A New Chapter
Posted by Lorna Morgan on 29th Sep 2020
A lot has happened in the last few months. It's safe to say that even whilst the world suffers from a pandemic, we have been busier than we ever could have imagined. The last six months have been difficult for many businesses, and just like everyone else, we were absolutely terrified at the start. With lockdown keeping people out of work, we were really concerned about what that might mean for the future of Cleave's. After all, people wouldn't necessarily have a budget for luxuries anymore, and with our kids being home full time, would we even have the time to make enough stock to support ourselves?
Well we didn't need to worry for long, as it soon became clear that our wax melts were a source of comfort and excitement for our customers. A bit of normality i guess, in an otherwise stressful and emotional time. For a lot of people, their Cleave's parcel was the only thing they had to look forward to. Our business has absolutely boomed during this pandemic, and we feel so incredibly blessed to have had, and to still have, the support of not only our regular customers, but new ones too.
As for ourselves, it has been incredibly challenging. We have had to adjust to a whole new level of orders and to unhealthy working hours so as not to impact on the kids. For a couple of months, Jemma, our team member wasn't able to work with us during packing weeks due to social distancing regulations, and this meant myself and Dan were working at full capacity every spare minute that we possibly could. It was like we were always together but never actually got to see each other.
As every Restock gets bigger and busier, it gets increasingly harder to remain organised. We currently work in a tiny little dining-room-come-wax-room at the moment, and products and deliveries have just been piling up in every spare corner of our house. Truth be told, we can barely walk in our wax room some days! Packing orders after a restock has been especially hard. We've had to designate different rooms for different tasks. Dan would build boxes in the living room, Jemma would pick out orders in the wax room and I would be pouring samples in the kitchen. It's absolute chaos after a Restock, and even once the very last parcel has been posted, it can take us days to get the house back in order. Honestly... mayhem.
But that's all about to change. And excuse my French, but it's about bloody time!
For well over a year, we have been discussing what the next step is. Will we get a shop? Should we rent an office somewhere? Do we push the boat out and get a warehouse? Well after months of searching for the perfect place, we decided to go the whole hog and kind of do it all! Below is a picture of our new pride and joy:
Please ignore the rather shoddy looking "signs" that I have amateurishly edited onto the building. But here she is. The new Cleave's HQ in all her edited glory!
So this is pretty much what has come out of COVID19 for us. We are so grateful that through such a difficult time for so many, we have managed to continue to grow. It's quite miraculous really, given the number of large companies who sadly have gone under during this time.
Obtaining this building has been no easy task. We've been trying to land this one for months! Anyone living locally will know that buildings like this in our area do not come up very often at all. Unfortunately, the previous tenants were affected by COVID and couldn't continue on with the building, but it was the perfect timing for us. So we feel very lucky indeed. It hasn't been easy... I had to work my butt off for this place. We had competition, and so all applicants were required to write rental proposals and business plans. That alone took up so much time. I was not ready for the amount of work involved just to acquire an empty building! So many hours researching, writing up plans, emails back and forth, phone calls etc. It was an agonising wait to see if we had been picked from all those who had applied. We didn't even know who they were, so it was scary not knowing what we were up against or what they might be offering. And it was even harder hiding it from all of our customers.
Alas, we were rewarded at the end of a very long wait, the property is ours and we couldn't be happier!! It has everything we need and more; from a large workshop, to an office area and staff room. It even has a whole room which we will be dedicating to our very own shop! It has so much potential and we're just itching to get in there now and put our stamp on it. Gone will be the days of carefully shimmying past boxes of supplies. Gone will be the nights sat at my computer desk with no elbow room. You guys, we are actually going to have space!
It feels like we've been waiting forever for it to be our "turn" for something big like this to happen. For the time being, Cleave's will be very much the same. We'll still be working limited hours whilst our youngest is at home a lot of the time, and we'll still be doing monthly (or 6-weekly) restocks. But who knows what the future holds? Now we have the room to expand even further, what's next for us?
Thank you so much for reading, I hope you somewhat enjoyed my waffle. Keep an eye out for future blog posts as I hope to be able to share with you all our moving-in journey and behind the scenes snaps of the shop taking shape! It's all so exciting.
Much love,
Lorna xx