Kate Tompsett – How Stock Doctor Transformed Happy and Glorious

Catherine Erdly: Have you ever felt overwhelmed by your business numbers? Maybe it seems like there’s endless amounts of information that you can get your hands on, but you don’t actually know what you’re supposed to be doing with it. Maybe your cashflow has felt really tight and unmanageable and that sometimes you are just robbing Peter to pay Paul and keep moving money around the business in order to keep things above water.

If the answer to that is yes, then today’s episode with Kate Tompsett from Happy and glorious. May be telling a familiar story. 

Meet Kate Tompsett from Happy and Glorious

Catherine Erdly: Kate is one of the first businesses to go through my new stock doctor program, and she has been working with her stock doctor since the summer and has been kind enough to come onto the podcast to share her experiences being a business owner.

And what I’m sure is a very common situation of feeling overwhelmed and how the stock doctors service has helped her out. 

If you’re interested in the Stock Doctor service, then do go check out resilientretailclub. com where you can find out all of the information and book in for a chat.

Welcome to the Resilient Retail Game Plan, a podcast for anyone wanting to start, grow or scale a profitable creative product business with me, Catherine Erdly. The Resilient Retail Game Plan is a podcast dedicated to one thing, breaking down the concepts and tools that I’ve gathered from 20 years in the retail industry and showing you how you can use them in your business.

This is the real nuts and bolts of running a successful product business, broken down in an easy, accessible way. This is not a podcast about learning how to make your business look good. It’s the tools and techniques that will make you and your business feel good. Confidently plan, launch, and manage your products, and feel in control of your sales numbers and cash flow to help you build a resilient retail business.

Kate, thank you so much for joining me today. Do you want to start off by introducing yourself and your business? 

and 

Kate Tompsett: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. This is very exciting. 

The Journey of Happy and Glorious

Kate Tompsett: I am Kate Tompsett and I have an online and bricks and mortar shop called Happy and Glorious in Canterbury.

Catherine Erdly: Tell us a little bit more about happy and glorious. How did you come up with the name and what’s the ethos behind the shop?

Kate Tompsett: Okay. I’d worked in retail independent retail since the age of 17. I absolutely loved it. I love that every day is different. I love that you get some really funny customers and that it’s, it can be such a joyful thing that you’re making someone’s life a little bit better in a tiny way.

And I just love that sort of customer service and the craziness and the hysterical giggling and the endless cups of tea. So I knew that I loved retail. And at age 17 I thought I, I want to shop. I want my own shop. I waited until I was 34 and I was just thinking to myself, happy and glorious. that would be a nice name for a shop.

I think I heard it on the radio because it was 2012 and it was the year of the London Olympics and it was the year of the Jubilee. So there was this real positivity around British made stuff. Um, We, we don’t normally do sort of, Oh, actually, you know, Britain’s all right. We don’t often do that in a, in a really, in a really, in a really fun way.

And I just thought this would be a great opportunity. This is a great time to launch. My dad’s a farmer and always said, it’s important to buy british when british is in season. There’s lots of things we’ll always need to import from other countries and that’s a fabulous and powerful thing.

But also if we can get it locally, why not get it locally? So yeah, I heard the phrase happy and glorious on the radio and I thought, yeah, that’s a good name for a shop. And I said, I think I said to my parents, oh, one day I might have a shop called happy and glorious. And then by the next day I had bought the domain name and set up the social media and booked into my first trade show and placed an order. And yeah, so I don’t do things by halves. So yeah, it was very much a, I’m going to do this. Okay, let’s do it now.

Catherine Erdly: I love it. And 2012. And then that first shop wasn’t in Canterbury. Is that correct?

Kate Tompsett: No, I set up online and I was solely online. For two years then I started doing sort of gift fairs And pop up shops and things like that and then I was offered an opportunity to have a Shop a high street shop for a year in ashford, which was a regeneration Project. It was a porter’s pilot town.

So that was in 2016 So I was there for a year in the most minuscule shop. But it was really great. It was not necessarily financially amazing, but it introduced me to a community of like minded business owners. It got me used to being on the high street. It got me used to, baby steps, getting me into the world of retail by myself.

So it was a really powerful thing. So I was there for a year. Then I moved to Cranbrook, which is one of the smallest towns in Britain which was amazing. I was there for six years and then I met a boy. And he lives in Canterbury and we wanted to live together and he has kids who, live here, go to school here.

