This is me discussing bunting, bunnies and getting a business started with budding entrepreneur and the creator of OHNORACHIO! Rachel Basinger.
After walking into Rachel's immaculately tidy and bright waterfront flat I was blown away by the amount of cute home ware she owns. Bunting, cushions and trinkets adored the living area where we sat down with her hamster named Echo to discuss OHNORACHIO!
“So Rachel, how did you get started with your online store?”
“I started when I made my friend Katie a bunting banner, I was trying to think of nice things to make her that you can’t find in the shops. I was playing around with a font that I found online and then I made this banner and took it to her party. When she opened it everyone was like “what, you made that?!” I was really happy with the feedback people were giving me and they were shocked that I was’y selling them so that was when I first started thinking about it. People started mentioning Etsy to to me which made me decide to set up my own little shop selling hand painted custom banners.”
“Why did you call it OHNORACHIO!?”
“Well, OHNORACHIO! was always my twitter name and I just thought it had a nice little ring to it.”
“Why did you decide to broaden your shop and not only sell banners and bunting?”
“I started making more presents for people. I made the cuddly bunnies as a present for a friend and everyone was like “they’re really cool” so I thought if people think its cool then I’ll put it on my website. I then made a plate for my boyfriend for his Christmas present a couple of years ago and people liked it so I started making them for my house and people always commented on them. I kind of decide what to put in my shop by gaging peoples reactions, but now whenever I make something for a friend or for home I always just make extra and put them on the site.”
“Who or what inspired you with your cute designs?”
“I spend a lot of time looking at blogs online, I like blogs where people are crafty or interior designers or like pretty food or people who take photographs of everything they do! I’m a really visual person, I’m constantly scrolling through blogs. I also love typography so when creating my banners I spent a lot of time looking through vintage circus posters on websites. I love it when people use a lot of photoshop typography on their blogs. Little things like that tweak the inspiration in me. Most of my drawings come from little doodles. I have a sketchbook I take everywhere and my bag is always full to the brim with pens so if I’m bored I’ll just doodle and then it will sometimes turn into something nice.”
“I don’t have just one person who inspires me but other Etsy designers are nice to look at. I would never copy someone, I think that would be wrong but I do draw inspiration from colours people are using and things like that. At the moment macaroon/pastel colours are in and thats what inspired me to do my business cards in the colours I did them in. Those pastels are quite nice for my up and coming baby range, I think I will do a set of baby plates with a minty green.”
“What plans has OHNORACHIO! got in the pipeline?”
“Well I’m working with a few galleries at the moment, one gallery in Liverpool is called Nook and Cranny and they are going to use a lot of my stuff in their window display which is really cool and so surreal! I also have the Aspex gallery in Portsmouth stocking my animal broaches and a lot of cards. There are a few other little places I am starting to build up connections with. I was also approached by the website notonthehighstreet.com to stock on their site so thats something I’m looking into. This was really nice because they’re invite only and they actually found my stuff and came to me.”
“Etsy was a great start off to your business, did you think it would lead to more opportunities?”
“No I don’t think so, I always started it as something to just do in my spare time as I love art and making things. Its something fun and its one of those things that its quite flattering when people actually like what you do. You make something and your quite proud of it but when other people would actually pay their well earned money to buy the things you’ve made its a really great feeling. So I didn’t really see it going anywhere but now that it has its more strings to my bow and its really nice to have more people and galleries actually liking my work.”
“What advice would you give to young people intending to start up their own business?”
“Oh wow, I could say something really inspirational like a one liner which would properly knock everyones socks off but I cant think of one! Hmm, in a nut shell, go for it. You don’t know whats out there until you give it a try. You should have confidence in your own abilities, if you think something is good and your proud of it then other people will think the same. It doesn’t take much to set up a business particularly on Etsy, its free and simple to use. Once you start expanding you can set up your own blogs/website/twitter pages to self promote. I think the more self marketing you do the more well known you will get. Having a business like mine is such a nice positive booster which you don’t get from many other things. When people go to your shop instead of John Lewis to buy a birthday present is such a nice feeling. I really appreciate individual designers and I know loafs of people do. And if your one of them just don’t hold back, just go for it. That is my motto!”
