Natasha Hatcher is our fabulous February ‘Member of the Month’ – I caught up with her last month and we chatted about stage lighting, starting out on Instagram and our joint love of yoga to keep on track when running a small business. Well done Natasha – we absolutely love your animal designs!
Natasha Hatcher, Why did you start your small business?
I sort of fell into it by accident! I had left my previous career and didn’t know what to do so I started an instagram account sharing art – at the time it was watercolours and embroidery. After a little bit I had a few folks ask me if any of my embroideries would be available for sale so I opened an etsy shop and that got the ball rolling. I had wanted to go back to being self employed so it was perfect timing and I’ve not looked back since!
Tell us about your background before Hatchling Makes
My background is in live theatre. I trained in stage management and technical theatre at drama school and went straight to working on the West End in lighting. I was in theatre for about 12 years, starting off backstage doing lighting and stage management but then shifted to front of house so I was pouring drinks at the bar, selling programmes, setting up merchandise and eventually I ended up in management. Those front of house skills have been really useful for running my small business!
What’s your best selling product, and why do you think it’s so popular?
I have one washi tape design – the bumblebees one – that I can just barely keep in stock. It’s a funny one because I very nearly didn’t put it into production! I think the versatility of washi tape makes it a super popular product and I underestimated how many people love bees!
What’s the nicest thing a customer has said about your business?
I think my favourite messages are the ones from customers who really love a specific animal and are so excited to have found them in my shop. I’ve had customers get so excited to see a secretary bird pin or a horseshoe crab sticker and seeing them get so excited about finding them in my shop makes me smile every single time.
What are you most looking forward to in 2023 for your small business?
I’m really looking forward to doing some in person markets! They’re one of my favourite parts of running my small business and I always get to have really fun conversations with customers about animals.
As recommended by Hatchling Makes
Each month I ask our small business ‘Member of the Month’ to name 3 things that have inspired, supported and helped with running their business – here are Natasha’s.
I love the desk yoga videos from Yoga By Adriene. I have a tendency to hunch and this really helps me to keep my neck and shoulder muscles from cramping after a day of drawing!
I also really enjoy the procreate video tutorials by Bardot Brush. I always learn something new about how to use procreate from them!
And finally I can’t recommend the amazing Work for Good enough. I met Veronica at a market and prior to that I was having to do all the charity paperwork myself to be able to fundraise through my business. Work for Good does ALL the paperwork for you so you can just sign up, set up your donation and they keep everything legally compliant for you. It saves me so much time every month and makes it so so easy for me to fundraise though my business!
Visit Hatchling Makes right here and check out Natasha’s Instagram page here.
If you enjoyed this blog post take a look at our interview with our June small business member of the month, Dani Seatter founder of Eco-Able.