So it made sense for me to be the one that uprooted and come here to Canterbury. So I’ve gone from small town to big city and I’m learning. I’m learning a lot along the way.

Catherine Erdly: Now presumably also in Canterbury you get a lot more tourists. Is that fair to say? Or did you have them in Cranbrook and Ashford as well?

Kate Tompsett: No, in in Cranbrook in particular, in August, everyone left.

Just, yeah, that was the quiet time. So that was the time that I was, regrouping and working towards Christmas and things like that. And then suddenly I came to Canterbury and it’s like, Oh, everyone is here in August.

Catherine Erdly: Yes.

Kate Tompsett: What is this? There are customers. How exciting. So yeah, it’s a complete turnaround. I loved Cranbrook. And again, it was a great, step along my journey. But yeah, coming to the city, it’s a whole new, it’s like having a brand new shop and there’s lots to learn. But it is, it’s fab.

Catherine Erdly: Yes. Yeah. And a different type of space and all kinds of things. Yeah. Different customers.

Kate Tompsett: Yeah,

Catherine Erdly: Wonderful. 

Why did Kate start working with the Stock Doctor?

Catherine Erdly: So obviously you’ve been working with at Paola, our fabulous stock doctor since the summertime. So do you want to tell us a little bit about what was going on for you before you started working with Stock Doctor

Kate Tompsett: sure. Absolutely. I love Paola. She’s great. She’s so great. I would say, I’ve been working with a coach on mindset and sales and marketing. And that has really helped me in the transition from Cranbrook to Canterbury, but there was something missing from the actual retail side of things.

I had an awful lot of data cause Shopify gives you all sorts of data. I’m also in a relationship with someone who works in data, he is business intelligence person. So he’s doing me all these charts. I’ve got all these charts that I’ve been doing myself. I’ve got all this stuff from Shopify and I just didn’t know what to do with it.

I was like, Oh, I’ve got lots of information. Yeah. Information is useless if you’re not doing anything with it. So I could see growth, I could see growth happening, but not fast enough. Financially, I felt like I was on a permanent knife edge, completely exhausted robbing Peter to pay Paul constantly in my bank accounts.

Felt like I was stabbing in the dark. Really. I always buy what I love. That is something I learned from someone I used to work for is that filling your store with things that you genuinely love and have a, an affinity with really helps because you’re passionate and you can sell those things much easier.

But it just felt like it wasn’t quite enough. 

Catherine Erdly: Did you feel like it was particularly where you made the move from one store that you were very familiar with over six years that you were then in a new space that, that also exacerbated it?

Kate Tompsett: I think so. And not to mention the fact that Canterbury is around three times more expensive than

So I wanted to hit the ground running when I opened in Canterbury in 2022, but there were delays and there was, waiting for people to find me and there was absolute terror. I’d also moved house that same month.

So there was a lot going on in my life. Living with someone else for the first time in over a decade. Yes, a big learning curve going on. Yeah just trying to constantly make enough money just to be okay. Just to keep one nostril above water. It’s yeah, it was

Catherine Erdly: It’s exhausting.

Kate Tompsett: and it makes you smaller as well.

It makes you more scared to make bigger decisions because you’re thinking, I don’t know if this is going to work. This is a risk. And whilst I am a risk taker by nature,

Felt a lot.

Catherine Erdly: Yeah. There are risks and there are risks, right? There’s calculated risks. Big believer in calculated risks. But sometimes when it doesn’t feel like it’s calculated, it’s just a swing in the dark.

Kate Tompsett: Terrifying. Yeah.

Catherine Erdly: What was it then would you say that, that spoke to you about Stock Doctor and what made you decide to join?

Kate Tompsett: It was your book, Tame Your Tiger. I’d heard you mention it on your podcast and I thought, this sounds interesting. I love a business book. I’m going to buy this book. So I bought it. And it was just, it spoke to me so clearly because you can feel so alone when you’re running a small business and think that the things that are happening to you are only happening to you.

But it was. You’ve done the really good models of different types of businesses and how each thing affected them. And then the margin calculator, which blew my mind, honestly, to find out that I had been grossly undercharging

For a very long time. So I think seeing that clarity and thinking, My goodness, there’s a whole world out there that I haven’t explored.

I haven’t hit a brick wall thinking I don’t know what to do. There’s always more.

