Mums That Mean Business Featuring Antler Crafts

Mums That Mean business is our weekly series that goes live every Wednesday. Each week we feature a work at home Mum and her business.
You can catch up with our last weeks feature Melanie & Three Little Pigs.

This week we have the lovely Heidi and her business Antler Crafts.

 

Meet Our Work at Home Mum Heidi

1. TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOU AND YOURS.

My name is Heidi and I run Antler Crafts. I now live just inside Worcestershire after moving from Stratford upon Avon 2 yrs ago and have lived in and around Warwickshire most of my life . I’m engaged to Mike and have 2 boys Jake 11 and Oliver 6 and our pet is little Alfie who’s a parrot – not a noisy one Luckily!

 

2. WHAT MADE YOU START A HOME BUSINESS?

I’d been wanting to make some wooden decs amongst other things since having a Facebook Xmas group where a few of us mums talk all about Christmas, my favourite time of the year.
Over the years I’d got to see many Facebook pages for hand-made things and was in awe of lots of lovely things. In 2015 I finally purchased a few items and created some Xmas decs to hang in our home. I found a few mdf suppliers on Facebook and ordered some wooden reindeer. I painted them and covered some with card and showed them to friends on my fb and they thought they were fab and I should make to sell. That’s how Antler Crafts was born. It had to have Antler in the name as I love Stags.

 

3. TELL US ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS, WHEN YOU STARTED AND WHAT YOU MAKE.

Officially had my 1st order on April 15th 2015 after starting a fb page. Since then I’ve been very lucky with regular orders and to date have taken 327 orders. Many with multiple items requested. Whilst making these orders many see something else they hadn’t previously spotted or I’ve added a new item and they request it’s added to their order. I buy in all sorts of shapes made from mdf and ply plaques. I paint and decorate free hand which creates lovely keepsakes for home and gifts. 90% of my items are festive themed because I love Christmas and there is so much wood out there to buy and paint it’s great.

 

4. WHAT IS YOUR TYPICAL DAY LIKE?

Typical day starts off with me waking with alarm and checking kids are up.  If my order books are open I’ll sometimes network briefly in bed on my mobile to craft groups I’m on. Always having my page link handy, to add to any post to get my name out there. My work photos are on my mobile so I can share a photo and page link quickly if someone’s looking for something I make .
Kids fed and watered and eldest catches bus at 7:45am and I drive the youngest in for 8:15am. I will fetch a bit of veg or bread on the way home and sometimes start making dinner for that night.

Completing Orders

Once I come into my craft room (next to the kitchen) the radio or iPod goes on. I’ll reply to messages
and send out invoices for new orders and reply to my pages comments and then tackle orders. I’ll paint till 2pm ish and then get ready to do the school run.
Once the dinners on, the kids do the dreaded homework and dinner is done. The kids get washed and pjs on and watch the soaps. They love a bit of Emmerdale just like mummy lol. Once in Bed I’ll either chill with tv and network a bit or if I’m really busy I’ll go and do a bit more painting. Have been known to be in there till 3am! Then up at 6:45am zzzzz. Mike works shifts, 2 weeks lates then 2 weeks earlies so we get to see him for breakfast or dinners. So when he’s on lates it’s a good opportunity for me to do more painting and get more done.

5. WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHER MUMS CONSIDERING WORKING FROM HOME?

I thought it was ideal to start work from home to make it more suitable for my family. The kids have so many holidays and Mike working shifts meant that I couldn’t go out and get a regular job or work evenings. And the weekends are ours to catch up and spend time as a family. The daunting thoughts that entered my head to register myself with HMRC straight away was dead easy, then got myself liability insurance and making sure I kept all relevant paperwork and receipts for tax return. Once that’s all done your set up.
I thoroughly enjoy making these keepsakes and my customers are lovely. They get so excited with seeing their finished order when I send them progress photos, then finished photos. I like to know that my money is in safe hands if I purchase from a fb craft page for the 1st time … so seeing progress photos and final photo is reassuring and me discussing the order and general chit chats via messages and then showing photos is something they appreciate. I only post via signed postage so I forward them a photo of the receipts for further reassurance.

 

Don’t Put It Off

For anyone thinking of working from home I say don’t be put off by it. If you don’t get orders instantly don’t give up. Some fb pages take a year or 2 to get going. Network hard, join craft groups suitable for what you will make and always have your page link and work photos on your mobile. Commenting on posts and leaving a photo and link quickly is a must before the post gets hundreds of comments!
The biggest joy from this is making things I love and knowing people’s homes all over the uk and NI are littered with my beautiful keepsakes for years to come. I’ve many returning customers and they love Christmas as much as I do. So knowing they love and appreciate my work is humbling.

Don’t delay! Get the wheels in motion and do something you love. You can make someone’s day when they receive the order you’ve lovingly made.

Handmade is best xx

 

Thank you very much Heidi for taking part. You can follow Heidi and her fab business below. Please do pop by and say hi!

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Are you a work at home Mum who would like to feature in our series? Or perhaps you know somebody who would? Then please send me a message at stickymudandbellylaughs@gmail.com and I will send you the details across.