Ten years ago, Susan was inspired to sell at festivals, and Canny Bonny was born! By working with retail Expert-in-Residence Karen Williamson, Susan discovered how to turn her fun festival stall idea into a successful retail business. Read on to find out how.
Please introduce yourself and your business.
I’m Susan; my business Canny Bonny is a festival stall and online shop. We now do about 10 events a year and have a successful Etsy shop that runs alongside the main chunk of the business which is the festival trading.
What was the inspiration for your business idea or how did you come up with the idea?
I started it over ten years ago because I thought festivals needed more mini top hats and I wanted to go to loads of festivals, it was all pretty silly and good fun. It’s incredible a successful business has come out of that idea.
Which Expert(s) in Residence did you work with?
Karen Williamson from Delivering Differently
How did the Expert support you?
Karen supported me to really work out what was going on in the business financially to start off with. We put in place systems that I now use to record vital information as well as make decisions about which events to attend.
We also put in place systems around the number of staff to bring to an event and how to train and motivate them to work well. We put together a training package for the crew and a bonus system for them which they love.
Karen also taught me a lot about retail and helped me to redesign my stall to maximise shopping opportunity and therefore sales. The stall looks incredible now, with well segmented displays and better signage. I’ve seen (and recorded) an increase in the amount of stock sold despite bringing less stock to events. I now feel really confident selecting the right stock for the event I’m attending which makes the van packing way less stressful and the setting up smoother and therefore cheaper to do.
Karen has also given me a lot of tools to use around decision making which have completely changed the way I operate my business which in turn has made me into a less stressed and more confident business owner, 2025 festival season was the least stressful season in the history of Canny Bonny due to all the work we did together.
What are your plans for the future in the shorter and longer term?
I’m actually hoping to sell Canny Bonny which was a completely unexpected outcome but a very exciting prospect. I feel like Canny Bonny is running as well as it can, it has been unbelievably satisfying implementing all of the new systems and getting the stall looking amazing. Selling it feels like something I can now do with everything in order and functioning well so I thought why not. It has been the best but with a growing family it feels like the right thing to sell it on to someone who wants the festival/traveling lifestyle and the income to fund that.
If the sale works out I will be focusing on my other business Where We Tread which is a first aid training company.
What is your advice for those who are thinking of starting their own business?
Go for it, if not now then when?
