Name: Julia Gash
Company: Bag It Don’t Bin It
Website: www.bagitdontbinit.com
Sector: Design and manufacturing
Inspiral programme: High Growth Start-Up
Inspiral helped with: Business support
What do you do?
“Bag It Don’t Bin It is a fledgling eco-business. We produce branded cotton and jute carrier bags for retailers, schools and organisations like PR companies who need printed bags for their clients. Our society has been using plastic bags for decades and that is incredibly harmful to the environment, but our bags offer a more environmentally friendly, sustainable alternative.”
How did you come up with the idea?
“I’ve been in business for 17 years and I’ve always been involved with print-making. I started a print-led fashion business in 1990 and some of it is printed onsite here. For me to get a branded bag into the Gash shop, the easiest, cheapest, quickest way to do is to print a cotton bag myself.
“I had a light bulb-over-the-head moment whilst I was sat outside my shop in April this year that I should start printing cotton bags on a larger scale. Within a few months I had a name, courtesy of a friend of mine, and a business partner, Andy O’Hara. It was Andy that suggested we contact Inspiral.”
What help has Inspiral given you?
“Inspiral have been incredibly helpful in supporting the initial stages because all my and Andy’s time was tied up in our existing businesses. But it wasn’t just about the support, it was the way we used it. We were able to access legal, financial and marketing advice, and building the website, which we probably wouldn’t have done if it had been our own time and money we were spending.
“Inspiral’s help has enabled us to have a six month research and development period. We’ve gone to India and found ISO approved socially compliant factories and suppliers, we’ve spent time doing surveys and research, we’ve actually really understood the product, the marketplace and our competitors. We wouldn’t have been able to do that without Inspiral’s help.
How has Inspiral’s help impacted on your business?
“It has enabled us to go through the first stage of business, which most people skip, and has also changed what we set out to do. I didn’t necessarily think of going to India. It’s enabled us to realise that our priority is web marketing. That six months has really taught us a lot.
“We can now move onto our second phase – moving into dedicated premises, getting large scale production and a really good web presence through search engine optimisation.”
What advice would you give to someone looking to start their own business?
“To allocate time for researching and developing your market, your competitors and your product. It’s something that often businesses do skip. I made a mistake with Gash when I opened a shop in Leeds. That cost me loads of money and I made the mistake because I hadn’t researched it properly.”
If you’d like us to help you like we helped Julia click here
