6 minute read
Talking Shop
Catching The Worm
In the case of Heidi and Dom Early, the couple behind the publishing and retailing Earlybird business, these ‘early birds’ have done a lot more than catching a worm. They have stoked the community spirit with impressive results in Stoke Newington (where their shop in based), taken the local council to task over road closures successfully securing funding for a marketing campaign for fellow businesses - and took home two Retas trophies in the recent retailing awards.
PG sprinted to catch up with Heidi and found out what’s on her slate for 2022.
“I can’t tell you what winning those two Retas awards meant to Dom and I. We still feel so utterly proud,” exclaimed Heidi Early, who heads up the retailing side of the Earlybird business, a card shop in the north London enclave of Stoke Newington, while Dom concentrates on the publishing side. “It made us appreciate just how important awards are, especially for small businesses such as ours. We can’t really do appraisals on ourselves, so achieving recognition like this from the industry means so much. And having put the trophies in our window, the comments from our customers have been wonderful,” adds Heidi about the reaction to Earlybird winning the Best Independent Greeting Card Retailer - London award as well as the Best Retail Initiative category for its Windows of Hope campaign.
Heidi admits that winning The Retas awards prompted her and Dom to “take a step back and reflect on what we have achieved over the last 18 years since we first opened the shop. Normally we are thinking about what we haven’t done and what we need to get done!” Heidi is certainly a ‘doer’, but is also a great ideas person, as evidenced by the Windows of Hope campaign, which was feted in The Retas. This lockdown initiative, spearheaded by Heidi, saw many fellow retailers and businesses in the Stoke Newington area, create their own messages of ‘hope’ that they displayed in their respective windows to raise the spirits of the local community.
“Hope is what we needed then to get us all through what was a very unsettled time. There was a feeling of helplessness and those messages in the windows along our street somehow united us, and made things feel a little bit better” recalled Heidi.
The engagement and response this realised has spurred Heidi on to ever more ambitious projects to safeguard the Stoke Newington retail and business economy.
Top: Heidi and Dominic Early with their two Retas trophies at the awards event in November. Above right: A colourful mandrill design by Emma Jayne (which Earlybird publishes on cards) fronted its Signs of Hope window. Left: The festive window of Earlybird’s shop, complete with Christmas ‘tree’ made from upcycled card samples.
“I really like making things happen, but I know that I can’t do these things on my own. Thankfully there is such a strong sense of community in Stoke Newington that people do get involved and get on board if it is something worth fighting for - and protecting the health of the high street is worth that fight,” believes Heidi. “The Government and local councils need to ‘get’ how important a local high street is to the local community. They make some decisions without thinking of the consequences,” she adds.
A prime example of this was the imposition of road restrictions close to Earlybird which had a dire impact on many fellow businesses. “Our trade went down by 30%, but others were down by 50%-80%,” relayed Heidi. “I just couldn’t stand by and see something precious - our high street - be destroyed.”
Working together with like-minded fellow businesses a plan was quickly forged for the See You In Stokey campaign, to promote local businesses in the all important run up to Christmas, with Heidi persuading the local council to stump up £5,000 towards funding it.
“As Stokey is home to a well-known illustrator team, Rude Studio, they came up with some great branding for the campaign,” explained Heidi, with the contemporary graphics being used on posters, banners, pin badges and totes. The campaign launched officially on December 4 with a Christmas event day that coincided with Small Business Saturday. All the local shops and restaurants participated, and the day culminated with the Christmas lights being turned on at the fire station Christmas tree, right in the heart of Stokey. “Various businesses gave away goodie bags, a local pub gave away mulled wine and local butchers gave away ‘stokey pokey’ sausages! We had local children switch on the lights, a ukulele band and local choir. It was such a hit!” said Heidi. “We now have to keep it going.” Heidi’s next mission is now to set up the Stoke Newington Business Association, and has drawn on the expertise of fellow indie retailer (and Retas winner) Sally Matson of Red Card in Petworth who chairs a similar set up in her vicinity. “Sally has been so helpful in sharing her experience. This way we will have a proper voice with the council and possibly government. I am lucky that we have lots of great people with creative ideas round here which really does give me hope that we can protect and nurture our precious high street for many years to come.” Spoken like a true multi award winning retailer!
Top: A shot from the film that was made by local estate agent Location Location inside Earlybird, highlighting that all the giftwrap stocked is recyclable and decorative paper tape is also available. Above: The eye-catching branding for the See You In Stokey campaign was created by Rude Studio. Left: Heidi (second right) and Dom (far left) Early with Tim Gould (Objectables) and Sarah Laker (Stationery Supplies, Marple) having drinks at the ‘PG pub’ at the end of a day at Spring Fair.
The Double Life
“I love the double life we lead and can’t imagine it any other way,” says Heidi about Earlybird being both a retailer and a card publisher. “The benefits work both ways. The shop is a great testing ground for our card designs, which means we have firsthand experience of how they sell in our shop before we launch them at the trade shows, which means we have more confidence in them when selling them to other retail stockists,” explains Heidi. She also feels that having such a direct link with the public through the shop means that gaps in the market can be spotted and if relevant, make their way into Earlybird’s card portfolio. “We keep a book in the shop, which I call ‘the bible’ in which we write down all the requests we receive from customers for cards they are looking for but can’t find any suitable,” reveals Heidi. “This highlighted how there was not enough choice of modern styled cards for godson, god daughter and cousin. There is now!,” she added. Heidi continues to be amazed at the number of cat cards that are sold. “I know that pet ownership soared during lockdown, but honestly, we are definitely in a period of cat craziness, the number of cat designs we sell is off the scale, which encouraged us to further expand our Buddy and Betty pet range,” she clarified.
