tait held the first Ladder Club seminar in Westcliff-onSea to help new publishers avoid rookie errors that had previously led to the demise of so many start ups in our industry. Starting any business is tough and there are always risks. The pair felt that much of the heartache and loss of financial investments that goes with business failure could be avoided with a little heart-felt, loving guidance from those of us that have already been there and done it. I’ve been privileged to have been a keynote speaker at The Ladder Club for three quarters of its existence, so I thought it would be nice to share some of the key lessons I’ve learned at the event over the years.
Successes The Ladder Club has had some fantastic success stories, with alumni including the likes of Paper Salad, Wrendale Design, Redback Cards and rising star Megan Claire, as well as a host of exciting and innovative publishers that have brightened up the offering available to card buyers globally. Ask most up and coming talents in our industry how they’ve managed it and invariably they will share the importance of The Ladder Club or the Greeting Card Association and the supportive ethos behind them. Top: Lynn Tait (left) and Jakki Brown, founders of The Ladder Club. Above: Wrendale Designs’ ‘A Christmas Cracker’ festive box of cards. Right: Jeremy with Mark Janson-Smith (Postmark, London) who talked about card retailing at this year’s Ladder Club.
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PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Failures The successes are still outweighed by those Ladder Club alumni that don’t make it. It’s easy to see how the statistics for 80% of UK businesses failing in the first five years still holds true. I myself am so grateful to be in business with Blue Eyed Sun after 18 years as it’s no easy feat to survive and thrive in a highly competitive market like ours. There are a host of reasons for companies not surviving or continuing, but without The Ladder Club this number would surely have been greater still.
expanded their empire (originally from a market stall) to 34 shops. Getting started is key, what happens after that is down to focus, hard work and luck.
Humble beginnings
Acorns into oaks
We all start small. Even the biggest companies in our industry came from humble beginnings. Woodmansterne started its card business with a tiny range of stained glass window images and has ballooned into a £14m business. The Art File launched on a 1m x 1m stand at Spring Fair in 1998. Our first stand was a 2m x 2m at Top Drawer in May 2000. All retailers start small too. I remember selling to a single Scribbler store on the Kings Road back in 2000 before John and Jennie Procter
Bill Gates famously said that “most people overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” Timothy Melgund, now Paperchase’s deputy chairman, shared with us at The Ladder Club this year that when he and Robert Warden staged the MBO of the then embryonic group 22 years ago, they thought that they’d take Paperchase to 25 stores and he’s astonished that they now have 257 outlets. After the many years I’ve been at trade shows it is remarkable to see the massive transformation of so many businesses. The sky really is the limit. I myself can’t quite believe how far Blue Eyed Sun has come and that we’ve been honoured by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.