Introducing… Balfour & Co.

Hello and welcome to the first ever Balfour & Co blog post! 

I’m so thrilled you’re here!

And also just a tiny bit terrified 😅

It’s always that way when you start something new. Balfour & Co has been a little idea growing in the dark at the back of my mind for almost two years now. But no amount of secret planning and scheming prepares you for the moment when it comes into the light.

At the same time, I really didn’t think it would be all that nerve-wracking! After all, Balfour & Co isn’t a completely new thing. Rather, it’s a new name for an existing part of my business. 

If you’re familiar with my work at Christabel Balfour , you’ll know that over the years my business has expanded to include tapestries, rugs, tapestry weaving workshops, an illustrated tapestry guide, rug weaving workshops, one-to-one classes, online courses, rug looms and weaving kits. 

If you feel tired reading that sentence, guess what? Me too!

It was a lot for one business to juggle, let alone one person.

As the team expanded to include Immie (my wonderful studio admin) and Pippa (emergency summer hire who also happens to be my sister) I felt a nudge that the time had come for that little idea at the back of my mind. And that my time as a one-woman-band-wearing-many-hats might be coming to an end. 

So I began the process of splitting up my work into two separate brands. Around the studio we jokingly referred to it as The Divorce, but it’s actually been a lot of fun. While building a new thing can be scary, it’s also an opportunity to reflect and reconsider. 

To think, do I want this to keep going in the same way? 

Or would I like to do things differently this time?

Here are some of the things I hope we can do differently at Balfour & Co.

Get The Balance Right

First things first, we are all about that work-life balance! 

Let me be the first to raise my hand and say that I have not always been great at this 🙋🏼‍♀️

Scratch that- I’ve never been great at this. I’ve been actively BAD at this. Like, “sitting up in bed answering client emails hours after major surgery” bad at this.

But I’m taking this opportunity to start doing things differently, for the sake of myself and the people I work with. 

That means keeping regular office hours, not checking email or instagram outside of work and setting realistic targets for… the first time ever.

Set The Pace

In a similar vein to “work life balance”, moving at a steady pace hasn’t exactly been my forte. After all, I’m the gal who’s moved studios on a whim twice in two years, impulse bought multiple floor looms & launched products a week after dreaming them up. The fact that I sat on the idea for Balfour & Co for two years is an impressive display of restraint on my part!

But as the business grows, it becomes more important than ever to move at a sustainable pace. That’s why right now, we’re only going to be running our courses a few times a year, and updating our shop no more than once a month.

This means we can provide better service to our customers- and keep our workload manageable! 

Prioritise Accessibility

This isn’t so much a thing I’d like to do differently as a thing I’d like to be more intentional about.

I’m very aware that the products I sell aren’t financially accessible for everyone. To that end, I’ve always tried to share my weaving knowledge where I can, mostly in the form of hastily shot instagram Q&As.

But with Balfour & Co, I want to be more intentional about sharing weaving resources and information to help you get started with weaving, whatever tools you have available. We have some really exciting blog posts lined up, and if there’s anything you’d like us to write about, drop us a line at info@balfourand.co and we’ll add it to the list!

After all, I got started weaving with a loom and tools i made myself, using acrylic yarn from the charity shop and cotton string from the DIY store. It’s not about the tools you have, guys- it’s about what you do with them. 

Create Content With Intent

And while we’re creating this content for our website and our social media, I want us to be purposeful about what we’re putting out into the online world.

After all, we’ve all been spending a LOT more time online in these months of lockdown. I’ve become increasingly conscious of how much of my time it’s been eating up. At one point I was spending 2 hours a day on instagram alone, which adds up to 730 hours a year- or to put it another way, 91 8 HOUR WORKING DAYS scrolling through my newsfeed. That’s too much, by anyone’s standards.

The last thing I want to do is pump out more content that keeps you staring at a screen. So it’s our aim to prioritize quality over quantity. I’d rather send out one really good newsletter per month, that’s actually inspiring and encouraging, than a dozen just-okay instagram posts.

It’s my hope that our blog, our newsletter, and social media feeds all encourage you to switch off and engage with weaving and your own creativity IRL. 

So- those are my things I’d like to do differently. It’s early days, I’m sure I’ll definitely break a few of my own rules, especially about that work-life balance...

But hey, who knows? I think it will be different. I’ve deleted email off my phone, and I’m about to sign off and spend the weekend relaxing and catching up with friends.

I’m so excited for what comes next for this little brand, and that I get to share it with you all. Thanks for reading!