74 When did you start up and why? I think my journey to becoming a greeting card designer and starting up a business is not typical. I left art college with a degree in graphic design and my first job was working as an in-house Graphic Designer at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. This was an amazing first job, I learned so much and met so many fantastic people. At the time GOSH’s website was a centred page of links in Times New Roman on a Microsoft cloud pattern background! I was keen to embrace any opportunity and took this challenge on, learning website design and coding, I created their first website, or what we might consider one to look like now. Working alongside WellChild charity, we then developed an animated children’s website with interactive games helping children learn about their bodies and conditions. However, this was also before the culture of working from home and not having to live near the place you work. I moved and took a similar position at The University of Leicester for the Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group. When I had my own children, I thought having my own business would give me flexibility and an ideal work/life balance – it’s certainly given me flexibility, but I was maybe naive to think that owning a business would give me more time for the family! We launched in 2009 at Home & Gift, armed with more than 100 digital samples on a tiny stand, a catalogue, website (obviously) and a tonne of enthusiasm. What challenges have you overcome since the company’s launch? You have challenges to overcome all the time when you are running a business. Naturally things change and I’ve learnt that you have to move and adapt to meet changes. Certainly, consumer demand is something that evolves and the change from cello-wrapped to a reduction in single-use plastics has been a challenge for us when the alternative options are not ideal. However, I now see change as an opportunity to do things better. 2023 brought a change of ownership and creative direction for Molly Mae, but this has brought a freshness in creativity and a new motivation to grow. Tell us about your product offering. We are known for beautiful hand-drawn illustrations and patterns. We are also the go-to company for niche titles, many of our customers know we’ll offer those hard-to-find titles alongside very strong occasion cards. Baby, Wedding, Sympathy and relations, we offer cards that the buyer is delighted to source, and the recipient is delighted to receive, for that very special occasion. What are your most popular products? Sadly, sympathy are our bestselling cards, our stockists tell us that they struggle to keep their shelves stocked and that our cards strike the right note for one of the most difficult occasions to buy for. Have any styles taken you by surprise with their popularity? Cards featuring pets or animals surprise us in their popularity, we certainly are a nation of animal lovers. Our social media posts that feature one of our pets, or one of the animals on the farm where our office is based, get more comments than others. We recently published a reel on Instagram where one of the chickens appeared to inspect the delivery, it made us smile and appeared to amuse our followers too. How do you keep your designs fresh and current? Do you follow trends? Our designers work collaboratively, bringing in different influences and ideas, therefore keeping our designs innovative. We follow trends in fashion and homeware, mainly to influence our colours, but keep the focus of our design work on our target market. Molly Mae cards appeal to those who appreciate beautiful, hand-drawn designs. What sets you apart from your competitors? In this industry your designs are what make you unique but as well as that we also have a close relationship with our independent retailers. We fulfil our orders
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