Panda Motion Designs HANDMADE IN KENT, UK

3 November 2026 · 4 min read

The October Business Diary: Behind the Scenes of a Mum-Owned Small Business

A behind-the-scenes look at October in my mum-owned UK small business, from product launches and Etsy updates to real business struggles.

October 2026 Roundup

Welcome back to my new mini-blog series, where I reflect on what happened while running my UK small business over the past month. Check my roundup for September 2026 here.

October is typically the month when the festive orders start to come in, but it’s been extremely quiet. Shockingly quiet, in fact.

My son had a 2-week half-term holiday for Halloween. And despite the wet weather, we managed some fun days at home, but also managed to get out for some Halloween fun on the drier days.

So let’s break the month down and take a snapshot look at what’s been happening.

 

Sales Snapshot 📦

Overall, sales for October have been the worst I have had since the first couple of months of opening my store 4 years ago.

This could be down to the cost of living, with customers not having as much spending money, or customers losing trust in Etsy due to the high volume of AI-generated or drop-shipping accounts, or another reason. But I am not the only one seeing this drastic downturn in sales compared to last year.

Overview of Shop Stats:

Repeat Customers: I had no repeat customers, but I did get an order from a lovely customer in Canada who wanted some help with a product before ordering.

What Worked Well: Social media has increased engagement as well. I also got accepted on Faire Wholesale. Fingers crossed it helps bring in more sales.

What I’m Changing for November: I will be focusing on promoting my Etsy and Faire store rather than adding new products for the festive period.

Product Development Corner 🎨

I launched 4 new products in October. All are festive-themed and ready for the Christmas season.

I managed to launch:

  • New Version of a popular Christmas decoration

  • Christmas mug

  • Personalised tin

  • Sticker sheet

Two new personalised products based on a popular Christmas tree decoration. The original is personalised, but I decided to offer it with the option to add a name as a decoration, as well as a personalised mug.

A new personalised cookie tin for all those gingerbread men you will be baking (or buying from the shop) and a set of stickers that would be great for Christmas planners or for use on gift tags

I have another idea for a tin and maybe flags, but may not have the time to get them out in time for Christmas this year.

Community & Connection 🤍

Everyone is very busy getting their Christmas lines launched and preparing for orders, as well as pushing more on social media.

We have been liking, sharing, and commenting on one another's posts to help boost ourselves in the algorithm. Supporting and not competing.

Big shout-out to The Lunar Craft Studio for liking and sharing a lot of my posts lately.

And another lovely shout-out to HJ’s Handmade for regularly tagging me in posts and sharing my business.

Please do check out their pages if you love discovering other small businesses.

The Reality Check

Since October was an incredibly disappointing month, I have been more careful about what stock I will have for Christmas, since the money I usually get in September/October sales is not there.

This is also making me a bit more worried about sales for Christmas, as this is where I usually make the bulk of my income.

As I said earlier, I was accepted onto Faire to offer a select group of products and designs for wholesale orders. Which is exciting, but I am setting my expectations to start low since I am a new seller there and could take a while to build momentum.

But I am optimistic for this to add a little more income.

Life Behind the Desktop☕

I’ll be honest. October has been hard; I had to stop looking at my shop stats to help stop my mental health from spiraling.

But life for many is difficult right now. The cost of living is rising, and people have less money to spend on non-essentials, making running a small UK business even harder.

But I am not giving up just yet. I am still here and fighting. My family needs my flexibility right now, so that is what I fight for.

Looking Ahead to November

As November arrives, I’ll be promoting winter cosy reading vibes and Christmas gifting. I will continue to work on designs behind the scenes, but my focus will be on promoting gift ideas.

I still have a few products that need new listing photos, but I will get back to that in the new year when I have more time to focus on that. I will also begin working on Valentine's products and promotion ready for the new year.

And of course, school life is going to be a blur, with school photo day, Christmas Jumper day, school nativity, and the Christmas fair all in the calendar and ready with a hot cocoa.

November is definitely shaping up to be another busy month behind the scenes.

Until Next Month

Thank you for supporting my little business this month. Whether you ordered, shared, liked, or simply cheered me on — it truly means everything.

Why not follow me on social media? Check out the links at the foot of the page.

Until next month 💛