How Word Spread at Longridge C of E
Word had started to spread — not through any plan, just through word of mouth. Parents began messaging me directly, and a WhatsApp group I’d set up started growing.
Parents were recommending me to each other, and adding people to the group. Nobody was arriving cold — they were coming in with someone else's reassurance. There was no advertising. It was just parents talking.
For most, it was refreshing. The local shop was the only other option, and here was an alternative, something different.
The cost was something parents always brought up — the local shop's pricing was a well-known frustration, and what I was offering was the same uniform for less.
I wasn't running a permanent shop. I ran two windows a year — summer, ahead of the new term, and February for refresher orders. Everything was made to order, so a structured window was the only way it made sense.
The trust was already there too. I'm a parent at the school, and my daughter wears the uniform I make. Other parents had seen it, felt the quality, and watched it hold up through a full school year.
Word had spread further than I'd expected. More enquiries, more orders each window, and more people asking when the next one was opening.
