Well, 2020 was a year none of us will ever forget, however much we’d like to.

But through the trials and tribulations of the coronavirus pandemic, we saw so many shining lights in the form of businesses – both big and small.

So this article is our song of praise to those businesses, calling out what we thought they did well, despite the Covid-19 crisis.

This is a new addition to NSC, and we’re hoping to continue it to a regular feature, and get as many more eyes on these businesses as possible, because, simply put, they deserve it – while you can learn important lessons on how to build your brand.

Side note: in this article we have a couple of links where you can get discount if you’re tempted to order from these amazing businesses – we’re not linked in any way other than being customers of theirs, and we wouldn’t recommend them if we didn’t truly like them.

Without further ado, and in no particular order, here are our top businesses of 2020, with key lessons for your small business in 2021:

Image courtesy of @curiouspancake via Instagram.

The Curious Pancake

Now, we’re not normally ones for greetings cards at NSC – they ultimately get thrown away, and it just seems like a bit of a waste, usually.

That was until we stumbled upon The Curious Pancake on Etsy, where Tassia found the perfect Christmas card for Dean: a simple, line-drawn design, depicting ‘Gold, Frankenstein, and Grr’ from TV’s ‘Bottom’ – something of an in-joke.

Said card is now sitting pride of place in the newly (aptly?) ‘Bottom’-themed bathroom, next to a couple of other prints from another talented artist we discovered on Etsy, also featured in this list.

Beyond the amazing products by The Curious Pancake, we were also impressed with their marketing techniques.

Not only are they on Etsy, with a five-star rating and (at the time of writing) over 2,000 sales so far, they also have their own, very well designed, website.

One marketing method we particularly love for independents that The Curious Pancake has adopted is a website pop-up with a special offer (15% off) when you sign up to their newsletter.

Image courtesy of @dgriffinart via Instagram.

D. Griffin Art & Design

Website | Etsy | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

D. Griffin Art & Design was where we found the other perfect artwork for our ‘Bottom’ bathroom.

First, Tassia stumbled upon D. Griffin’s work while tumbling down an Etsy rabbit-hole, and bought this variety ‘Bottom’ print as a Christmas gift for Dean.

Then, at the start of the new year, Dean decided to get another piece to complement the rest of the bathroom, and chose this brilliant solo print of the legendary Rik Mayall as Richard Richard.

Besides his evident skill as an artist, we admired D. Griffin’s business because of the range of prints he offers – no matter who you are, or who you need to buy a gift for, you can find a print that they’ll love here.

D. Griffin has found a great solution to appealing to as many people as possible, without compromising on his artistic integrity.

His prints all have the same high level of skill, across a wide range of subjects, from film and TV to music and sports teams.

Image courtesy of @deanoj312 via Instagram.

Piqself

Etsy | Facebook

For a truly personal and memorable gift, you can’t do much better than Piqself.

Beside some elegant prints and sketches, Tomás of Piqself can turn you into a superhero.

Naturally, as undeniable nerds at NSC, we couldn’t resist.

We commissioned a personalised comic book cover of ourselves (and our cat, Buffy), and were blown away with the results.

We can now say that we’ve been immortalised in comic book-form, and we can finally take the mantle as true superheroes.

Tomás was great with interpreting what we were after, making additions to his work, to make it absolutely perfect for us.

While Piqself doesn’t have a particularly large presence online, we were drawn to his unique offering.

It’s surprising that we haven’t seen many other artists create personalised comic book covers, considering what a great gift idea it is for nerds and normies, alike.

It’s clear from this that Piqself is filling a gap in the market, which is the biggest challenge with any business, big or small.

Inku Design

Website | Instagram

2020 has been a big year for Inku Design.

Brainchild of NSC contributor, Kim Morris, Inku Design is full of some of the most gorgeous, thought-provoking and quirky designs you’ll ever see.

Of course, we’re a little biased, since Kim’s a good friend of NSC, and we bought one of her beautiful ‘Good Things Are Coming’ prints, but we’ve definitely got our eye on more of her work for the house.

The future’s certainly bright for Inku Design, following a year of amazing milestones, including (but not limited to): appearing on Adobe Live; amassing a growing Instagram following of over 9,000; collaborating with amazing brands like SnapChat (technically in 2019), Fempowerment and Paper Boy; building a design agency; and opening an online shop.

