From face masks and scheduled walks to clapping for the NHS, we all remember going through lockdown. But while for many it was a time of working from the kitchen table or being furloughed, for Danielle Flynn, 27, from Liverpool, it was also an opportunity to start the ultimate side hustle.
Starting with just £10, the engineer took full advantage of her enforced time at home and started a new venture – a handmade gifting business. Now turning over thousands of pounds a year, she also has a huge online following with millions of Instagram views of her work. Here, she reveals how she did it – and how you can replicate her success…
Lockdown was a quiet time for me three years ago. I was furloughed from my job as a full-time engineer. I was fed up – I love being busy – so I decided to put my spare time to good use. I adore gift-giving so I started dropping mini graze boxes filled with fruit and homemade cakes on my friends’ doorsteps as a little pick-me-up. And it just escalated, it’s that simple.
Friends started to share their gifts from me on social media and, just like that, I had people messaging non-stop, trying to place an order. The timing was perfect as people were stuck at home but wanting to send gifts for birthdays and other celebrations, so the orders and recommendations started to roll in.
That’s where Gift and Graze properly began. Now we’re a marketplace with more than 50 creative businesses selling everything
from handmade jewellery to phone charms and delicious personalised traybakes. I can’t believe how far we’ve come. I’ve always been ambitious, but I’ve never had a clear idea of what I wanted to do. I loved maths in school so I opted for an engineering career, but I never expected a side hustle in a creative field.
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In the beginning I was working crazy hours to please customers. I answered every message and delivered everything the same day. My boyfriend Connor [Murphy] is the director of the company, managing the website development and customer service side of things. It all began as a bit of fun and now it’s a huge passion project for us. Eventually I was called back into work full-time and couldn’t keep up with the Gift and Graze orders. I’d made online friends with other small businesses whose products I loved so instead of losing all my hard work, I made quite a sudden decision to boost the brand and turn Gift and Graze into a marketplace, displaying and selling my favourite handmade gifts that I found online.
Gift and Graze products on Danielle's website (Gift and Graze)
With her boyfriend Connor, who is also the director of the company (Gift and Graze)The idea was to provide a platform to spread joy via gift-giving while giving other makers the financial freedom and support they need to pursue their dreams. Most people think you need lots of money to get started and become established, but I didn’t have any budget or much money – just a spare tenner in my back pocket!
Small profit
I started with that £10 and made to order one single product for a customer at a time, because I was unsure if anyone was going to buy again. Then I rebought stock and paid for ads with any profit I made. At first it was a small profit and that literally went back into buying the next lot of stock.
There will always be setbacks along the way – looking back I’m not particularly proud of the first batch of products I sold – but it’s all part of the journey. The experience has definitely made me tougher. Switching from our own products to a marketplace made us lose a lot of our initial audience, who were just after local drop-off gifts in Liverpool, and it was a challenge to regain our fanbase. We tried some events like outdoor markets, too, which took a lot of investment and had no return.
And managing customer service became a lot more challenging. Even now most weekends we still have to stop for some kind of business mini emergency. It’s full-on – that’s a side of things no one sees.
It’s definitely still a side hustle for us. We still have full-time jobs but we work a few hours each night and on weekends. It seems a lot but to us it doesn’t feel like work. It’s a fun project we can have a go at together and see how far we can take it. I’m a pretty relaxed, calm person. You just need to keep moving forward and give it your best shot.
Nothing is impossible
Being surrounded by people who encourage my dreams and believe in me has been important and the main reason I’ve achieved what I have to date. The power of social media is massive, too. Around 80-90% of our orders are through platforms like Instagram and Facebook. It’s shaped our business and helped it grow beyond belief. I’d encourage everyone to use them as much as possible.
The other thing I’d say to anyone thinking of starting a new business is to use all the free help out there. YouTube, TikTok and [online learning community] Skillshare are fantastic. Nothing is impossible, you just need a goal and a plan to get there.
Don’t be hard on yourself though if you don’t get sales. It’s going to happen many times. Go back to the basics and ask yourself, “Why wouldn’t I buy from this company?” Or, “Why do I buy from this business?” I’m a go-getter and believe everyone is capable, you just need the self-belief to get you there. I’m also a business mentor for The Prince’s Trust. It’s so important to work towards gender equality, giving equal opportunities and reminding everyone that the sky is the limit.
“Every occasion is worth celebrating” is the motto behind Gift and Graze, and I always say to others, “Maybe your occasion is yet to come.”
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