Paige Calland, 35, from Leigh, Wigan, was furloughed from her interior design job during the coronavirus pandemic. She used the time to finally pursue her dream of running her own stationery business, Paige & Co., which generated £100,000 in sales in its second year.
From childhood obsession to Etsy store
Ever since she was young, Paige loved drawing and spent her pocket money on pens and stationery. After studying textiles and graphics at college, she earned a textiles degree in London and later worked as a designer for a Yorkshire company creating cards for Marks & Spencer. She left after a year to freelance before becoming a senior designer at an interior design firm, but always kept a side hustle selling cards and prints on Etsy.
Her big break came when she was furloughed for about four months in 2020. "It was funny because that year, before Covid, I was chatting to my husband. We both knew this was what I wanted to do, but it was just the time," she told the Manchester Evening News.
Focus on wedding stationery
During furlough, Paige concentrated on wedding invitations, something she had previously designed for family and friends. She set up her Etsy shop, Paige & Co., buying printers and creating samples. Orders started coming in immediately, many from the US despite wedding cancellations.
After returning to her 9-to-5 job and taking maternity leave for her first daughter, Pia, the business was doing so well that she never went back. Initially run from a spare room, the business now operates from her garage.
Growing the business
In its second year, the business reached £100,000 in annual sales and has placed over 3,500 orders across 10 countries. Paige now employs two part-time studio assistants. She works part-time around her two young daughters, often during nap times. "It's been great that I've managed to build it to where it's got with only really working part-time on it myself, so I feel like that's quite an achievement," she said.
She sells on Etsy and her own Shopify site, with most customers finding her through Etsy. She encourages other creatives to take the plunge: "I didn't have any investment, I didn't have a business plan... it was just my pencils, my paints, an idea, a few hundred pounds to buy a couple of printers..."
