The campaign ended today 102% funded with a final total of £4,837 from 75 backers
Big thank you to everyone for all your pledges and support. If anyone missed out on pre-ordering and still wants to, you can contact me as we are keeping the pre-order list open until the 6th January. This is your last post from me from for while apart from a special one tomorrow. Am now going to have a well earned break over the Christmas holidays and I can relax knowing that our little business is starting to grow ❤️ To those of you that backed us I will be in contact with you in the New Year with project updates. Also, please sign up to our mailing list by clicking the button below to make sure you don't miss any of our exciting news. Ismay x #crowdfunding #kickstarter #brandlaunch Hello readers,
We are so close the end of the crowdfund campaign now AND WE HAVE JUST HIT OUR TARGET!! So to celebrate we are increasing our discount to up to 30% off!!! This is your LAST CHANCE to support us and get some amazing Boy Wonder product that are fun, unique and ethical. You can still donate as we need every penny to help our little business grow. If have already pledged/backed us there are new designs on the site in case you want to change them. You can also increase your pledge if you want to add anything else. Otherwise again please spread the word as widely as possible. It’s been so amazing to see you all chip during the campaign so thank you again. I have been really touched to have you all support me (and put up with my incessant pestering!) We couldn’t have done it without you. Ismay x #crowdfund #brandlaunch #kickstarter If you are backing us on Kickstarter or thinking about doing so you will be helping us to go into production and grow our little business. With just 48 HOURS LEFT OF THE CAMPAIGN I thought some reasons why supporting us is such a good idea might help you decide to pledge; 1. Ethically Made All our garments are made in Britain and the cloth is also made by an ethical manufacturer too. So we can you give you peace of mind that our clothes are made for kids not by kids. 2. Stereo-type Free You won't find any of the usual cars and dinosaurs in our prints like most boys fashion. We don't use boring 'boy' colours like grey, navy and brown either. 3. Organic Cotton We only use certified organic cotton in our garments which is kind to your child's skin and the planet. Organic cotton is not only chemical free but also has a lower carbon footprint. 4. Circular Design Principles We design clothes to last with extra growth room, high quality construction and special design features. Meaning less shopping and expense for you. We also sell garment care products and provide care guides upon purchase. 5. Hand-drawn Prints All our prints are bespoke and hand-drawn by me. You won't find them anywhere else. We think boys should have as much fun with fashion as girls do! 6. Sustainable Practices We use sustainable practices like digital printing to be as low impact as possible. We are a green business using renewable energy and an electric vehicle. We consider our environmental impact in every area of the business. 7. Made in Britain Our garments and fabrics are made just over 20 miles from our office making it a truly local project. This keeps our fashion miles down as well as supporting local communities. 8. Premium Quality Our fabrics and garments are all made to a high quality. Receiving a Boy Wonder product is a special thing and will arrive carefully wrapped in tissue paper in a special box. 9. Plastic Free All our products and packaging, as well as our office supplies, promo materials and swing tags are all plastic free and made with recycled bio-degradable materials. 10. Durable All our garments are machine washable at 30 degrees making life easier for you. Ribbed cuffs and necklines are in contrast fabric to reduce your washing and iron-on patches can cover any stains. Well, I hope that's convinced you that we are worth supporting. You can go to the crowdfund campaign page via the button below. Ismay x #crowdfund #fashionlaunch #startupbusiness BIG thank you to everyone who has backed/pledged so far. We are only on 41% as pledges have slowed. Please help by spreading the word and if you haven't backed us yet and want to get your name on this board then click on the button below. Not sure how to do that then read my blog post all about Kickstarter and how it works here.
Thanks Ismay x #crowdfunding #backers #pledges Hello everyone ,
We are now on day 5 of the campaign and at 40% of our funding goal. We need to get things moving as the pledges have really slowed since the first day. So, I have decided to implement a referral scheme offering you and anyone you refer 10% cashback. All you have to do is head to our booster page following the link below. Then copy your unique referral link and share it with whoever you can, online and in person. https://discover-boys-fashion-thats.kickbooster.me/boost Please note that this offer is only valid for new referrals you bring to the project and will not be valid against your original pledge. Thanks again for all your support! Ismay x #crowdfunding #kickbooster #referralscheme So our crowdfund campaign has now launched and we need your help to make it a success. The social media and PR side of the business is extremely time consuming as I am doing it all on my own. It doesn't leave much time for anything else right now!
