Side hustles have become popular as the cost of living problem worsens.
A 35-year-old has detailed how her firm, Bobbin and Bumble, now makes £250,000 a year because to her drive and consistency.
Emma Cattell transformed a £5 sewing machine and an idea into a £250,000 business.
After several recommendations, she purchased a highchair in March 2016, but it arrived with a striped insert cushion cover. She sought easier-to-clean options.
She acquired a £5 second-hand sewing machine at a car boot sale after finding no simple wipe covers.
She bought a meter of oilcloth and sewed the cover using her mother’s sewing abilities.
She then made wipeable high chair cushion coverings.
The mother of two told LatestDeals.co.uk: “I started posting pictures of my daughter online, not mentioning the chair cover or even promoting it – but people would notice it and ask where I had got it.
“When I told them I made it, they said, ‘You should sell them!’ I never thought chair coverings could be a business.
She sold her covers globally on Etsy. Iceland, the US, Australia, Tel Aviv, France, and Germany sold.
“Panic set in—I couldn’t sew,” she said. I made my first item under my mother’s careful eye! How would I place these orders?
I didn’t realize what I was getting into. I never wanted it to get this big. I started learning on the job. I was teaching myself to sew!”
Ms. Cattell worked two part-time jobs to support the firm as it grew.
She worked at an after-school club in the evening and subsequently at Tesco on weekends while being a stay-at-home mom.
She launched them both in 2016 and stopped them in 2018 to focus on the business. The mother of two didn’t take a cent from business until 2021 when profits were stable.
