From our home to yours: Starting Cuppa A look behind the scenes

 

The Entrepreneurial Spark

Who I am: Nick.

I started the idea for Cuppa while at university studying International Business at Nottingham Trent. As a kid, I was quite entrepreneurial. I sold Coca-cola and snacks to my friends all the way through secondary school. This came about as my dad was tight and wouldn't just buy me the latest gadget all the other kids got. He said to me, "Go and make the money, and I will buy you that iPhone or PlayStation you want and you can save the money for the future."

My First Venture

I set up an Amazon store at 16 when I should have been studying for my GCSEs! Buying used, second-hand iPods, iPads, laptops, and even 3 Dyson air blade hand dryers! (Mum and dad were shocked when a van turned up at the door with a massive box with my name on it. Fortunately, I had already sold them on and just had to take them straight to the post office.)

I managed to turn a £25 punt on an iPod Nano, the first product I bought that summer, into just over £3000 in 3 months or so, from the end of the school year in the summer of 2010 through the middle of my summer holidays. Every time I sold an item for a profit, I reinvested all of the money into the next item and as it got bigger, I would be buying 2 or 3 products at a time. 

In the middle of summer holidays, this all came to a crashing halt as my amazon seller account was suspended as a number of items got returned at too high a rate to keep amazon happy. I appealed their decision but they were very strict and I unfortunately was not able to continue my Amazon seller journey to new heights. 

Continuing my business education 

I chose to study business studies at A level. It was my favourite subject of all my A levels and I got my highest grade in it too. I got a B, which was really frustrating as I was only 3 marks away from getting an A.

The Inspiration for Cuppa 

This led me to eventually go to university to study business. While studying, I came up with the idea for Cuppa. My mum has always bought nice mugs and collected other nice home products. Plates, bowls, vases, rugs, candles, you know, home furnishings, trinkets!

I chose mugs as the product I wanted to make. Mainly based on our never-ending collection of Emma Bridgewater mugs with dogs and birds and flowers on. I came up with the name with a vote on names with some of my university friends.

Getting Started 

I got to work on the logo using a logo maker that would let me design lots of logos for free. I eventually chose the current Cuppa logo and had to pay for it. Not that it was expensive, but I had committed. I was doing this!

Next, I set up a very basic website to get emails and see if there was any interest. I tried to get the domain name cuppa but had to settle for thecuppa.co.uk. 

The Design Process 

Then I had to get the mug designed and manufactured. As I knew I could not design the mug entirely by myself. In my research, I found a website called 99designs.co.uk which allows you to set a design competition. Designers submit their ideas, you narrow it down to designs you like and then they make alterations and you eventually choose a winner. I found a designer from a few that I really liked. Although the winner actually stood out from the very beginning. 

A lot of the designs submitted in the first round were just generic white mug shapes with designs printed on them. This was not what I was looking for and the designers had missed the initial brief too, I wanted the mug shape to be a bit different. Whereas the eventual winner had clearly designed the shape himself using software and followed my brief very well. 

I went with his ideas and worked with him to produce a final design for the Cuppa mug. He was great to work with, generally fast to reply to messages or emails. He produced a design file which I could give to the factory with dimensions and scales.

Manufacturing

And then it was time to find a manufacturer. I got samples made from a few factories and negotiated prices and shipping, playing manufacturers off against each other, driving the price as low as I could so I could get a healthy margin.

There was an issue with the samples that I first got made. The designer a got the scale of the design file wrong by quite a large amount. So when the factory’s team when to make a prototype of the first cuppa mug. They contacted me to say it was too big and was coming out at 1000ml which is nearly 2 pints or something similar to a German beer stein. Extra large! So the factory scaled it down to 500ml and sent me these samples. But 500ml for a tea or coffee mug is still very big. So I worked with the designer and the factory to get the file size down to scale so that the mug came out at 350ml. Which is the capacity of the Cuppa mug we know and love.

 I learned so much from doing all this. And it has been great fun just learning how to create a product from scratch, along with some entertaining moments, like receiving the large cuppa mug samples, which I still have in my kitchen cupboards and actually use to this day when I am feeling like an extra large cup of tea or coffee.

Launching Cuppa 

This was all an ongoing project that I had been working on. But I only finally committed after I had had a job after university and had some money coming in.

It was towards the end of 2020 when I placed the order, spending most of my savings on the first batch of stock. And there we have it, Cuppa was born.

Lessons Learned

I have learned a lot from the process - from creating and getting the product designed, manufactured and delivered to marketing and selling. I have had an interest in creating websites since after my amazon business. I have learnt a lot over the years about setting up a website, from purchasing a domain name, to creating the site. Making sure links and correct and everything to do with SEO or search engine optimization to climb the google search ranking and appear closer to the top of the list of websites you see when you search for coffee and tea mugs! I have read lots of books on business, marketing, seo and strategy as well as reading countless blog posts, listening to business podcasts, email newsletters and watching youtube videos. I love learning new things and discovering little hacks. I am always looking to improve my skills and learn more every day.

Looking back on this entrepreneurial journey, from those early days hustling on Amazon to finally seeing Cuppa come to life, I've learned that starting a business is equal parts challenging and rewarding. It tests your persistence, creativity and willingness to bet on yourself in ways I couldn't have imagined at 16 years old. Yet the thrill of taking an idea from concept to reality, putting your mark on the world through a product you've made, is incredibly fulfilling. Cuppa is more than just a collection of mugs - it's the manifestation of years of effort, lessons learned, and a lifelong passion for entrepreneurship. I can't wait to see where this adventure takes the brand next as we continue growing Cuppa from our home to yours.