Meet Tracey Regan, creator of The Lemon Tree Book Company; a small children’s publisher with a passion to encourage children to read and develop strong literacy skills.
Their books are designed for parents and children to read together as Tracey believes there is no better activity to give a child 100% of your attention. Her new range has been developed with leading educators and Sendco’s for sensitive children or those with special educational needs, to assist them with ‘everyday experiences’ that some may find overwhelming. There is also a range of fun, personalised books to support children (3-7) to develop a love of reading, which are also available on an app for iPad.
Tracey, tell us about your home life and your work life balance.
I’ve recently turned the big ‘five oh’ and currently find myself to be enjoying a rather gypsy-like existence. I moved from London to Perth, Australia when I met my husband 25 years ago, and after 15 years of marriage found myself to be a single mum about ten years ago. I juggled motherhood with part-time work, starting/running my own business and a ‘long term’ relationship before my daughter decided she wanted to study in the UK and moved to Cardiff in 2017.
My relationship at that time also came to an end and I felt like everything was changing when I decided to sell my house in Aus. I spent the next 12 months ‘renting’ with friends, before deciding to come back to the UK for a while for my business and of course, to spend some time with my daughter. I’m currently enjoying living in the UK but who knows…..the world is my oyster!
Why did you start this business, what was your background?
In my working life, before my daughter was born, I had a variety of jobs, ranging from working in the advertising and film industry, office manager roles, and positions in the banking industry, to teaching outdoor adventure activities. I was even a lock-keeper at the famous St. Katherines Dock in London. But I had always wanted to work for myself and had an entrepreneurial spirit. When my daughter was born, I received a personalised book for her birth that was so beautiful, I decided to find out more and I became a franchise holder of a company that sold ‘licensed’ character personalised books.
In 2000, the internet was really only just beginning, so I sold books via direct mail and traditional advertising, and I was able to see first hand the joy on children’s faces when they realised the story was about them, and that they were a character in a real printed book! At the time, I wanted to share that feeling of joy with as many children as possible and tried to think of a way that personalised books could reach more families.
When my marriage ended, I decided to sell the franchise, but the seed of an idea had been planted. A few years later when I was in a better financial position, I decided to start up on my own and began writing stories for my new project. Lemon Tree started with 3 books in our ‘craft pack’ format, where parents and children can ‘make a book together’ using the illustrated pages and book cover provided. We’ve since gone on to produce 9 titles, also available as ‘standard’ personalised books, and launched a new range of books for children who may find ‘everyday experiences’ challenging.
What new skills did you pick up and how did you learn them?
Training courses/Google/networking/other. It’s been a few years now since I started, and I have certainly done plenty of networking. Networking really does provide an opportunity to meet people who can offer tips and advice and you never know who you might collaborate with. I’ve done many training courses too to improve my business knowledge in public relations, social media, sales and marketing, and I’ve even had business coaches and mentors. It’s an ongoing process that’s for sure, and I know that I’ll never stop learning.
How did you fund your business?
Whenever I’m asked this question and knowing how much I invested to get the business up and running, I am amazed at how far we’ve come. Because of the complexities of personalised books, I had to invest a significant amount in the original website. I covered all expenses myself, including funding the app on the App Store, and the general day to day running was really supported by my part-time income. In 2014, our new director was able to support the redevelopment of packaging and a new website. We’ve tried various ways to find investment, particularly for advertising, and moving forward still need significant funding.
Tell us about your website, did you have a web designer or DIY?
Because of the complexities of personalised books, our first website was a significant expense. I used a fairly large company with a good deal of marketing and website experience, but it was a long and drawn out process back in 2010. We have updated the website another two times since then and it always takes a lot of time to get right. Our complex personalised product software is what makes a difference. It doesn’t have to be this complex though. If your business is a product or service that just needs to be featured and sold via the website, there are many platforms that can give you a much simpler solution than we have experienced. We love that the website and the personalising process appears to be very simple, but know there’s so much going on behind the elegant design.
What aspect of your business are you most proud of?
We’re proud of the quality of our products. Our personalised books are written to encourage self-esteem, as children can solve a mystery as a Private Detective, or be a Daring Dinosaur and develop a new game. With our new range of Everyday Experience books, we hope that in some small way we can help children to feel less anxious about overwhelming events.
Tell us about the challenges you’ve faced in starting your business.
Our main challenge has always been advertising and marketing. How do you get customers to know you even exist? You can have the best product in the world, but if nobody knows about it, how can they buy it? As Patsy says in Absolutely Fabulous, “…selling a product without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know you’re doing it but nobody else does!”
How did you overcome those challenges?
We are working hard to keep our social media presence consistent across all platforms. We make a phone call every day to a new organisation or business or media outlet that may offer some form of collaboration or awareness to our potential customers. It’s an ongoing process, that’s for sure 🙂
What has been your most valuable lesson?
To remember that you are in business and your relationships with business partners, suppliers, and contractors need to be strongly defined. Never assume that your suppliers know what you need or want from them just by conversation alone. Document and minute meetings so that everyone is clear as to what is expected and how much you will pay for those services. And remember, they may be your friends outside of business, but it doesn’t mean your relationship in business will always be friendly.
If you could start over, what would you do again?
Haha – well! I’ve learned so much over time it’s hard to say what I would do the same. If I were to start over with the same knowledge I had back then, I’d probably do 80% the same as I have learned so much from my mistakes. However, if I were to start over knowing what I know now, well then that percentage would be reversed and I would do 80% of things differently!
If you could start over, what would you never do again?
I would never commit myself to big expense without thoroughly investigating options first and knowing that was the right step forward. I would never enter into agreements with people on a handshake and a conversation – it should all be documented. I would never hold huge amounts of stock until I knew that the level of stock was necessary.
