How the homeware and gifts sector can become environmentally aware. The business case, industry trends, best practice, case studies and more.

Plan it with Purpose: Guide for the homeware and gifts sector

Guide

 is designed to help owners of small and medium-sized businesses develop a better understanding of environmental and social issues in the UK.

By providing tailored resources, action plans and recommendations, and highlighting role models people can relate to, Plan it with Purpose aims to encourage business owners to consider the impact of what they do and make positive changes for the future.

Plan it with Purpose, from Enterprise Nation

A programme designed to help owners of small and medium-sized businesses develop a better understanding of environmental and social issues in the UK. 

Download our sustainability guide for homeware and gifts businesses

Plan it with Purpose [FREE GUIDE]: Homeware and gifts sector

Find out why investing in environmental and social impact is good for homeware and gifts companies.

Helping fashion brands launch and grow with sustainability at the forefront.
<ul>
<li>Sourcing - including UK manufacturers and sustainable fabrics with low MOQ</li>
<li>Brand Strategy - Identifying your target customer, market and brand values</li>
<li>Managing production and setting up a critical path with realistic timelines so your deliveries will be on time</li>
<li>Cost price negotiation and improving target margin</li>
<li>Range building, encouraging multi purchases, increasing basket value, capitalising on bestsellers, lowering risk</li>
<li>Improving lead times</li>
<li>Design direction and product development - sample shopping, inspiration gathering, cost engineering</li>
<li>Competitor analysis and market research</li>
<li>Driving sustainable working practices</li>
<li>Preparing to wholesale</li>
</ul>
Before setting up in my consultancy, I was a buyer for 15 years for some of the world&apos;s most recognised brands. I loved my job but hated working in an industry that I knew was incredibly polluting and damaging on a global scale. I thought about leaving the industry all together but knew the industry was even less likely to improve without change-makers on the inside.
Instead I set up my consultancy and decided to work with purpose-driven and sustainably-minded brands, using my expertise to help businesses be the change that the fashion industry needs.

Fashion Retail and Sustainability Consultant

Lunch and Learn: Launch a purpose-driven business

Learn the benefits of a purpose-driven business and what it means to have an ethical and sustainable supply chain.

Hello! I am a Programme Manager at Enterprise Nation, with a passion for providing support for small business owners through digital campaigns with our partners. I have a particular love for all things marketing, online and in-person events and strategy!&nbsp;

Programme Manager

Next Generation: Make your business sustainable & green

Join like-minded entrepreneurs to learn how to stick to weekly goals and be held accountable!

Through my company, Positive Planet, I support small to medium sized businesses take steps to measure and reduce their carbon emissions. I have experience in working with everyone from one man bands to well know brands create and implement a net zero strategy.&nbsp;

Founder

Net Zero Strategy Consultation

Free initial consultation to help you identify the best way to achieve your net-zero business ambitions. Book a meeting with a Positive Planet Sustainability Engagement Manager to answer your questions on: 

Carbon Footprint Measurement
Carbon Reduction Planning 
Regulatory Compliance
Sustainable Business Accreditation
Training & Stakeholder Engagement
Marketing Without Greenwashing
Carbon Offsetting Strategy

I am a retired venture capitalist and portfolio entrepreneur with deep experience of international markets, biotech and energy (manufacturing), industrial design and public sector contracts. I mentor a handful of sustainability startups as their Entrepreneur in Residence following ten years as a senior lecturer at a british university. I am familiar with all the slides and content in the Help to Grow programme, if you get stuck on a topic or are unsure of how to apply what you&apos;ve read to your business.
I have founded more startups than bussinesses I have sold on; but what I learnt from business failure is far more enduring than what I learned from success. I&apos;m in my sixties and I owe my good fortune in large part to luck; but hard work, unwavering focus and an instinct for getting the timing of market entry just right certainly helped. I love mentoring and it&apos;s my way of giving back. I am not looking for consultancy opportunities, but I do get fired up by the special challenges facing high-startups. That said, I am NOT well suited to small businesses that want to remain small.
Problem solving, business modelling and weighing up the pros and cons of market entry options are some of my favourite activities; even if the question I get asked most often is how to monetise new product / service concepts. If your plans rely on growth finance, then we&apos;ll work on a pitch to fund your MVP.
Marketing, human resource, social media, and any form of digital technology or financial modelling and reporting are NOT my thing!
I&apos;m keen to mentor business owners with high growth ambitions. My mentoring style is practical and hands-on, and you will save time in my ability to help you identify the root cause of a problem and then brainstorm solutions in the following session. The A-ha! moments surface most often at the ideation stage and brainstorming sessions are particularly useful to flesh out any hidden assumptions preventing you from exploring a range of approaches from different perspectives to scoping the problem and designing solutions.
I deliver unbiased advice and my feedback focuses on developing your ability to take better and more informed decisions on the stages and milestones of your course of action and giving you the confidence and clarity to follow through and push forward effectively.
I also believe that the momentum of weekly mentoring sessions allows me to support you through the sequence of turning points that are critical to growth. If we agree to pair up, I will commit 100% to your success, however you define that. But in return, I ask you to be 100% committed to shaping your own success. In between mentoring sessions, I will study the forces at play in your sector and I expect you to work on three action points we set at the end of each session.

Entrepreneur in Residence

Pam Iannotti

I am a retired venture capitalist and portfolio entrepreneur with deep experience of international markets, biotech and energy (manufacturing), industrial design and public sector contracts. I mentor a handful of sustainability startups as their Entrepreneur in Residence following ten years as a senior lecturer at a british university. I am familiar with all the slides and content in the Help to Grow programme, if you get stuck on a topic or are unsure of how to apply what you&apos;ve read

Plan it with Purpose [FREE GUIDE]: Homeware and gifts sector

Guide #5: Homeware and gifts

Download the homeware and gifts guide

Plan it with Purpose

Download other sector guides

You might also like…

Get business support right to your inbox