Catherine Erdly: Yes,

Kate Tompsett: then when I heard about the Stop Doctor, I was this could be the thing. This is the missing link. I went into business because I love beautiful things. I love British made things. I love artisanal stuff. I don’t know enough that this is an area that I don’t know enough about, and it would take me years to learn the kind of stuff that Paola knows, or I could just get Paola to do it.

Catherine Erdly: Yeah, that’s, it’s, it’s so great to hear from lots of perspectives, first off, because it takes a really long time to write a book. So I always really enjoy it when people tell me it’s been helpful. Cause you just think, yeah, that’s so great. I love it. And and it is, I think for me, it’s because there are so many things that when people come to me and they feel stuck, like exactly, like you say, there are places that you can look and the margin is definitely part of that, where if you’ve been undercharging, then it’s really hard to make the whole business work because the margin is the biggest thing.

The foundation is built upon, but also you’re touching on the fact that the reason that I created stock doctor, which was really fundamentally, because I recognize that people, especially bricks and mortar, but not just bricks and mortar most product business owners, to be honest. Just a so tight for time and so many other demands.

And I felt like with the book and then also the course inside my membership, the course version of the book, I felt like, okay, this is as far as I can take it in terms of if you want the information’s here. But I know from situations in my own life where I maybe need to, Help with something like sometimes it’s about learning the skill and sometimes it’s about just having somebody do it for you.

I remember I bought a course on how to do a, how to start a podcast when I first started this podcast and it had a whole section on editing your podcast. And I watched this section and my takeaway from it was immediately I was like, I’m not never doing this. I need some, I have friends who edit their own podcasts.

I don’t, I. I can’t do it. I need, I just don’t have the time. And like you say, I feel like, I don’t know how well I do it. I don’t have the skillset. And sometimes you just need somebody else to come in and do it for you, which is exactly what was the purpose behind Stock Doctor. 

Impact of Stock Doctor on Happy and Glorious

Catherine Erdly: So how have you found the process?

What, how, talk us a little bit about how you, how the process has been for you and how you found the service overall?

Kate Tompsett: Okay. The process is super, super easy. I have felt comfortable at every step of the way and incredibly comforted. Because I think, When you run your own business, there is a tendency to not only have to do everything yourself, but feel that you have to be good at everything.

Catherine Erdly: Yes.

Kate Tompsett: that’s not my area. So to have an expert, to have an expert, just saying.

This is what you need to do. This is how many units you need to buy of this. These are your best sellers. Never run out of this product. Just the clarity. It’s beautiful. It’s such a beautiful thing. I’m looking around my shop thinking these are my best sellers. I have prioritized. I’ve moved things around.

Every day it’s like something every time I work with Paola, every meeting we have, I come away with something that’s so easy to do and yet I know will make a genuine difference. There was a ridiculous thing. I design my own mugs. So when I get them, I have to get 600 mugs at a time, which is always a terrifying order.

I know they will sell. I’ve been selling them for four years, something like that. They sell.

Catherine Erdly: They’re very beautiful, I have that much say.

Kate Tompsett: Oh, why, thank you. But having that much stock just sitting there, seeing that as cash flow just all tied up is a bit terrifying. So Paola and yourself, you both said These aren’t moving.

Why do you have so much stock? And I explained why and you were like, cool. And then I said well, they don’t really sell in the summer because tourists, we get so many tourists from overseas. They just don’t really move in the summer and boxes. Why don’t you just have boxes next to the mugs to show that they’re, they are packable, that they will go in, they will be safe.

They will get back to your home country safe. And I did that. And the growth we saw, I think it was something like up 48 percent on the previous month, just by having boxes, which cost me 30 pence next to the mugs. Its just these tiny little changes that make really solid differences. And that’s

Catherine Erdly: Such a great

Kate Tompsett: a powerful thing. Yeah.

Catherine Erdly: Yeah, because that is the same, that is such a good point because I suppose when you come from so Obviously myself come from corporate retail backgrounds and everyone in the stock doctor program, they’re from corporate retail background as well. And Paola in particular is anthropology for a long time.

And that is the kind of thing, in a corporate setting that you’re constantly discussing. This is selling. Why is it selling? Why is it not selling? So you get really good at brainstorming, right? This is what could we do? What could work focusing on, right? This, you’ve got this stock, right?

How can we make it work for you? So that’s a great example of, yeah, if the whole, if the thing holding the mug sales back was the fact that the tourists were worried about putting them in the suitcases and then breaking, but you can demonstrate that they don’t have to worry about that, then that’s amazing to hear that.

