
Raising money for the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund
After the Manchester attack on the arena in May, I wanted to try and use my design skills to raise some money to donate to the fund and support the victims and their families.
Why
I’m a graphic and web designer, who moved to Manchester in October 2016 and ever since have been finding my feet in Manchester’s creative scene, making friends and attending talks and events.
The Manchester terrorist attack occurred on the evening of my new design contract with an agency in the Northern Quarter. I’ll never forget the sombre journey into work the next day and although I wasn’t personally affected, it soon became apparent that Manchester has more like two degrees of separation rather than six. Like the rest of the country, I watched a lot of news in the days that followed but seeing my neighbourhood and city on the news and visiting St. Anne’s Square to lay flowers was an experience I’ll never be able to describe.
It wasn’t until two weeks after the attack, when I was away at a wedding with friends, who were born in Manchester and I stopped watching the news, I had the space to realise I wanted to do something to help.
Design

Over the last year I’ve flirted with the idea of surface pattern design and I’ve attended lots of workshops in Manchester to see what I enjoy. For a screen printing workshop, I designed this bee, named Fred, which I immediately knew was perfect for this project.

I didn’t need to alter the design much but I wanted to make it more meaningful and adapted especially for #WeStandTogether. I toyed with the idea of adding a heart on his body but it felt too obvious so I altered the wings and replaced them with hearts instead for a subtle change. For the typography, I wanted a typeface that would be quite sombre, yet would create an impact and be clear to read. I opted for Franklin Gothic and added it to the bee to create a badge.

My initial idea was to create patches; I’ve noticed on Instagram how the patch community has grown over the last 6 months and I already own a Manchester bee pin badge so wanted to create something different. I launched the design on the evening of the One Love Manchester concert and was excited by the support and response!
A friend, Simon asked if I’d create stickers for his laptop alongside the patches; I actually liked this idea of having one item at a higher price point (the patches) and another item at a lower price point. I thought if I was creating stickers, I might as well create button badges too (I like to do things in groups of three) and again they would be another lower priced item, and add more variety to my product range.
Research
Before fully committing I wanted to do my homework; I ordered a patch from Hello Do Do and a button badge from Hand Over Your Fairy Cakes to see how I should package my products. I also needed to know the exact cost per item and wanted to source the best deals in terms of postage, envelopes etc. I’ve watched hours of Dragon’s Den and the Apprentice so even though I’ve never made any products before, I knew before I spent any money, I needed to see if the idea was viable and if I could make any profit to donate to the charity. I spent a week populating a spreadsheet, I researched the best prices for:
- Stamps — I found you could buy discounted 1st class stamps in bulk
- Padded and hard back envelopes
- Postcards to back the products onto — I opted for A6 postcards and cut them in half to create A7 cards
- Double sided tape to stick the products to the cards
- Cello display bags to wrap everything in
I didn’t know where to start when it came to which manufacturer to use but as I’ve been doing this for charity people have been really supportive and have made recommendations. I researched the lead times and cost for three patch companies and two sticker and badge companies. I opted for Sticker App for the stickers, Awesome Merchandise for the badges and a patch company that a friend, Sam, had used before for her own patches and pin badges. I didn’t go with the lowest priced patch company but felt more comfortable knowing they came recommended as the patches had the biggest upfront costs and were the biggest risk.
I also knew there would be one off costs or costs that the rest of my business would need such as:
- Domain
- Printer ink for the invoices
- Paper to print invoices onto
- Online shop and Paypal fees
Shop fees were interesting to research into, as even though I’m a Drupal developer, I knew speed was of the essence so wanted to use a platform I could get started with quickly and could easily adapt a free theme. I researched into the costs of:
Even though I’m impressed with both Shopify and Squarespace, I felt because this was a project for charity I couldn’t really add any considerable monthly fees. I liked Big Cartel because you can list five products for free and only pay the Paypal fees. Even though I planned to have my own shop and this was going to be my main selling platform that I would promote, I still wanted to make use of organic search of either Etsy or Folksy. I opted for Etsy in the end because it was a bigger platform.
Finally, I researched into how much to sell each product for. I quickly realised that I couldn’t sell the stickers individually as with the packaging, there was no room to raise any money for charity so I decided to sell them in groups of three. I found badges on Etsy were being sold for £1 — £1.50 and stickers £1 — £1.70. I decided to go for £1.75 for the price point for both my badges and stickers as I hoped people would be happy to pay a little extra for the good cause. I found patches from well known brands tend to sell for £6 — £7 so I opted to hit the middle of this at £6.50. My aim with this project is to raise £500 and I knew the patches would be where most of this money would come from.
Risk
The idea of selling products was something I struggled to get my head around. With graphic or web design, the only real risk is my time. If I spend time writing a proposal but don’t win the work, I haven’t lost any physical money, just my time, which although does have a monetary value it’s something I’m used to after freelancing for seven years. However, with this I needed to find the confidence to risk my own money. I was scared I’d be left with a dining room full of patches. Over the last year, I have had the dream of producing products and donating money to different charities so I knew this would be an excellent chance to see if I could make it work so after a week of deliberating I went for it!
In the end, my total outlay for everything was just over £300.
Manufacturing
The biggest surprise throughout this journey was learning to deal with manufacturers! Usually, I design brands and then build websites so I don’t tend to rely on other people; I found letting go and trusting others with my idea quite difficult. I also found the process a lot slower than expected with delays in emails, most of my emails to the manufacturers would go unanswered for over 24 hours, which after working in the tech industry seemed painfully slow. Unfortunately, my first set of badges, Royal Mail lost in the post so that added a further unexpected delay.
Sadly, my experience in making patches isn’t a positive one. I ordered 100 and I knew from speaking to other designers to expect three to five that I would need to sell as seconds or would be unsellable. However, after waiting weeks and weeks for my patches (they arrived well after the lead time I was promised), when they arrived I had less than 50 I could sell outright. 30 I needed to cut off loose threads, which 11 I could only sell as seconds due to runs and pulls, another 19 were further seconds and 7 were simply unsellable. Unfortunately, it took a further four weeks for the replacements to arrive and I feel sad my first experience with manufacturing hasn’t been an entirely positive one.

