Behind Love & Tiers: Building a Small Business Around Family Life
Love & Tiers may be an online baby gifting boutique, but behind the website, carefully curated gifts and beautifully tied ribbons is a small independent business — and like many small businesses, it has to fit around real life.
Building a business alongside raising a family isn't always perfectly balanced.
Some weeks there is plenty of time for new ideas, product development and photography.
Other weeks, the carefully written to-do list barely gets touched.
And that's something I've gradually learnt to accept.
The Idea of "Balance"
When I first started building Love & Tiers, it was tempting to think that with the right planner, schedule or productivity system, everything could somehow fit neatly into place.
Business.
Family.
Home.
Life.
All perfectly balanced.
The reality is rather different.
Running a small business around family life isn't necessarily about finding perfect balance. It's often about deciding what needs your attention right now and accepting that priorities will change.
Sometimes Love & Tiers gets more of my time.
Sometimes family life needs more.
The important thing is continuing to move forward.
Building a Business in Small Pockets of Time
One of the biggest lessons of running a small business around children is learning that progress doesn't always happen in long, uninterrupted working days.
Sometimes it happens in surprisingly small pockets of time.
An hour might be enough to photograph a product.
Thirty minutes might be enough to update a product description.
A quiet evening might become the perfect opportunity to sketch out an idea for a new collection.
Small pieces of progress still count.
And over time, they add up.
Accepting That the To-Do List Never Really Ends
There is always something that could be done when you run a business.
A website page could be improved.
A photograph could be better.
Another product could be created.
A social media post could be written.
An email could be answered.
For a long time, that endless list can make it feel as though you're constantly behind.
But a small business is never really "finished".
There will always be something to improve, and learning to distinguish between what needs doing now and what can wait makes everything feel much more manageable.
One Thing at a Time
I've become a big believer in taking things one step at a time.
When you have lots of ideas, it's very easy to start all of them.
A new collection.
A website change.
Packaging.
Photography.
Christmas.
Marketing.
Then suddenly everything is half-finished and nothing feels complete.
So I'm learning to build Love & Tiers differently.
One product.
One collection.
One improvement.
One decision at a time.
It might not always be the fastest way to build a business, but it's a much more sustainable one.
Letting the Business Evolve
Love & Tiers has changed since it began, and I'm sure it will continue to change.
Some ideas work.
Some don't.
Some products evolve into something completely different from the original plan.
And occasionally an idea gets put aside until the time is right.
That's part of building something.
Rather than trying to create the finished version of Love & Tiers immediately, I'm learning to let the brand grow thoughtfully.
Remembering Why Love & Tiers Exists
Amongst website updates, product descriptions, photographs, packaging and everything else involved in running a business, it's easy to become absorbed by the tasks.
But at the heart of Love & Tiers is something much simpler.
We create gifts for moments people want to remember.
A new baby.
A baby shower.
A first Christmas.
A thoughtful surprise sent to someone you love.
Those moments are why the details matter.
And they're why Love & Tiers continues to grow.
Behind Every Small Business Is a Real Person
One of the lovely things about shopping with an independent business is knowing there is a person behind it.
Someone chose the products.
Someone prepared your order.
Someone noticed when something didn't look quite right and did it again.
Someone probably became far too excited about a particularly beautiful ribbon.
At Love & Tiers, every order matters because every customer is choosing us to be a tiny part of an important moment in someone's life.
That's something I'll never take for granted.
Still Building
Love & Tiers is still growing.
There are new products to create, collections to develop and plenty of ideas waiting patiently for their turn.
It won't all happen at once.
And I've decided that's okay.
Because we're building Love & Tiers thoughtfully — one beautiful gift at a time.
Beautiful gifts.
Thoughtfully curated.
Made to be remembered.