Yeah, that’s such a great spike. And I’m really glad you said it was reassuring as well, because I know that sometimes people say to me when we have the just on another round of kick off of Stock Doctor and people sometimes say, Oh, I feel like I’m about to get my school report because you are handing over the numbers in your business to an expert and it can feel nerve wracking to feel like, Oh, someone’s going to look at this and be judgmental.

But I think that is the key. Like it’s always, like I always say, it’s a judgment free zone. I have nothing but respect for people who run retail businesses, bricks and mortar and e commerce, you guys work so hard and this is a skillset that we have that we’ve acquired over many years that it doesn’t mean that, there’s loads of things that you would do way better than me.

It’s not, you know what I mean? So I’m really glad that it’s felt reassuring as well as enlightening. Yes,

Kate Tompsett: So reassuring, so comforting and she’s great fun as well. You both are which does help

Catherine Erdly: absolutely. You’ve mentioned the mugs. Have there been any other examples of things that you’ve been able to change as a result of the stop doctor program?

Kate Tompsett: I think again, it’s things like Those tiny tweaks that you know that will take you 10 minutes to do or half an hour to do, so you’re not being given a huge amount of homework that you think, Oh, holy moly, I’ve got all this stuff to do now. I’ve got to take more time away from my business to do this stuff.

It’s just like tiny tweaks. Probably I would say the home fragrance. It was, it had hit a bit of a plateau, a new candle shop, which is great where she makes her own candles head open, I don’t know, maybe 10 or 20 doors down. So I’d seen a bit of a dip in say my candle sales and. I just took that as well, obviously there’s a candle shop, but Paolo was very much.

Build a shrine to home fragrance. I want to see a photo of this like just Every home fragrance product you have make it smell amazing Make it look amazing have something beautiful, but then make it really easy to shop as well and Just reacting to something in a completely different way was really, it’s silly, but it’s again, such an obvious thing, but it was so alien to me that instead of going, oh candles aren’t selling anymore to actually say, okay, let’s make them sell. And again, we saw an enormous uptick in home fragrance. I can’t remember the percentage, but. Really strong performance. And it was more fragrance diffusers when I did that display. And it’s that’s cool because that lady doesn’t sell fragrance diffusers. So this is for me.

This is great.

Catherine Erdly: Yeah. Oh, fantastic. 

How Stock Doctor has changed the way Kate thinks about her business

Catherine Erdly: You talked a little bit about day to day as you’re looking around the shop floor, but do you feel like that you’ve changed the way that you think about things after starting the Stock Doctor Program?

Kate Tompsett: Yeah. I would say so. I think I had a bit of a tricky time. I think it was March. I was paying my rent quarterly. Which is so huge and obviously you’ve got the vat implications and things So I got I changed that to monthly but in march I was having a bit of a wobble. I did one of those Heartbroken posts on instagram, which I felt really awful about but I didn’t know how I was going to make my rent And there was this huge storm love and support from customers.

We had something like, I don’t know, about 80 online orders in a day. It was incredible. It was really beautiful and really special. But I thought, I don’t want to have to do that again. I don’t want to feel like that again. I can’t remember what the question was now. I

Catherine Erdly: like you think about things in a different way since working in stock doctor? Yeah.

Kate Tompsett: would say, yes, I think about things in a different way. Yes, in March, it was a very tricky time. I was paying my rent quarterly and it was really tricky with paying VAT and just everything balancing and I didn’t want to have to do that again. I wanted to reach a point where I was Comfortable and confident and where my business was on a sort of even keel and I think the stock doctor has really helped me feel a lot better.

But what it has also done is made me more proactive. So for example, I had a Shopify capital loan and I have consolidated that. So my monthly payments are much smaller. I have made difference to my. Staffing, I have yeah, I’ve looked into the pricing of boxes and bags and packaging and postage and everything like that, and I have made these changes.

Because I want make the business much more robust. And I think the stock doctor, knowing that I’m ordering the right things in the right quantities for the right people, displaying my stock in the right way, I think that has given me a little bit more headspace to say okay, let’s deal with the back end as well and tidy this up to make sure everything is easier.

And I never have to get into that position again, where I have to do a Holy moly, I’m not going to be able to pay my rent this month. I don’t want to feel like that again because it’s terrifying and awful.