Preparation
I had to pick myself up after the disappointed with the patches and simply launch, so I set about building my Etsy and Big Cartel listings. I knew photography would be key and I’m certainly not a photographer so I researched to see how brands I admire like Finest Imaginary, Oh No Rachio and Nikki Williams photographed their products and set about taking some photographs.

I am a perfectionist so I struggled with the idea of launching without everything being just right so I actually photographed the products three times over two days. I experimented with different colour backgrounds, luckily, I had some A4 sheets of coloured paper from another idea I had earlier in the year. During the first photoshoot, I didn’t use any lighting so the shadows were quite harsh so I used my trusty angle poise light and a piece of paper to defuse the light. I can’t even remember why I did a third photoshoot now but I did spend a lot of time (maybe too much time) making sure the photos had the same tones throughout in Photoshop and I was 100% happy with them.
The website theme was surprisingly fun to make! I’ve never actually worked with a free theme before, all of my work is usually 100% bespoke but I just didn’t have the time for this project. I began using the WYSIWYG editor to alter the colours, images and backgrounds and then I began “hacking” the theme until I was satisfied.

Launch
Once I was happy with the website it was time to launch! I posted on all my social media channels and was so excited by the immediate reaction! Friends and family purchased items, shared my content and even strangers (who aren’t biased!) started buying products. It’s true what they say, every time someone bought something I either punched the air or did a happy dance. The novelty hasn’t worn off and I still do that now.

Within a day, I’d sold over half the button badge stock and I always think of the Apprentice market stall tasks, when there’s something selling like hot cakes they’re meant to restock quickly so although I was nervous, I bit the bullet and reordered a bigger batch. By the time they arrived I’d completely sold out, resold my families badges again and had 10+ ordered in presales! I almost reordered the stickers as well but my gut said hang on and I’m glad I waited as I still have stock left from the first batch.
I also went on to launch a Mercht campaign to try and sell a t-shirt with the bee design. I felt comfortable launching a fourth product becaue with Mercht you don’t actually have any up front costs, they handle everything from the orders, printing and shipping. I’ve always wanted to design t-shirts but have been scared of the upfront costs from multiple sizes, different coloured t-shirts etc. The only downside to Mercht is I don’t have access to any statistics; I can’t see how many visitors I’m getting or even when my t-shirts are being sold, let alone who’s buying my t-shirts! I’m happy to say I reached my minimum order and the t-shirts have been delivered!

