Subscribe to our newsletter to receive business tips, learn about new funding programmes, join upcoming events, take e-learning courses, and more.
Take the first step to successfully starting and growing your business.
Join for free)
Posted: Thu 11th Apr 2024
A chance discovery of a picture of a dog in a costume led to a side hustle business for Sarah Valovin and her photographer husband Wil.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Wil's usual method of income was no longer possible, so the couple took Yorkshire Pet Portraits full-time.
They are now providing hundreds of portraits of pets as superheroes, historical figures, sports stars and more!
Sarah shares the inspiring story of her business and how the Amazon Small Business Accelerator e-learning programme has been “revolutionary”.
During Christmas 2019, we visited my sister. Her daughter had received a gift of her pet dog portrayed in a costume. My husband Wil is a photographer and this intrigued him. He decided to give it a go.
He created a few portraits for friends and family and they shared them on Facebook. As they were so popular, we decided to start it as a side hustle. It was very popular and was creating a good second revenue stream.
Then the pandemic hit. Wil was self-employed and had no income. It was a very scary time.
But he took the plunge and decided to create a website and see if we could raise more money to help us via this enterprise. He developed more portraits, perfected his technique and invested in a better printer.
It exploded, and by September 2020, Wil couldn't keep up with demand. He was up at 4am every day, working until late at night.
I was helping as much as I could while having a stressful leadership role in a secondary school.
The next step was to stop dog adventuring and focus on Yorkshire Pet Portraits full-time. Meanwhile, the lockdown made me really evaluate my life and I didn't want the stress of my role anymore.
It was badly impacting my mental health and therefore family life – we have two amazing children. At Christmas 2020, I handed in my notice to help Wil.
I left work on 26 March 2021, when shops reopened and immediately there was a decline in sales. This panicked me but we sought help from a local marketing company.
I also enrolled in the Amazon Small Business Accelerator e-learning programme and we upgraded our website and product range.
We were quite naïve in terms of business and the impact of the economy opening up and sales. But we make a good team and are resilient, so we've both upskilled ourselves.
We're still always learning and developing our skillset to make it work for our family. It's been a rollercoaster but I know we can do this and enable our family to be secure and happy.
Lack of knowledge about retail, marketing and handling accounts.
I threw myself into learning how to control our accounts and make sure we were compliant as directors of a limited company. I took advice from a professional and we have employed them to take care of our tax and VAT returns.
Marketing is new to both of us. We had been boosting posts on Facebook and had no idea about using social media to develop a community and drive sales.
I've taken a lot of advice and joined many webinar sessions from Enterprise Nation. I'm now much clearer about where we need to go and how to market successfully and not waste money.
I've had calls with experts and we've taken a lot of learning from Social Progress, a local company that specialises in social media marketing.
I'm constantly trying to increase our engagement and develop our community and am learning how to create more targeted Facebook ads rather than boosting posts.
We've learnt an awful lot about what drives e-commerce and how to account for the quiet times without panicking.
The Enterprise Nation webinars and e-learning videos have helped massively and I enjoy watching them and implementing the relevant actions.
Hedy Lamarr. Everyone knows she was a famous actress but what few people realise is that she was an entrepreneur and a prolific inventor.
She had a workshop in her house and used her creative genius to develop the technological concepts that became known as frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology.
While this may sound a bit dry, it's used in so many critical applications today, such as wi-fi, smartphones, GPS and scanners at shops.
Her contribution to this technology genuinely changed the way we communicate and allowed the digital age to explode.
An amazing woman who did all this with no funding and basically on her own in her back room!
Always show up. If you're not there promoting, creating and working hard, nothing will change. Some days are hard but keep going forward.
And don't be afraid to ask for help. Most of my learning has come from asking others who are experts in that field.
Be inspired by how small business owners are starting, growing and thriving with Enterprise Nation. Read more member stories
