Chris Haughton

I was looking at Chris Haughton's website over the Christmas break to but presents for my niece. He primarily writes and illustrates children's books but also sells toys and prints through his site. I think it is important to understand how to expand your business by understanding what it is your customers want. Children that enjoy the books would love to have a toy of their favourite characters from the books and adults that appreciate his illustration would like signed prints. Most popular children's books have merchandise that accompanies them but few have merchandise of the same quality. From what I can tell Chris Haughton's work is not that well know but is loved by the people that do know about it, his illustrations are beautifully crafted and his stories are fun and appealing to children. It makes that he would sell high quality merchandise to a relatively small but loyal fan base as selling cheaper, lower quality products would only be a viable business on a very large scale. he maintains the high quality standards through his prints that are hand signed and printed on archival paper. Even when he is not directly involved in the production his toys are hand made by Mahaguthi development group in Nepal. The toys and packaging are hand made and good quality, The Mahaguthi development group is a social enterprise that takes on 90 women each year (most are widows or victims of domestic abuse) and teaches them to read and write along with other skills to help them seek employment as well as providing education for their children and supporting a hospital. All of these things are good reasons to buy Chris Haughton's products whether a fan or not. I am happy to spend more than usual if a product is hand made to a high standard, I am also happy to pay more if it supporting charities or other worthy causes. Even at the most basic level I am happier spending money on something if everything about the product says 'quality'. I see so many shops that take terrible low quality pictures of items they are selling, this can be a big put off for a customer, if you don't take care when showcasing your work have you taken care in making it? His site is a breath of fresh air when most people are happy to shop at amazon then complain there aren't any local book or record shops where they live. I don't want to sit around complaining, I think we need to figure out what it is a small business can offer that these bigger companies can't or won't. I need to look at these ideas in a lot more depth!!!!!!

-What local businesses could I collaborate with?

-How can we create a sense of community in business?

-How could my work benefit people in need?

-What can small businesses do that bit businesses can't?