So I am asking everyone I know including all you lovely readers to tell at least 3 other people about us, what we do and our campaign. Sharing, liking, retweeting, commenting and generally engaging with our campaign content on social media will also help us to get seen. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest. Go and visit the Kickstarter campaign even if you don't want to buy anything and share it to your social media feeds. Sign up to our mailing list too to keep up-to-date with what's happening with the campaign. There will be exciting offers and the possibility of new products too so don't miss out. I really appreciate all the support and feedback many of you have given me over the years in getting set-up so a big thanks to all of you. Let's make Boy Wonder a success together! Ismay x #brandlaunch #startupbrand #ethicalfashion When we launched our campaign on Kickstarter it soon became evident that most of our audience were not familiar with crowdfunding or backing projects and weren't even sure what it was. So I thought I should put together a post to explain what it is and how to use it.
Crowdfunding is a great way to raise money from a 'crowd' to fund a project. Kickstarter is one that is product based but there are also ones that raise money for equity or charity. Products featured in the projects have normally been sampled or prototyped and the money raised is often to then take them into production. This means the goods are not available to buy straight away as the backer is pledging to have it made first. This set-up has helped a lot of interesting (and crazy) ideas become reality, which probably wouldn't have got funding in the traditional ways. It is also a great way for creators to test the demand for their product before investing in it as putting a lot of money into stock before knowing it will sell is very risky.. You can only make one pledge on Kickstarter, but you can add other items onto your pledge and increase the amount to cover the add on. We include a handy table to show the prices with add-ons. So if you decide you want to add something else you can go back to the site and go to 'manage pledge'. You can also cancel a pledge if you need to, but only while the project is live. You will receive a confirmation page and/or email once the pledge has gone through. You also don't need to actually pledge on an item (reward) you can just back the campaign by selecting no reward and an amount or select one of the little, big or super wonders rewards that are set a specific amount. So If you have now little wonders to buy for you can still support what we are doing. Kickstarter works on an all-or-nothing basis, so if a project doesn't hit its funding goal within the timeframe they have set then they don't get anything. This means as a backer that your bank card would not be charged if the target is missed. If it is successful your card will be charged only at the end of the project for the final amount pledged. You will be notified about whether the project has succeeded by Kickstarter and by us. If a funding goal is met before the end of the project you can still pledge. Most project creators like us will set a low goal that only covers their bare minimum costs, otherwise they risk not getting anything at all if they can't raise the funds. So keep pledging as this gives the creators much needed extra funds. The Kickstarter site doesn't give you choices about sizes and colours etc. So at the end of a successful campaign you are sent a survey where you add all these details and contact information for shipping. You will be regularly updated by the us after the project ends about the progress on production. If you have anymore questions please do contact me. Ismay x #crowdfunding #kickstarter #pledging The Boy Wonder Kickstarter campaign is now LIVE!
Check out the new, lower prices, discounts and bundled deals. There will be other treats as the campaign runs such as extra offers, friend referral deals and stretch goals depending on it's success. To get the momentum going on the campaign and get noticed by the algorithm we need raise at least 30% in the first 24 hours so if you are considering backing us please do it as soon as you can. Let us know what you think and help to spread the word by sharing our campaign. Love Ismay x
As most of you will know, our debut collection launched a few weeks ago on Kickstarter but sadly, had to be cancelled due to lack of pledges.
