Sara Miller has overcome divorce, rejection and copycats to hit upon a sweet spot in entwining both her colourful designs and the world of licensing.
Having worked for a decade as a greeting card designer for large companies, Miller was eager to branch out on her own. “I’d always wanted to but wasn’t sure where there was a gap and an opportunity,” she admits.
She has now become a licensing leader in her field. Her company, Sara Miller London, has morphed into a luxurious lifestyle brand and is sold in over 60 countries, with 1,000 products and a retail turnover of £20 million. It is a far cry from starting the business with £3,000.
Read More: Olio, the waste-tackling app aiming for one billion users
It followed separation from her husband in 2012, yet her newly-found freedom allowed her to take off to India while she still employed as a card designer. She joined a 10-day tour group and was hit with “visual overload” in every direction. “For a creative visual it was like my absolute dream,” she recalls.
She then pursued a novelty tableware business for nine months and pitched to retailers in the US without progress. However, it was coming across a major New York exhibition, Surtex, which brings together manufacturers and retailers in the licensing space, that changed her fortunes.
Today, Miller believes the business model for her company is unique, with no other UK business working the way she does when it comes to licensing. Little wonder that she has become one of the hottest properties in the design sector.
“I was interested in licensing as a business model,” she says. “I contacted Surtex four weeks before the show and got the final last minute stand they had available.”
Working late nights to come up with fresh card designs paid dividends after overflow queues at her stand and returning to the UK with 100 leads. She also accrued six offers from different greeting card and gift wrap companies wanting to license her designs back in London.
Signing with an established manufacturer, Miller receives a royalty for every sale. She now works with a phalanx of different product categories and builds upon existing relationships. “Every time we’re signing a new contract, we are tapping into that network of retailers, distribution and supply,” she says.
Having seen thousands of card submissions firsthand while working at companies like Hallmark and understanding how cutthroat the royalty process is, Miller challenged herself to create unique cards with more detail which couldn’t be easily copied (they have since won several legal battles over copyright).
“I could see from my experience that it was such a hurdle to get across. But it was a really valuable experience,” she admits.
Read More: Smugglers, the ice cream with vegetables hidden in it
Less than a year on from the New York show, her printed greeting cards went to market in John Lewis and “flew off the shelves” in 2016. Miller describes her window display in Oxford Street as a “whirlwind” while she outperformed forecasts with John Lewis, the retailer selling one million greeting cards in the first year.
Miller’s attention turned to more than just paper-based products. Now, her designs are licenced on products ranging from bedding, cushions, handbags, wallpaper, stationery and travel luggage. Expansion has been garnered in Singapore and Japan.
In 2017, Miller partnered with ceramics outfit Portmeirion and hailed the collaboration as an important cog in the company’s development. So much so that its designs were Portmeirion’s highest ever presales over previous brands, which included Ted Baker and Sophie Conran. “It was just like pinch me moment after pinch me moment in those early days,” adds Miller.
As it has with industry recognition. Miller has won most promising young designer at the Henries, the greeting card’s Oscars, while the business has won best licensed brand at the Brand & Lifestyle Licensing Awards four years in a row.
“I run the business how I want to run it and what comes naturally to me,” she says confidently. “I think a lot of it is on me about our relationships with our licensed partners. And I’ve managed that really well.”
As a sole founder, Miller admits that the business has been “all consuming” at times, especially raising a young family, but with a growing team behind her, she admits that following her own gut instinct has paid dividends.
Read More: Behind the brand: GoHenry, the prepaid debit card for kids
“It felt quite easy which direction to go in,” she adds. “I may not have made all the right decisions, but I’ve made my decisions.”
Behind the brand: Sara Miller tips on…
Licensing
Emma Bridgewater and Cath Kidston manufacture their own products and supplement it by licensing. Sara Miller is in a unique place in the marketplace by having a broad product range but not responsible for manufacturing.
“My whole margin is high as we don’t carry risk, it’s a good business model,” she says.
“My advice would be the right licensing partner, their quality and distribution of product is what I look for. That will dictate everything.
“I am on it with every single part of the approval process with product and brand. It needs to be controlled so we are giving the consumer that same branded experience and would never know it’s not manufactured by us.”
Owning rights
“I love the idea of licensing: you’re lending the rights to a company to use that design, it’s for a specific product for a specific timeframe, but I’m still the owner of that design.
There’s no limit to that sales distribution. And if I’m getting a percentage, even if it’s a small percentage of every sale, if that can go global you’re talking on a totally different scale.”
Watch: Is it financially worth going to university?
Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.
