The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
We’ve found one of the main challenges we’ve had to (and continue to) work to overcome is how to make an ethical business successful. Neither of us are motivated by earning lots of money, and making sustainable play accessible is one of our central goals for our business, so our margins are small. We want our creators to be paid a fair wage to support their families, and we don’t want earth-friendly play to be something that only the wealthy have access to. This means we are constantly trying to find and create things that allow us to provide these resources to families at a reasonable price while paying our creators fairly, valuing our own time and effort and trying to have financial sustainability so that we can keep fighting the good fight! Working with sustainable resources is both exciting and challenging – finding things that are genuinely non-wasteful takes time and research; creating products that are non-toxic and planet-friendly requires lots of trial and error and searching for the right raw materials and packaging; sourcing everything locally and at a fair price for our creators is really important to us but means our margins are small and we have to work at small scales.
Social media is a tricky beastie for us – neither of us is particularly social media savvy and the changing face of how it is used and how to be seen is constantly challenging for us! But it’s also a wonderful way to engage with our community and showcase our creations and it drives much of our sales, so we continue to learn and adapt! It’s a constant re-education process for us but we feel like we’ve managed to learn and grow so much already and are always continuing to make better decisions.
We’re really proud that we’ve managed to provide a range that’s authentically sustainable to people and celebrates nature-play in a really joyful way.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
The pros are absolutely that we get to engage with something that we are passionate about on a regular basis; we get to create really fun ideas and products that we are super proud of and really enjoy; we get to work together being creative and innovative; we are engaged with a group of creators that are inspiring and authentic and incredibly hard-working; we have a wonderful community of loyal supporters who we are so grateful to; and we get to feel proud that we’re making a small difference for families and the planet.
The cons are simply the perils of small business work – the epic life juggle, the long unpaid hours, the constant learning process to gather new skills and insights, and the frustration that sustainable products are so challenging to find, create and provide to the world. But we’re excited about where the learnings we’ve already gained will take us!
Hopes and dreams: What next?
We have recently released a new play-kit and potion-play range and we feel really passionate that these products give parents so many options for creating mindful, fun play and learning invitations. We would love to see these kits taking off both through our website and in some select stores that align well with our brand, and so our next endeavor is to find these beautiful stores and to start giving people store-front access to our products. Ultimately, we can really see ourselves creating more resources that bring together play and learning opportunities, so we’re excited to expand our line to provide more learning materials that are resourced with natural play items and celebrate the earth and all its biodiversity!
Head to the A Little Wild website to shop their beautiful range of products, and follow their journey on Facebook and Instagram.
