Sky Goodies is a brand of paper products that evoke simple joys in an increasingly complex world. In a lot of products, the act of ‘making’ is a part of the product experience. They call this DIY collection ‘Make Happy’ because a creative act like ‘making’ can result in satisfaction, relaxation, emotional attachment to the product, a good feeling, and want to make everyone – all ages – play. To be happy and make happy! The ‘Make Happy’ do-it-yourself papercraft range is for anyone above 6 years old and makes useful giftable objects.
Also make novelty gift boxes, planners, and notebooks. Designed with precision and quality, in Mumbai, India, the goodies are available worldwide through skygoodies. Over the past 5 years.
“We sold products to customers across 190 countries, and are proud to have our products in the London Science Museum. 98% of all our customer reviews are 5 stars!”Said Misha.
The Sky Goodies began 11 years ago, when her husband and partner, Mr. Amit, and she, founded a design and technology services firm, Sky Design. She specializes in graphic design and Amit, in product design, They consolidated their interests in design and the digital medium and built Sky Design. Over the next 7 years, the company grew, hand-picked and trained a small team, and worked on very serious and large corporate and advertising projects.
“While the business was doing well and growing dramatically, in our hearts we yearned to create original content that enriched people’s lives”, She Said.
In September 2013, having saved a tidy sum to invest in their new ventures, they took a much-needed break and decided to go ahead and make original content They worked on two things: a video game for mobile devices, and a couple of DIY paper templates. While the game was the focus of attention, Sky Goodies was at the periphery.
They had made a few DIYs and listed them in Etsy Shop. What followed was a series of unexpected features, loads of lovely reviews and letters from customers all over the world, and a juicy amount of money from online sales. Even Babble and Thisiscolossal websites named their typewriter calendars most favourite for 2014. That made them sit up! This was exactly what they expected to do: combining a love of art and paper, with an original product that has a high emotional attachment.
So they started building Sky Goodies as a cohesive brand. Putting their savings into manufacturing physical DIY kits which were pre-cut and pre-creased; the idea was to make them so easy to put together, without using scissors or knives, that anybody could experience the joy of making.
In the beginning, with only printable items being sold through Etsy shop, operations were simple. However, once they started manufacturing and selling physical kits and products and faced many issues.
“Our office soon became so full that we were walking over boxes! As the number of orders grew.”She Said
They needed people and systems to manage inventory. Tracking, and following up on many orders from different platforms was a challenge, addressed this by designing & coding my own website, and inventory management system online and improving it constantly, as the business evolved.
“Another development was a large number of events we started attending as exhibitors. Initially, we did not have any sales staff, so everyone on the team would take turns selling products, including the programming and accounting staff! It was a blessing in disguise, though, as everyone got immediate feedback from real customers, and understood the product, the customer and what we were trying to achieve. A problem we do face is the exacting standard of quality we expect from our vendors, and not everyone delivers. Hence many times, we have re-printed jobs to achieve a particular standard of art and quality, even if it means less profit to the company.” She said.
Sky Goodies has been boot-strapped since the beginning, and have not raised funds from family or others.
It has been a balancing act of minimizing expenditure, while still investing in systems and things that contribute to the long-term growth of the company, all the while experimenting with paper and its limits.
There have been immense challenges in selling the product in India, where the DIY market for adults barely exists and had critical problems but the motivation to make this concept grow pushed us to carry on. The revenues have grown steadily year on year by over 30% each year without any marketing or advertisement, and this year they are poised to double the previous year’s turnover. selling to individual customers directly, and also executing many corporate and bulk custom orders; this brings in revenue and also expands their experience.
Custom designed DIY kits for many brands, including some key clients like National Geographic, Pidilite, Reliance Energy and Ashok Leyland and reached break-even recently.
Sky Goodies customers are people all over the world, in over 190 countries, and have many corporate customers. Museums like the London Science Museum, SF MOMA, and the Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts in the US, also sell DIY kits. They built partnerships with retailers and resellers and have a small physical shop within office premises in Mumbai; this humble shop has been the subject of lovely articles by many blogs and journals, including the Lonely Planet Magazine! The spontaneous international media coverage of products.
Publications like Vogue magazine and Brand magazine have recommended products to their readers, and this year, Elle Decor magazine named them among their 18 favourite brands in their 18th-anniversary special. Also been featured in Swedish magazine ‘Printing Friends’ and on TV in Barcelona by the TV show ‘Jaa Tho Faras’ (Do-it-yourself).
They are receiving notes of happiness from the customers! It amazes me that products are being applied to so many different uses, starting from toys to education, souvenirs, crafts, heritage, hospices, and even ice-breaking exercises for corporate employees. All they want to do is encourage making things together, having fun, feeling pride, and having a product to use in the bargain!
There is no age to enjoy making something. A DIY life can be enriching and joyful for everyone.
