HOW HAWK AND PEDDLE BEGAN
Have you ever wondered why some people or firms are so successful? When you walk down a beautiful street with houses lit up like a Christmas tree and you glimpse through the windows at the extraordinary people, plush decor and beautiful cars sat on the driveway, you think to yourself, “ What do they do for a living, how does anyone make that sort of money and why can’t I do it too?”
I guess we’ve all been there and from our perspective at Hawk and Peddle, both David and Melissa, the original founders, had voiced those very thoughts too.
CHANCE MEETING
At any time in one’s life there are numerous chance meetings and something either happens or its potential just slips away without you even knowing. Our chance meeting was at one of the leading IT Service companies in the UK. We had been employed to do quite specialised jobs but on the same programme of work. David as a Programme Manager and Melissa as the Test Manager. Our paths crossed early in the programme and it helped that we sat next to one another. We also sat with another Programme Manager who made us laugh so much with his fantastic sense of humour, tall tales and constant cracking of jokes. He helped us to retain what was becoming the final shreds of our sanity.
The environment we had been thrust into was an office located inside the bowels of a warehouse building. There were no windows and that meant no natural daylight. It was very oppressive and made everyone quite edgy. A bit like being locked away in a deep, dark cave.
We spent a lot of time together, preparing the team for a deployment and also trying to implement a testing process into a slap-dash and chaotic method of software delivery. It seems that IT Projects are continuing to head that way where there is little control, small budgets and large expectations of what is required.
We occasionally like to reminisce about those times and how it started; Chris, our comedic Programme Manager on one side with his geezer Essex accent and constant joke telling at every chance possible but with the most positive attitude. He worked to the motto “if you’re not earning then you should be learning, use every moment to progress yourself and don’t stagnate.”
David was sat in the middle with his slightly reserved approach but would “eff and jeff”, once you got to know him and Melissa, a tall, tough Aussie and not prepared to take any kind of rubbish with a burning drive to ensure there is quality and acceptance in everything that is delivered. She is a firm
We were regaled by Chris daily as to his latest venture outside of any actual work, like someone who was on a stepping stone; a dynamic guy who had boundless amounts of energy and wanted to get things done, which inspired Melissa and David to schedule a weekly meeting for a quick half hour ‘What if’ session. There had to be something better that what we were doing at that time.
FRIENDSHIP
The three of us formed a great friendship as the programme of work got worse and more intense. On a Wednesday, to break up the week, we would rush out to play a round of golf before heading home, much to the annoyance of our respective other halves. All the time, we would work our way around 9 holes while pitching business ideas. It was an environment of idea throwing and a dreaming of more exciting goals to achieve.
AN IDEA FORMED – The First Version
So, here’s where the idea began. Sitting in one of our ‘What if’ sessions, David looked across the desk at Melissa and said- ‘OK, you are smart, capable and ambitious but not focused on a single idea.’ …and there lay our first lesson and our understanding of what makes success. Focus on what matters and be very clear on your objectives. We pitched a couple of ideas around and eventually decided that this one had legs.
In 2008 the dreaded economic crash impacted David greatly. Whilst working at the DVLA in Swansea as a jobbing contractor over a 2-week period he was told that they were to extend his contract for a year and a week later they were letting him go. A tough time ensued as David was out of work for nine months straight. He applied for hundreds of jobs per week without success and began to doubt that contract employment was going to work out for him and needed to find a way of earning some money. He had an eBay account and a techno-phobic set of parents-in-law who wanted to get rid of their furniture and wanted to make a couple of bucks; therefore, he thought he could focus on a reselling business using eBay.
It wouldn’t be difficult, the platform was there, he could create some T&C’s and trial his approach in a small geographical area. He also had his eye on the bigger picture, a franchise and so the idea of the man with the suitcase was born. Very simply, David wanted to create a business to sell goods using a platform. He wasn’t really interested in selling the products even though that was the primary element of the business. He was more interested in selling the service, the thing that could be repeated and if he provided all the know-how, prove it worked he would be able to sell the idea.
Melissa liked this and and began to source the start-up requirements to include as a package for each franchise which was basically the contents of the suitcase. She also found every online solution that we needed to help us do everything in the cloud, moving directly into the 21st Century…but as we progressed and worked through our processes we struggled with how to control distribution within each geographical area using eBay.