It was very clear, even from day one, that we were unlikely to reach the target, which would not have looked to good to any future prospective investors. So, I felt it would be less damaging to the brand to cancel it, than let it run it's course. The campaign was a test of the market and should have been proof of a good concept, but it showed that something was clearly not right. The vast majority of pledges were from friends and family, which of course we are very appreciative of, but don't go to show there is a wider market for our products. Most pledges were also for low amounts suggesting people weren't prepared to spend too much. The launch was a culmination of a dream, and of course years of research, hard work and significant financial investment, so it was extremely disappointing. However, I have learnt a lot from it and hope to still be able to move on somehow. The brand and collection themselves have been really well received and since promoting it our mailing list subscribers have increased by 25% and our Instagram followers by 16%. So, I still firmly believe that they are strong products and that there is a demand for them. Having done further research and sought advice from industry experts, as well as feedback from our followers on social media, it is clear that the prices were the main problem. If the costs I was paying to have the garments made had been lower giving me a higher mark-up, I would have been able to have offered special early bird discounts, bundled gift packs, and other incentives to backers that I couldn't do with the costs I had. I naively hoped that being able to pre-order the garments before they were available through the retail site would have been tempting enough. Ethical and sustainable products, such as ours, will always command higher prices as workers are paid fairly and the highest quality materials used. Despite difficult times in the retail industry the ethical market is rapidly increasing, so I felt confident that we would find customers. But perhaps I was pitching the product too high in aiming for designer level? I must add here that this was not the reason for the high prices, rather that my costs dictated the prices and therefore the high market level. Having gained over 34,000 unique readers on this blogsite (thanks everyone!) which currently equates to over 2,500 visitors a month, I was expecting much more of a turn-out with the campaign as this is my main audience. However, having looked at the analytics, I can see that I didn't advertise the campaign well enough and sadly it didn't get as much press attention as I had would have liked. As I am being to realise all too well, PR, marketing and social media management are jobs in themselves, which as a I am running this show single-handedly is maybe just too much. I was also unsure of how much of the product to reveal before launch which may not have helped, so it is much easier now to market the product in all it's glory, rather than a concept that people have to imagine. Some people have suggested that I wasn't running the campaign for long enough, though actually this wouldn't have made any difference in reaching the target anyway for the reasons stated above. According to Kickstarter statistics, successful campaigns get a lot of pledges in the first couple of days as the buzz drives visitors to the site, then the pledges will dip right down in the middle of the campaign and pick up again at the end as people rush to pledge before it finishes. Their statistics also show that a "shorter duration better positions a project for success", so with that in mind I also had to consider being able to deliver the duffle coats within the best selling period of 'back to school' in September which within the long production schedule didn't give me any longer than two weeks to run the campaign. So, what's next? I am determined not to give up and to relaunch again soon, with an aim to be delivering in time for Christmas. I am currently negotiating with new manufacturers and working to bring my costs down further in the hope of being able to provide lower price points. The campaign did show which products people were most interested in, namely the t-shirts, which is what I will focus on for relaunch. (I am even considering adding in a new Christmas print) I am also looking into involving outside agencies to help me with PR and marketing too as I know now that I cannot do it all! So please stick with us and sign up to our mailing list so you can be the first to know when pre-orders will be available again. And thanks again for all your support and feedback x
Here is a snapshot of the Boy Wonder launch collection that is now available on Kickstarter.
This crowdfund campaign will run for 2 weeks only. Further orders will not be taken until the retail website is up and running in September/October. The set up of this is of course dependant on gaining enough pre-orders to make production and website investment viable. So don't miss out! (sorry, I hate this salesy talk too but I've come this far so I have to try and sell it now!) Click HERE to see the whole collection and pre-order now.
So it's finally here after years of work! I really hope everyone likes it as I have put so much into it. I am pretty pleased with it and am eager to get designing again now. There have been so many problems along the way and sometimes it felt impossible to achieve but I have also really enjoyed creating it all. I do feel a real sense of achievement because I have also done it on my own without a business or life partner. So although I've had advice from friends, family and business associates, all the decisions had to be made by me alone. I am hoping I made the right decisions and will have lots of lovely backers giving me good reason to crack open the bubbly next Sunday and celebrate my baby 'Boy Wonder' going out into the world.
We will be launching the Boy Wonder collection on Kickstarter for pre-orders before the retail site is launched in September. Please save the date! SUNDAY 30TH JUNE at 11AM BST This will be the first chance to see the collection in full and see the video of the Boy Wonder story. The cross-seasonal collection for 5-10 year olds comprises of duffle coats; a British design classic, hard wearing raw denim, practical cotton drill trousers and comfy jersey-wear to cover all the needs of a busy child's wardrobe. The garments feature bright, hand-drawn prints with a quirky British twist and follow circular design principles with in-built room for growth and care and repair products & guides. If you want to be kept up to date with launch details and exclusive content including livesteam video of the collection please sign up to our VIP mailing list. This is early bird access to see the garments in detail and hear all about them before anyone else does. You can sign up on the contact page, on site pop up box or link above. Then follow us on Instagram and direct message me so I can add you to the VIP list. More details on this will follow very soon. I will also be available on Twitter for a live Q&A on the collection from 8pm BST. Please join me to tell me what you think. Click on the links above to follow us on social media and keep up to date with all the latest news. |
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