“The pandemic was full of challenges, but lockdown boredom put my business on the map,” says Frankie Thorogood, founder of home pottery brand Pott’d.
If you’re one of the lucky few not needing to repress it from memory, try and cast your mind back to April 2020, at the height of the UK’s very first Covid lockdown. It was then that my partner Sascha and I found ourselves at a loss — the lack of stimulation and endless doom-scrolling was starting to put a strain on our mental health and well-being.
It’s true what they say: a global pandemic puts cracks in your home life that not even a binge of Tiger King can fix.
Like so many others, we were running through the full gamut of pandemic pastimes. We tried the banana bread baking, Joe Wicks workouts, and even TikTok coffee — but nothing stuck. What we needed was a creative outlet that would allow us to spend quality time together, rather than anything that involved staring at a screen. Thankfully, that’s when we discovered the joys of home pottery.
From our kitchen table, we first began to experiment with air-dry clay. We substituted our nights in front of the TV for nights in front of one another, crafting with our hands and excitedly sharing our latest (admittedly, rather amateurish) ideas. And out of nowhere, the vases and miniature sculptures that we were creating started to give us the respite we needed from endless screentime.
Covid weighed heavy on all of our shoulders, but setting aside a couple of hours each evening to create and work together gave us a new lease of life. Naturally, this got the entrepreneurial cogs in my head turning — how could we explore this newfound hobby on a broader scale? From this, Pott’d was born.
The business
Starting out
From our time with the clay, we conceived our hero product that would give pottery beginners all the tools they need to get started. The Pott’d Home Air-Dry Clay Pottery Kit comes with clay, tools, paints, varnishes and a handy quick-start guide. I used my skills from previous entrepreneurial ventures to create the branding and get in touch with supply chain managers to kick-start the process.
Applying business principles
But while we’ve gotten pretty good at boxing up clay, a successful business doesn’t happen overnight. I’ve been lucky enough to start and sell businesses in the past, so I had a few ideas about how to make the scaling process smoother. Knowledge of fulfilment, supplier sourcing, growth potential and branding were key to helping launch Pott’d. With a modern business encompassing so many skills that you pick up from work or everyday life, we all have experiences that we can draw upon.
Growing
Soon enough, we were packing more sales than we could handle out of our Camden flat. Now, we’ve left the building and Pott’d has become a full-time job for me as the CEO. In the beginning, I was acting as the jack-of-all-trades, but while I’m good at thinking up ideas, I was keen to take on some extra full-time personnel to help iron out some of the more technical aspects. So, we recruited a Product Developer, and I reached out to a former colleague who is now the COO. My partner Sascha was keen to carry on with her full-time role in tech, so provides her support in development, testing and feedback in an unofficial capacity.
The lessons
In this short couple of years, I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to start and scale a successful business — in part because of how completely unprecedented it was to build one during a pandemic. We’re now fortunate enough to be selling around the world, and this is the advice I’d give to any others looking to turn their hobby into their trade:
Make time and space to get inspired
If you’re thinking about a new idea, you need a way to nurture it, even if this has to be scheduled into your busy diary. One plus side of lockdown was that we had a little bit more downtime, and in our house, this manifested itself in a fresh, exciting new concept for a business.
But that’s not to say it has to be a super slow process. Once you have the skeleton of your plan, you can get to work. I’ve always been a perfectionist, and with previous businesses, I would slave over every little detail, something that ultimately hindered my productivity. This time around, we started building the product quickly after our lightbulb moment and then improved it later.
Never waste a good crisis
Unprecedented moments in time are breeding grounds for human ingenuity. When big changes are shaking up the business landscape, there are usually new opportunities just around the corner. So, hold onto your optimistic mindset and train yourself to see opportunities where others don’t.
Lockdown, for example, got my creativity pulsing once more. It re-instilled in me the entrepreneurial mindset that I had been neglecting, and from what were otherwise pretty stress-inducing circumstances. That being said, I’m sure we all agree that we’d rather not experience another pandemic anytime soon.
Try to enjoy the journey
With all this talk about business, it might seem all too easy to get wrapped up in the ‘grind’ — but that feeling is the very reason that we started with pottery. When I was working on my first business, the constant hustling gave way to a whole lot of stress, and although it was a success, it wasn’t enjoyable because I put too much pressure on myself.
So, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is to keep things in perspective and to enjoy the ride. Part and parcel of that is calling on the help of others — jack-of-all-trades or not, delegating responsibilities to those that can dedicate their time to them is what can make a new business work in the long run.
What comes next?
Needless to say, we have big plans for Pott’d. We’re working hard to introduce more amazing creative, mental-health-enhancing products around the globe. We’re currently selling across the UK, US and Europe, and have plans for further expansion.
Back on our London home turf, we’re looking to put on events and get more people into pottery. We’ve recently worked with North London Cares, which puts on events for the elderly, and it’s been so rewarding to see people of any age discover the joys of this simple pastime. With our little team, we’re dreaming up even more products that can help people just like us get back in touch with their creative side, and strengthen relationships that have been worn out by day-to-day life.
Frankie Thorogood, Entrepreneur and Founder, Pott’d and TCA
Featured Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