THE IDEA GAINS MOMENTUM – The Next Version
We realised that there may be something amiss with how we controlled our distribution network and sales areas. Many meetings later and quite a bit of head scratching and a very rocky patch where we both nearly threw in the towel we finally saw it through. You see, our biggest challenge apart from the business idea was time and how much of that we could invest to this project. We both had demanding jobs, families and commitments and that hasn’t stopped to this day. It still rubs up against the idea of us being our own bosses full time. Progress has been slow, yet we struggled on, month after month, year after year slowly developing our idea, the platform and shaping our service to be what it has eventually become today. We laugh about those meetings now, so naive in the idea that we could just throw up a platform, advertise and hey-presto it would work.
Initially we started our site using Wix, just to build the framework, then we moved over to WordPress. The site progressed, and the ideas came with a mountain of back-end processes to support the business we were building. We spent time discussing our dreams: Melissa’s “I want to make enough to allow me to create new projects and fulfill what I want in life” and David’s “I want to retire on my yacht or to be holding a business meeting with you from Barbados, or having a driver whisk me into the London office, a few drinks, sign the deal and away I go again”. Pipe-dreams and something that many of us have.
Unfortunately they are just fantasies and its hard work launching a new business, but you need to have something to reach for, otherwise there’s really no point in doing it. Knowing what your motivation is, will keep you going, even in the darkest of days.
We were also fixated on not just becoming another capitalist, faceless organisation that when you join you would hear of us but never see us. In everything we did, and still do today we try and make the site and community aspect the primary focus of Hawk and Peddle. We thought back to the hugely successful company where we met and just baulked at their approach and still question why we couldn’t work with others to make a success of their business and as a bi-product the more successful they become the more we do; it’s about serving both parties vested interests, so that everyone benefits from the results.
HERE WE ARE TODAY – The Current Version
Five years on, a full revamp of the platform, ISP and site, we now believe we have the nucleus of a business and are confident that we can come to market and sell that idea. We have a wonderful platform with a worldwide eCommerce solution embedded with a sophisticated interface. Bolted on the end is the mammoth PayPal who manages our financial transactions to ensure security for each supplier and customer. If we were just running an eCommerce solution this would be enough; nice looking, seamless integrations and secure, but our model is the marketplace and to provide a platform for not just one vendor but many. We overcame this challenge with the Dokan Multivendor solution that provides us with the security and features we needed to deliver a marketplace solution for our sellers and their customers.
At this point we are absolutely indebted to Reeve, David’s son who has styled and created the wonderful images on the site. He is the talent who has been constantly presented ideas on scraps of paper in the morning and asked to provide us with a choice by the end of the day. Granted, we have had to bribe him on several occasions, new gaming chair, hard cash, alcohol, but without him we could not have progressed as quickly or so affordably. Reeve you are a talented young man and we are indebted to you.
It is at this point and after four years of dreaming, building and simple hard work that David has now left the business to pursue other interests. Of course, Melissa is still here and flying solo to make Hawk and Peddle a business that can help others fulfil their own goals and dreams.
SO THIS IS WHERE WE ARE HEADING…
Now, this is possibly a little tricky … we have an idea … but as most businesses know what you start out with you might not always get or circumstances may take you in a direction that you weren’t expecting.
The nucleus of our idea is to provide a community platform not open to everyone so that we end up with competing sellers or businesses. We want to be more selective and to build a thriving community that will benefit all. Now you might say that’s a bit hippy-like and not very business focused, but we would argue that some of our main competitors such as eBay, Etsy, Not on the High Street were all founded with similar principles, that of fairness and provision of access to all and a community spirit whereby exploitation does not take place.
We know that capitalism is a harsh place to live and we have tried to soften some of the sharp edges and make the experience of fledgling, small, medium size companies that much easier to trade and make a living.
If you like what you see why don’t you come and join us on this fantastic journey. To be part of a site that works for your business and to become part of a growing community. To drive through that co-operative spirit whereby not everything is about making money. Let us assure you, as a seller we are very focused on helping you to maximise your business through our platform because if you become successful then so do we.
As our customers, we also want you to be a part of our community; being able to navigate through the varied selections of products and services that we and the businesses we work with offer. It should be an enjoyable site and you too can become part of the experience helping us all to become more successful. Who knows it may even inspire you to become a seller yourself and then we can write a blog about your business and share in the ups and downs of your journey.
We hope you enjoyed this article and can see where we have come from and where we plan to go. We look forward to you joining us on the Hawk and Peddle journey.