If you follow me over at @christabelbalfour, you might have seen my instagram stories about Brexit! Somewhat naively, I was taken completely by surprise at how much it has affected the day-to-day running of my business. So I’ve been asking my followers for any advice or help they can offer, and sharing their tips as I go.

But I decided to put everything I’ve learnt so far into one comprehensive blog post. Balfour & Co is a weaving business after all, so the things that affect us as a small business will most likely be affecting others too.

Let me just preface this with an acknowledgement that international shipping from the UK right now is a nightmare. The double whammy of Covid and Brexit has slowed down processing at UK ports and contributed to a global shortage of shipping containers. Plus with more people shopping online than ever, demand is sky-high. Throw in new customs charges into the mess, and we're all feeling the pain.

In this post, I'm going to be sharing some of the advice I've been given on how to handle things, and what we're doing at Balfour & Co to make things run as smooth as possible.

Brexit Tip No. 1 - Get an EORI number

The eternally lovely and helpful Deborah from MoonKo suggested signing up for an EORI number. This stands for Economic Operators Registration and Identification number and it's used to process your shipments at customs. You can ship without one (I was!) but you run the risk of increased costs and delays. You can get one in about 5 minutes from the UK government website. Other instagram followers of mine have recommended getting one even if you are a private individual and not a business, just to make shipping overseas easier.

Brexit Tip No. 2 - Use a Shipping Company

While deliveries have been slow and there have been increased customs charges, none of our shipments have been held at customs due to incomplete paperwork or other issues (so far… knock on wood.)

This is because I have a business account with Parcelforce, and shipping companies like this handle a lot of the customs process for you. The UK government website recommends using a customs agent or a fast parcel operator, and they have a comprehensive list of them here.

Parcelforce also check my customs paperwork for me and notify me of any issues. So my parcels will never be sent out overseas to be stuck in customs indefinitely.

Caveat: we still experienced some issues with Parcelforce, which have now been resolved. DPD at one point also stopped shipping to the EU from the UK entirely, but it looks like they are now back up and running.

Brexit Tip No. 3 - Talk To An Expert

I am in the process of finding a customs lawyer or expert who will be able to look over our customs declarations and tariff categories. This will help me ensure we're declaring our goods accurately on our customs forms, and avoid incurring extra customs because we've accidentally declared our goods as something that is taxed at a higher rate. This is a work in progress, but I'll hopefully share an update on this in the future! So watch this space.

Another great tip I’ve had from my instagram followers is to speak to your local Chamber of Commerce or business support organisation. They will often give free advice, and help you make sense of your obligations as a business and exporter. You can find resources on the British Chamber of Commerce website here.

Brexit Tip No. 4 - Keep Track Of All Your Orders

If you're shipping lots of small parcels under £30, you probably don't need to worry about this. But since we frequently ship large orders of multiple boxes internationally, I try and make sure we know where everyone's parcels are at all times. We have a spreadsheet where we log the order number, customer name, email, ship date and tracking number and delivery confirmation. If an order is delayed or moving slowly, it is copied into another spreadsheet and monitored. After a certain point, if something is taking too long, we raise an enquiry with our shipping company and get them to look into it.

This does take up a lot of time, and my wonderful studio admin Immie does most of it. I couldn't do this without her! Even though it's time-consuming, it gives me so much peace of mind and means I'm never blindsided by an expensive order going missing.

Brexit Tip No. 5- Make Sure Your Customers Are Prepared

Unfortunately, one thing I've found in all my research is that right now, the is no way around the customs charges that we now all have to pay.

Customs charges are the responsibility of the buyer, not the seller, and it’s difficult to anticipate from the UK-side what customs duties will be at the other end.

So instead I'm focusing on preparing our EU customers for the charges they may have to pay. I've updated our shipping information and will be adding reminders to all of our products. I'm encouraging our customers to work out what customs they may have to pay prior to buying so it doesn’t come as a nasty surprise.

Unfortunately, this may mean that some EU customers simply can't afford to buy our physical products right now. This is a really hard thing to accept, but I hope we will find a way around it eventually.

In the meantime, we still have our online courses! Balfour & Co really started as a teaching business, with weaving supplies on the side, and our courses can be accessed from anywhere in the world. I'll be sharing some exciting news about our Geometric Weaving course in the blog next week, so watch out for that.

As an additional bonus, I've put together a list of Stockists & Suppliers in the EU (and around the world) whose products we recommend. So if you’re taking one of our courses and need to stock up, have a look.

Finally, in spite of all these hurdles, I remain optimistic that things will improve. If there’s one thing you learn running a small business, it’s how to change and adapt. I’ve been so encouraged by everyone’s support, and messages from people all over the world offering sympathy, advice and encouragement. It might be tough for a while, but we’re in this together and it will get better.

If you have any feedback or further advice, let me know in the comments! Or send me an email at christy@balfourand.co

Sign up to our newsletter to be notified when enrolment opens for our Geometric Weaving online course.