What the girls have learnt in the first three days of going live with their Business
Well, what a whirlwind three days since launching Téa&Belle.
The girls would firstly like to thank all the people who have bought the products and they are so excited to start the production process.
Téa&Belle went live on Sunday night on the eve of NAIDOC week 2017. To both families NAIDOC week is a special week. For Téa it is a huge week due to her dad, Dion, standing in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in Canberra, it means festivals, reconciliation ceremonies and all round personalised celebrating Aboriginal and Torre Strait Islander culture. For Belle, it means pretty much the same on a smaller scale. So to launch this business on the eve of NAIDOC has special significance to both of them.
With an unbridled enthusiasm that only kids can muster (Mum and Dad were a little overwhelmed) we launched. We all sat down and did a facebook live session to our small but committed group of followers explaining what our vision was for the company, our family histories and why this was important for the broader Australian community to get behind.
We wrote an email to the people who completed the survey and tentatively pressed send …… and we were live.
We all sat around the laptop and waited for the first order, instead of the kids saying “are we there yet?” we were inundated with “has anyone bought anything yet?. Doubt started to flood Dion and my minds;
“Will people buy the products?”
“Will people like the products?”
“Will people be nice to the girls?”
and then ……….. Ping
OUR First Sale!
Screams of delight (from me), fist pumping from Dion and DAB DAB dancing from the girls.
From then on the response has been amazing. Messages of support from around the world saying congratulations, people offering to help in any way they can (thank you ZAID for taking photo’s of the girls in their Acknowledge Tee’s on a very cold day in Canberra) and sales of our gorgeous products.
Since then a steady stream of sales has come through (the girls have been sending out a personalised messages to each one) and we are teaching the girls about gratitude by giving thanks. We have been building our Facebook and Instagram communities. The girls have been doing videos on their views of reconciliation, multicultural Australia and growing up in 2017.
Sounds positive doesn’t it, well in most part it has been great.
What has put a dampener on the launch is the trolls that we have encountered in social media groups.
“Aboriginals get enough already”
“Why do we need to support you”
How did we manage this?
In 2017 it is disappointing that views like this are still prevalent in Australia but the most uplifting thing was that other members of these communities came in to support Téa&Belle so we had to say nothing. There are more good people than bad and that is the message that we conveyed to the girls.
The answer that Belle gave in response to this was “that is why we are doing this so that good people can wear Téa&Belle and show good happy messages”
All we can say is “TRUE THAT!”
So we have learnt that
* People are inherently good
* People are supportive of small business in Australia
* People adore well designed, ethical and socially responsible products
* Our kid's ROCK!
Once again Thank you so much for all your support and we will keep you posted throughout the launch period.
