Wild Fawn is an ethical jewellery maker and retailer, selling direct and through partners. The founder, Emma, has a keen eye on the ethics of running a business and is passionate about creating a sustainable business with a future.

What has your journey been like over the past 18 months?

I started Wild Fawn about four or five years ago. And it was a hobby. I’ve just grown it from me into what it is today. There are five of us in total now, and it got to the stage where I really needed some kind of strategic help. Being at home during COVID meant I can take part in lots of webinars and and learning sessions, which is where I discovered Elephants Child.

It’s been a bit of a roller coaster because of COVID and Brexit. Brexit has affected as more than COVID. Luckily, we’re an online shop so people have still been able to purchase from us like usual. And especially at the beginning of COVID. We were taking quite a lot of orders, because no one was spending money in other places and everyone was buying presents for each other.

So that was good for the business. And it’s meant we’ve been able to hire a new person onto the team, which has been really nice.

Brexit has been a more challenging one because a lot of our customers are from Europe and there are a lot of regulations that have come in which as a small business it is hard to keep up with, without funds to pay for experts on important exports and all of that. It’s definitely made us question a few things, potentially expanding into Europe to make it easier for EU customers to purchase from us.

What has working with Elephants Child meant for the business?

I suppose charge has basically made me really focus on the future. Whereas before then I was definitely more concerned with the “now are we doing well now? Yeah, it’s been a good month. Right. Let’s hope next month is good too”, rather than actually thinking of plan whereas Elephants Child has helped me realise that the business can be what I want it to be.

And you just need to adapt your mindset into thinking What do I need for that to happen? I’m planning to get to that point.

Elephants Child has made me realise it can be a kind of long term, lifelong business with a lot of potential and it’s kind of made me more excited about the business and has basically reinvigorated me, bringing a lot of passion into it again.

What is your focus for the next three years?

The next three years is basically about growth. We’ve got the base there, we have the people in place ready for us to grow, and Elephants Child are helping me take the next step.

I work with Kevin and he is really good at articulating what I’m thinking, and it’s really good to have someone on your side as well. Which is nice because I’ve been doing this for four or five years on my own with no experience in this type of job before and having someone who has had experience in this kind of thing is really enlightening.

Because if you have ideas and you say out loud and then someone else says ‘that’s a good idea’ it builds your confidence. Or it’s really nice to know if you aren’t sure about something you can bounce those ideas off someone and talk it through. Kevin is helping me basically realise my dreams and also be more strategic in it too.

What are the benefits of joining personal finance and business planning?

I think before the Elephant’s Child meeting when Neil joined us hadn’t really thought about my financial future. But it was always on the back of my mind you know about Retirement and Pension. You know, even things like a will or if I was ill, who will pay the mortgage, how would the business run? And it’s those things are on the back of my mind and I knew I needed to sort it out. It was kind of the push to sort it out properly with a professional and yeah, there’s been great he’s, he’s really understanding.

It’s made me actually sort my life out in a financial way and it’s made me a bit more relaxed about things in general like know if I am ill, I’ve got cover. I always used to think oh my gosh, what if I broke my finger I would be able to make jewellery. Little things like that in the back of your mind. It’s quite good to have a push and especially when your needs and funds are taken into consideration is is quite nice.

Would you recommend Elephants Child?

Of course!