Just checking in

I’m doing one of those ‘I’ve neglected the blog’ posts that I hate, but it’s this or nothing, so what can you do?

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks, travelling to Oxford, Kettering, Birmingham, Nottingham and Lutterworth collecting and delivering customer commissions and, in Nottingham, attending the Pretty Dandy Flea.

The Flea was really well organised, despite an unavoidable eleventh hour change of venue, and was a new type of event for us, as we continue to decide what, if any, genre of event is best for us.

The venue was Nottingham’s Creative Quarter Pop-up Shop – a brilliant initiative that we we’d love our local towns and cities to follow. Read more about it here.

Our stall at the Pretty Dandy Flea in Nottingham

While we were at The Flea, Stamford’s Christmas market was in full swing. By now we had expected to hear back from Stamford Town Council about our second complaint about their slow handling of our bid for a free stall at the event (their deadline to reply was December 29) but we are still waiting... (EDIT: They replied! Still not giving in to us - they seem to be missing the point)

On a more positive note, it was great to hear people at the Flea saying they had heard of Reloved Vintage and already Liked us on Facebook. This was in a city about an hour’s drive from our Rutland base.

Proof, if it were needed, that social networking is a brilliant free tool for marketing your small business, which is why we’re continually amazed that so many local independent shops don’t have a Facebook page or Twitter account.

One large, well-known-locally shop near us has a Facebook page that has only been updated once, and that was in 2009. Another, which sells painted furniture and is well established, has no Facebook page whatsoever.

We’d kill to have their high street locations, staffing budgets and established reputation and we think their lack of social media presence must be down to either arrogance or ignorance.

Hopefully, one day we’ll be in their position – and then we’ll have to put our money where our mouth is…