Catherine Erdly: Yeah. And I think also as well, I feel like one of the key things is what do you, what should you be spending your money on and avoiding, there’s nothing more heartbreaking to me than when people have spent all of their money on the wrong stock or stock that isn’t moving. And this is really about focusing in on those key categories that you absolutely can’t be out of stock of, but equally, okay, this stuff you can, it doesn’t look like It’s trending.

Maybe you don’t have to buy it back into this. You can really start to funnel your money in a much more effective way as well.

Kate Tompsett: Yeah, absolutely. And I’ve never liked sort of sales and discounts and things like that. But I feel like I’m also more confident ready for a January sale, which I always do, but in a very small way, I’m ready to do a proper sale because I now know that what isn’t shifting. I now know what I need to just gently clear away.

I’m guided by data and logic as well as, as well as by my heart. So it’s a really powerful thing. There is a mindset change and that’s really cool.

What advice would Kate give to anyone else considering the Stock Doctor program?

Catherine Erdly: That’s amazing. Fantastic. So what would you say to someone who is maybe thinking about the stock doctor service? But maybe feeling a bit hesitant.

Kate Tompsett: I would say, I felt the same. I had a call with you

I don’t know, early June, I think it was, where we discussed what it could do. And I was thinking, this is amazing. This is, this is really brilliant, but can I afford it? I don’t know if I can afford it. And I think I’m pretty sure I emailed you and said, you know what, this isn’t the right time for me.

I just don’t have enough in the kitty at this point. And I went away for, I think, seven days. And then I thought, Ooh. Do you know what nothing changes if nothing changes and that was the point that I thought this Is going to be the way that I get secure. This is my, this is the way that I’m going to make changes in my business from looking at it from a data perspective, not just a heart panic.

percepective Um, so I came back to you and said, actually. Actually please, can I? Because I’m getting it. I’m getting an expert for the equivalent of one hour a day. And if I were paying someone to work in my shop for one hour a day, or I were paying someone to come and clean for one hour a day, no one would think, oh, do you know what?

That’s expensive. But that’s the equivalent, but I’m getting an expert who’s worked in anthropology, who’s worked in the same sector that I’m in the gifts and the homeware. And she just knows her stuff and that’s a flipping bargain. That’s an amazing thing. And I always really look forward to my meetings with her and I’m hoping to carry on once my six months is up because I’m going to have a great Christmas.

And I want to have a great January and February as well. And I want to build on the success I’m having so far and yeah, just get really strong and this is the way. So yeah, do it. In short,

Catherine Erdly: Amazing. Thank you so much. It’s so great to hear however, how it’s all worked out for you. And, as I said, this is really the reason I created this, the service. So it’s brilliant. Brilliant to hear it. And what’s ahead. So great Christmas, a great January, great new year. 

Future Plans and Conclusion

Catherine Erdly: And anything else in the pipeline for 2025?

Kate Tompsett: certainly looking at the layout of the shop, I run workshops in the evenings. I had one last night, so it was a very long day for me. And, The end of the day was clearing tables and getting out chairs and setting everything up and Putting away stock which I do not like to do but rejigging the shop.

So i’ve got a permanent workshop space or a space that’s very easy to convert into a workshop space. So it’s saving time and effort. It’s not losing a selling space. People feel more comfortable there. Yeah, I think working on that because workshops are such a great way to get people into the space, relaxed, happy.

glass of wine to see the stock to spend time there to enjoy themselves. And that’s a really good thing to do. So I think rejigging and making it into a really good workshop and shop space that just pushes me forward.

Catherine Erdly: Amazing. Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us. And of course, if people want to find out more about your shop and of course, your lovely mugs as well, where’s the best place to find you.

Kate Tompsett: I am online at happy glorious. co. uk and on Instagram, I am at happy glorious.

Catherine Erdly: thank you so much again to Kate for joining us on today’s show. It’s absolutely brilliant to hear how Stock Doctor has helped. Again, if you’re interested in Stock Doctor for your own business, head over to resilientretailclub. com. You’ll see a link to the Stock Doctor service there. And to find out more, all of the information, how it works, and also have the opportunity to book in for a call to have a chat.

And of course, if you have a moment to rate and review the podcast, it does make a huge difference in getting out there in front of other people. And of course, if you like follow or subscribe, you’ll be the first to know about every new episode that comes out on the Thursday morning. See you next week.

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