Mistakes
I’d like to say everything went swimmingly but it didn’t and I made some mistakes along the way…
- Printing the domain, http://we-stand-together.co.uk on the backing cards, not realising I had to have a paid Big Cartel plan if I wanted to add on a domain. I was actually okay with this, the cost was still less than Squarespace and Shopify and although I could have had my products listed for free and I did want to add a discount code for friends, which I couldn’t do on the free platform. I also think adding more than one photo per item really makes the products pages come alive.
- Launching before I had packaged everything! I was so keen to get going I launched as soon as I was finished with the website but I wasn’t prepared for when the orders came flooding in. Coupled with doing my first stall at Plan Bee three days after launch, I was torn between trying to send out orders, promoting the project and get my stall ready. It was a mad few days to say the least!
- Trusting my post office. Unbelievably, my post office told me the wrong price for sending large letters out!
- Launching the t-shirt campaign. I love my t-shirts but it’s a tough sell trying to promote two separate sets of products at the same time.
- Producing patches. I still feel like I made the right decision avoiding enamel pin badges but the feedback about the patches has been that people don’t have anywhere to attach the patches and if they do, they can’t be bothered.
- Possibly pricing my patches too high. I’ll never be sure if I went in at the right price point or not but maybe I should have considered the brands selling at the same price range had a large following (10K+ on Instagram), which I don’t have so maybe that’s contributed to slower patch sales.
- Finally, I do worry the whole process took so long to launch and it’s hindered my sales, especially as it took two weeks to think of the idea and I didn’t have suppliers on hand I could use. I’ve also struggled for time as even though I’m a freelancer, I’ve been working almost full time in the day and then trying to find time for the bees in the evening. I do sadly wonder if I’m too late, as maybe three months after the attack, the country and even Manchester has tired of seeing bees everywhere or have already donated to the fund.
Nitty gritty
I like to think I’ve been fairly transparent about the process so I’m happy to share how the bees have done!
- The first batch of badges sold out within a fortnight and I’ve sold 55% of the second batch. The badges make up 57% of my total sales too.
- I’ve sold almost 70% of my sticker stock and they’ve made up 28% of my sales. However, surprisingly I ended up with more stickers and badges than I ordered and I’ve actually sold 96% of the stock I was expecting!
- As I’ve mentioned, the patches haven’t sold as well as I’d hoped but they’ve still made up 15% of my total sales. It’s hard to say how many I have left to sell as I have seconds and my second batch. However, out of the patches that I could sell straight away, I’m a third of the way through the stock.
- The t-shirts sold 10 out of the minimum order of 10! I actually priced my t-shirts lower (at £16) than the recommended price of £18 because I didn’t want to be in the same position I am with the patches. I’d rather sell 10 and make less profit for charity than not reach the target.
In terms of traffic vs sales, I currently have a:
- 5.4% conversion rate on Etsy (i.e. visitors vs orders and this went as high as 10%)
- 5.4% conversion rate on Big Cartel (this went as high as 7% but over the last fortnight I’m receiving more visitors than sales)
In terms of traffic, people are finding my Etsy store by searching for:
- Manchester bee sticker
- Manchester bee
- Manchester sticker
- Iron on patch
Also:
- 38% of my Etsy traffic is through the search
- 33% through external search (like Google)
- 29% direct traffic (typing my URL, bookmarking the shop or clicking a link)
For my Big Cartel shop, I have a bounce rate of 51% and my traffic is split:
- 50% from social media (which is 54% from Twitter, 40% from Facebook and 6% from Instagram)
- 39% direct traffic
- 8% from referrals (I was featured on Creative Boom!)
- 3% from organic search
My Twitter analytics are much more lively than normal (3.5x compared to the previous month) and that might have to do with being retweeted by a Coronation Street actress!

What’s surprised me is how many people have purchased items “in person” so have texted, emailed etc and have bypassed the website. This has been fantastic as I haven’t lost any profit to transaction fees. On average of an order of one button badge, I’m losing:
- 11% on Big Cartel if Paypal is used
- 9% on Big Cartel if Stripe is used
- 20% on Etsy
- 0% in person
My orders have been split between:
- 34% in person
- 12% on Etsy
- 54% on Big Cartel
One final tidbit is the average price of an order has been £6.05 (excluding t-shirts) with an average of 2.24 items ordered.
Lessons
I’ve learnt a lot over the last few months. I wasn’t expecting people to order more than one badge or set of stickers. Some orders had five or six items, which has been a lovely surprise!
I don’t want to sound naive but I have found the process of selling hard work. I did expect it to be hard work but I hadn’t thought what would happen after the initial buzz passed, my close family and friends had supported me and how I’d get the products outside of my social network. I’ve spent time reaching out to blogs, shops and anyone I could think of. It feels a bit like hitting my head against a brick wall but it’s worth it for that one person who is willing to help.
I’ve also experimented with Instagram and Etsy advertising. I set minimum budgets (£2.50 a day on Instagram, $2.00 a day on Etsy) and so far it hasn’t paid off. I’ve had plenty of views, a few clicks but no purchases and I think that’s skewed my conversion rate as well. Although, I know I’ve set the filters right on Instagram as I saw my own advert in my feed! After writing this article, I realise maybe I should have advertised on Twitter instead as a large majority of my audience is on that network.
Finally, I’ve realised how good Big Cartel is. I’m so happy with my choice and it’s been so easy to manage the products and orders. I really can’t fault the platform and would use again in a heartbeat.
What Next?
I’m reaching the end of my to do list for the bees so I plan to sit back and see what happens over the next few weeks. I’ve listed the patch seconds in a sale on Etsy and I hope they sell better but I do think I need to learn to have some patience but that applies to my whole life, not just my bees!
Would I do this again? I think so, it is hard work but a different kind of hard work compared to my usual design life. I think I need to work on building a brand and I know that will only take time (and patience.) It will probably be a while until I make patches again but I expect to produce badges, stickers and maybe even acrylic jewellery in the future.
I’m still proud of myself, I’ve had well over fifty orders in a month and as a first time maker that makes me happy. I do think I’ve pulled together a brand quite well, I think the website, products and stall all look cohesive and professional, which has been a surprise as my main focus has been on the actual products.
It feels great to spend time on a good cause, it’s nice to make a small difference in the world so thanks to everyone who’s supported me throughout this process and made it happen.



You can buy a patch, badge or sticker over at http://we-stand-together.co.uk.
My usual day job portfolio is over at Dribbble http://katherinecory.com where you can see more of my work or my surface pattern designs over at Instagram http://instagram.com/katherinecory. If you’ve got any questions about my bees or anything else, please get in touch by emailing me at hello@katherinecory.com.
