What is it like to launch a crafting subscription box?

It's finally happened! The Make Happy Club box has arrived and subscriptions are open. In case you didn't know already the Make Happy Club box is a crafting subcription box but unlike other embroidery subscription boxes or cross stitch subscriptions that already out there, The Make Happy Club box is all about stitching for good! So you can recieve a new surprise project to stitch every month whilst also finding out about more the different charity that we are donating to that month.

It was pretty nerve wrecking on Saturday when subscriptions finally opened. So I thought I'd tell you what that morning was like behind the scenes - as it's not something that you get to see... It started at 8am - I woke up early to make sure that everything was ready for the launch. I hadn't slept much at all both due to a combination of nerves and excitement! Being my first time launching a subscription box I had no idea how it was going to go. That is both part of the fun and terrifying thing about being your own boss - you have to make all of the big decisions and take responsiblity for the outcome of them (eeek!) I had spent months designing the boxes themselves and I ordered the boxes in advance as I wanted them to be custom designed and super special. This was a bit of a risk as for a tiny business it is a big investment - so they were currently sitting in my outdoor storage space making me feel a bit apprehensive. "What if nobody liked the idea of a stitching subscription box...what if I just ended up getting stuck with loads of boxes?1" Feeling a bit like an imposter I was worried that nobody would show up and that I would spend the morning looking at the website with nobody keen to subscribe and join the Make Happy Club. Luckily this worry was unfounded! The day prior to launch I had filmed a short video to share on Tiktok and Instagram announcing that the subscriptions were open, so I quickly edited the footage on my phone using the app Inshot and set it to some music ready to upload it later. Before going downstairs and pouring myself a black coffee. I then came back upstairs to my little rainbow studio and settled at my desk. I went into the backend of my website and checked through my subscription box listing. I had written it a few weeks ago, so I read through everything to make sure that the information on the listing was accurate and double checked the subscription payment system once more. I had written a blog a few days ago revealing what the first project in the box would be (click here to read it) so I also made sure that the links in the listing correctly linked up to the blog post. Just in case anybody wanted to have a sneaky peak at the contents of the box before subscribing. I then made the listing live on my shopfront. This allowed me to copy the listing link and put it up onto the bio's of my Tiktok and Instagram profiles so that it would be easy for anybody to find the subscription box. Whilst I copied the links onto my social media channels I suddenly recived an email... I had my first subscriber sign up! I couldn't believe it! There was still half an hour to go before I was due to announce that subscriptions were even open! This was very reassuring and made me feel a lot more relaxed about the whole day - at least one person believed in my subscription box idea (yay! Thank you Anna!) I sipped some coffee...with a slightly happier glow than I woke up with and then quickly made sure that the email for my newsletter subscribers was scheduled for the right time and was all gramatically correct. (better to double check these things!) At 10 minutes to 10am I uploaded the launch video to Tiktok and Instagram. I then also added some images to my stories on Instagram and a swipe up link.

It was 10am...time for action! The scheduled email was sent out and I opened the back end of my website and waited with baited breath to see if anybody else would be interested in joining The Make Happy Club. I watched my website and suddenly could see using the analytics on my site that 5 people were on the Make Happy Club page all at once! It was very exciting I was watching people in real time join the Make Happy Club! Everytime somebody subscribed it felt like another little boost of confidence in my ideas and my heart swelled with grattitude - every subscriber is somebody that believes enough in my idea and designs, to want to join in for themselves and stitch lots of lovely things which is such a magical feeling! With every new subscriber I was calling downstairs to Mike (my partner) with excitement and he would shout up some encouragement! After an hour or so of checking the website - whilst being interupted by little meows outside the studio door from Gumi and Mochi. I decided that I couldn't just sit in all day nervously checking my laptop. So Mike and I packed up a rucksack and went for a long woodland walk...it ended up being about 16 miles....(we couldn't feel our legs the next day...but thats another story!) Since the launch day we now have 23 Make Happy Club members so far and I'm so excited to see this little creative community keep growing! But even more wonderful is that so far as a creative community we have fundraised £69.00 in donations for Friends of The Earth UK (£3 from each box sold this month (May) will be donated to Friends of the Earth via Work for Good!)

Subscriptions are open until the 20th of May so there is still time to join our little creative community! I hope this blog finds you well! Speak soon, Becci x