We met Lorna shortly after Kaye moved back to Glasgow in 2016. Lorna had just launched Hey Wow books on Kickstarter, and was slowly building her brand up from her base in Oban, on the West of Scotland. Although we haven’t had the pleasure of working together yet, we love what Lorna is creating and wanted to pick her brains for her Gold Nuggets of wisdom.
Tell us about yourself and Hey Wow Books
I started HeyWow with my husband Daniel, we channelled our passion for design into creating personalised books. Remember those books when you were little that you could get your name added to a story? We decided to take it a step further with our seek & find, mix & match, colouring, doodling, thinking, discovering, questioning and imagining books. They’re all cleverly personalised with a child's face and name on each page. I worked for many years as a children's fashion photographer in London, New York and Sydney but my real passion has always been children’s books. Here in Oban we're surrounded by forests, sea and wild places, the perfect inspiration for our books. We're not complete country bumpkins though - only 2 hours from Glasgow, we can hop on a flight and be in London for lunchtime!
What’s the one thing that you wish that you’d known in your first year of your business?
That it was going to take a lot longer to “make it”
What’s the best bit of advice you’ve been given and who gave you it?
To take baby-steps, build a solid base for the business and don’t expect everything to happen overnight (I think I’ve blended a few peoples advice in there!).
What are your top 3 tips for growing a business in your spare time?
1) Focus! Don’t let things distract you. So choose a time to work when you know you won’t be interrupted too much (tricky when, like me, you’ve got two young kids around)
2) Be organised- again when you’ve got kids this is so important otherwise I forget to do things. I add everything to my online calendar so I get notifications as little reminders. My phone is constantly pinging me!
3) Prioritise and make a good plan. It’s always good to have a roadmap of where you’re heading- whether that’s a marketing strategy or a solid business plan. Anything that helps make your goals a little clearer helps them feel more achievable in bite-size chunks.
What’s your ambition for Hey Wow Books?
We hope to really scale the business in terms of the products on offer and also with brand collaborations- either by licensing our software system or by creating books (in our HeyWow style) for other businesses.
We have so many ideas in the pipeline for 2019...
What song motivates you while you’re working and why?
There’s not one particular song I can pinpoint but, call me strange, I actually listen to movies when I’m doing creative, non-admin work.
Otherwise the mix of music on Radio 6 keeps me going.