Sophie Spiers - Rabbit & Co.

 www.rabbitandco.co.uk 

I started my company Rabbit & Co. in October 2010, almost a year after our move out of London to rural Suffolk.  I had given up my job in London; although I loved my job (I’d been with the company for 11 years, in a senior management role) I wasn’t interested in commuting and wanted to spend as much time as possible with my family. The other side to that was a longing to keep an aspect of my life that was separate from looking after children; to have something in my life where I wasn’t primarily someone’s mum.

A few years ago, my husband created a beautiful personalised work of art for one of his godchildren. A couple of years later, and a few more godchildren, nieces and our own two children were welcomed into the world, and new works of art were created accordingly. People’s reaction to the pictures was overwhelmingly positive – everyone was enchanted by them. The problem is, my husband is an architect, and the art is just his hobby.  So the solution seemed obvious; he had no time to market or to sell his pictures, and I was looking for a part-time job... and hence Rabbit & Co. was born. Initially, I set up the website with the 8 or so prints that we’d already created, and then as orders, suggestions and commissions came in we increased the number of prints available. Each print can be personalised as the customer wants it – usually with a name and date or birth, but we have had requests to include birth weight, special messages and even colour changes, which we are able to accommodate.  We now have 20 customisable pictures available (and more being added when time allows), and these grace walls all over the UK as well as France, Belgium, Eire, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Uganda and the USA.

At the moment I spend about two days a week working; of course these are not standard office-hours, as I am still looking after my children either side of school and pre-school, so we’re talking a 9.15-3pm working day.  The benefits of being self-employed are clear – my work fits entirely around me and my family. I really look forward to seeing my girls again at the end of my day, and knowing that from that time onwards the office door is shut (until they’re in bed, at least!).

On the other hand, the down-sides of being self-employed are well-known; I do occasionally long for a salary, paid holidays, being surrounded by people with whom to have decent commercial discussions and who can help inspire and motivate.  This is where social media channels like Twitter come into their own – you can generate an office-like buzz if you choose to, or simply engage in some sociable banter during a coffee break. Networking groups such as WiRE have proved so useful – in the most basic terms, it’s handy to have access to a lot of local people, in roughly the same boat, wanting to talk about the same sorts of issues.  It’s been a real eye-opener to see what an enormous amount of small, thriving, businesses there are in this area, and what a vast range of trades they cover; I think that is the real rural success story.