Rodo Creative
Running a business doing something you love with your best friend sounds like a dream, right? And that's exactly what Rebecca Doherty and Sarah Mee or Rodo Creative do with their bespoke wedding stationery micro biz. We talked to Rebecca to find out more about the highs, the lows and navigating a pandemic.
In a nutshell, tell us what you do
We are a small design studio based in Manchester creating bespoke stationery for weddings and other special occasions. With a love for all things printed and paper, we also create unique greetings cards.
Who do you run the business with?
Rodo Creative was created my myself and best friend Sarah Mee.
What makes you different from your competitors?
With over 10 years of experience within the industry, we are able to create bespoke designs to ensure that your stationery is unique to you and your special day!
We want to make sure that all of our lovely customers are 100% happy with their stationery, therefore we offer unlimited amendments within the price of any design.
We love hearing new ideas and concepts, no matter how challenging, and through offering free consultations to all of our customers, we believe that our personal service means that we can help you achieve the designs that you want.
What inspired you to start this sort of business?
Myself and Sarah both studied Graphic Design at university, so after being asked by a friend to create her wedding stationery we fell in love with the industry and have never looked back since!
Once starting our stationery journey we decided to set up our greetings cards shop online, and have been creating unique paper goods ever since! Be sure to take a look at some of our best selling ‘scratch reveal’ cards!
2020: What a year! How has the pandemic affected you?
Like most businesses this year we have taken a hit from Covid.
Unfortunately we had to make the difficult decision to temporarily leave our dream studio space and move Rodo Creative back home.
It’s been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster of a year to say the least! But we’ve settled into our new home office and are adapting to the challenges of this year by creating new and unique paper goods, which we hope will bring love and joy to people during these uncertain times.
What do you love most about running your business?
There are many things which I love about running my own business, however perhaps most of all I love that I get to be involved in all aspects of the business. That includes designing new stationery, hand packing orders, or sorting the accounts!
It certainly feels more rewarding when working for yourself, and it’s definitely true what they say about small business owners doing a happy jig every time a new order comes through!
What have been the toughest challenges?
The reality of owning your own business can sometimes feel a little overwhelming, especially since Covid!
The responsibilities that come with owning your own business can often feel like the hardest challenges. You are in charge of keeping your company, staff and accounts afloat, which can sometimes feel a little scary! But it’s all worth it and I definitely wouldn’t change it for the world!
What’s the one piece of advice you’d give to an aspiring entrepreneur?
Myself and Sarah worked really hard to get where we are today with Rodo Creative. Before taking our business full time we worked late nights and weekends to make sure we could keep doing what we loved.
My advice to anyone who wishes to set up their own business would be to work those extra hours and establish yourself on a part-time basis before taking the leap of faith to full-time.
Test that you have a sellable product or service, so that when you do take your business full-time you are confident to do so.
Find out more
Thanks so much, Rebecca! If you want to find out more about Rodo Creative you can check out their website or find them on Instagram.
