International Women’s Day 2020: Interviewing Bronte Laura Illustration

Bronte Laura Illustration Website | Bronte Laura Illustration Instagram | Bronte Laura Illustration Etsy

Tell me about your business. Why did you start it?

I never planned on starting a business – originally I guess I was just looking for a creative outlet. I spent a lot of time doodling during my first year of uni, and my mum came up with the idea to put them on cards. It was around this time that I first heard about Etsy and figured I should put my designs up for sale there. I don’t know what my original intention was, but after my first few sales, I quickly learnt that I loved the thrill of selling my own handmade products and posting them across the globe.

Over the past four years, my shop has progressed massively from my original “doodles”. My illustration skills have come a long way and so has my product range. I’m constantly looking for ways to improve my greetings cards, and I’m at a point where I’m really proud of how far I’ve come. I’ve also expanded my product range to include: vinyl stickers, colouring books, prints and an award-winning zine about sloths!

What are the pros and cons of being a woman in business?

I don’t know if I’d say there are any. I understand that this is a very valid and real question for women in other areas, with the gender pay gap or discrimination in more male-centred roles etc. But for me, that’s just not the case. 

Maybe this is my white privilege talking, but I really don’t feel like my being a woman makes a difference to the outcome of my business experiences. In the indie business/illustration area, I’ve found that as long as you are pleasant to work with and professional, then I don’t think most people care what gender, shape or colour you are. Even more so online – customers spend the most time looking at my products, and if they like what they see then I don’t feel like they particularly care about the person behind them, more the person it will be going to.

There are definitely pros and cons of being in business, but I personally don’t think it matters that I’m a woman in business.

Do you ever feel disadvantaged as a woman in business?

I can honestly say that in my area of business I have never felt at a disadvantage because of my gender. Perhaps because of my age when I first started, but I was 19 with no business knowledge and only my student loan for financial backing. I was surrounded by full-grown adults with years of experience and it was a little intimidating. But that was just motivation for me to work harder, thinking “that’s could be me in X years time”.

In my personal experience, most of the businesses similar to mine (handmade crafts made from home etc.) are all run by women anyway, all in a similar position to me. We are all just winging it and making it up as we go along, trying to turn our dreams and passions into careers to provide for our homes and families, and I think that is generally respected and admired.

What advice would you give to other women who are wanting to start their own businesses?

GO FOR IT! You’ll never know what could be if you don’t try.

But don’t expect everything to fall into place immediately, or even in the near future. It takes years of hard work, late nights, constant learning and improving and a lot of persistence. And then later in life you start, the harder it may get, as things like having a mortgage and raising kids might take priority. But if you have the passion and the drive then anything is possible!

Start small and easy. Set up an Instagram and a Facebook page. Write one blog post a month, post your favourite artwork on your Insta, upload a few items to Etsy. Whatever your business may be, make sure your voice is heard. Turn your whisper of an idea into a shout people can’t ignore.

I’ve found plenty of support groups on Facebook to help you throughout the process and I would definitely recommend joining some! There are Etsy teams for most areas in the country – I’m a member of Team Leeds and it’s a game-changer. Hundreds of other business owners going through the same journey as me, whom I can share my successes and downfalls with and ask and offer advice. They also have monthly in-person meetups and host an Etsy Christmas Market each year, which I have attended as a seller twice now and it’s so much fun! Basically, there are people out there that want to help – find those people!

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Finally, I would 1000% recommend purchasing the Indie Roller Handbook as your first/next step because there is SO MUCH information in there – it’s the indie biz bible! It’s got literally everything you need in there, from planning your biz to branding, manufacturing, selling and marketing – everything! 

I was really struggling with the business side of things and would constantly say to myself “I just want someone who knows what they’re doing to just tell me what to do”. Then I discovered the Indie Roller Handbook and it was the lightbulb moment I’d been looking for.

Click here to find the Indie Roller Handbook! (I’m not being sponsored to say this, it just is really that good!)

Promote your favourite product!

I’m gonna be really cheeky here and give you two of my favourite products. It’s really hard for me to just pick one because a lot of my products have personal stories behind them, about how they came to be made and I feel really proud of everything in my shop at the moment.

The first one is my Sloth Pin Badge. I’d been in awe of all the lovely pin badges on Etsy and Instagram for years and it was always something that felt out of my reach – they’re really expensive to make and I just didn’t know if anyone would be interested in one of mine. But I decided to just go for it, and I set up a Kickstarter campaign with the mindset of “nothing will come of this probably, but it’s an experience nonetheless and it’s exciting”. The Kickstarter was fully funded on around day 3 of 30 and about a month later I was holding the finished product. It was such a milestone for me and my business – something that I’d dreamed about for so long was finally here in my hands! 

Click here to find the sloth pin badge! Price: £7.00 plus P+P

The second item is my custom portraits! This is where you send me a picture of you or a mate and I’ll draw you as a clothed sloth. I love doing these as they look hilarious, they’re so different to anything else I’ve seen and it’s a super fun and therapeutic product to make. Not so much sentiment behind these – I just love making them.

Click here to find the sloth portrait! Price: £10.00

In case you missed it:

Ellie’s Interview (Styling Social) | Jade’s Interview (JallenCreate)

If you want to read more lifestyle-related posts, click here.

Love, Flossie ♡