There’s plenty of brilliant lessons other independent businesses can learn from Inku Design, but one in particular that we’re impressed with is the hard work Kim puts in, being open to (and arranging) collaborations with other businesses – after all, we can all grow even more when we do it together.

We can’t wait to see what’s going to happen for Kim and Inku Design in 2021, she’s definitely one to watch – stay tuned for more exciting developments!

Who Gives A Crap

Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

Looking aside the fact that Who Gives A Crap saved us from the perilous toilet paper shortages of 2020, there’s a lot to love about the brand, and a lot of lessons for other independent business owners.

Two particular elements of the Who Gives A Crap brand that we admire in particular is their approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR) with their contributions to various charities; and their overall brand messaging.

The irreverence of their brand voice makes them something like the new Innocent, from their charmingly rude name to their super-niche blog, TalkingCrap.

Brands these days shouldn’t be afraid of humour and a little (or a lot) of irreverence.

Just make sure it works with your brand values, and be consistent.
Save £5 on your next order with Who Gives A Crap with our unique link here. Full disclosure: we’ll also get £5 off, but it’s entirely up to you.

HelloFresh

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

We actually started using HelloFresh before Covid-19 struck the UK, at the very start of the year, since we were cooking the same types of meals day in, day out, and we wanted more variety.

Now, we can’t imagine life without HelloFresh, and while the choice of meals isn’t exactly limitless, it’s certainly foods we might not consider cooking otherwise.

From a business perspective, we have to respect how HelloFresh has ramped up their advertising efforts during the pandemic – all things considered, they could actually stand to grow their business amidst the Covid-19 crisis, since people were less willing to go out for regular food shops.

In the past few months, we’ve seen and heard many more ads for HelloFresh, across a myriad of platforms: YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

But the ads of theirs that we were particularly impressed by were on podcasts.

Now that we’re working from home, we listen to podcasts pretty much every day, and we know we’re not alone.

HelloFresh’s decision to jump on that captive audience is ingenious, and there’s something less invasive about adverts on podcasts compared to those on social media, that makes them more trustworthy – maybe that’s just me.

Podcasts in general are a great way to build your brand and demonstrate your expertise, but if you’re not quite ready for that step and commitment, consider recording a short, friendly ad to feature on other (relevant) podcasts.

Save £20 off your first HelloFresh box with our unique link here (it’s not totally selfless, as we also get £20 credit, too – win:win).

Dean’s also creating a Nudenotes Cookbook, featuring a few HelloFresh recipes that we loved – check it out on Instagram with the hashtag #SketchnoteCookbook.

Etsy (UK)

Website | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest | YouTube

In case you didn’t realise by now, we at NSC love Etsy.

We’re all about supporting small businesses over multinational corporations as much as possible, and Etsy helps us do that.

This year, Etsy has been fundamental in helping thousands (if not millions) of small businesses and individuals sell their products and services in an easy way.

Even businesses with their own websites can benefit from being on Etsy, given the amount of people that use Etsy regularly (we can’t be the only ones!).

Plus, you benefit even more with Etsy’s own advertisements, where they call out businesses and the importance of supporting small businesses like yours.

This year, in the turmoil of the coronavirus pandemic, Etsy created a short video that highlights how much it means to shop small, with the powerful hashtag, #WeStandWithSmall.

They have plenty of useful resources for small business owners, and, combined with the articles and guides we publish on NSC, you can get all the information you need to build your brand.

Lush (UK)

Website

Following Lush UK’s sudden departure from social media in 2019, we’ve been intrigued about their next steps.

Their move away from social media was something of an experiment, and, while it’s working for them, we wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for smaller, less established businesses.

However, in 2020, they made a move that we were impressed by: launching a subscription service, which, naturally, we’ve signed up for, as avid Lush fans.

Subscription services are growing at an incredible rate, with the search term ‘subscription boxes’ amassing around 90,500 searches per month, and the subscription boxes market expected to grow by 72% from 2018 to 2022, to over $1 billion (source: Retail Times).

If you want to encourage regular customers to your independent business, consider offering your products or services as a subscription, to take advantage of this growth.

People love a surprise element to their shopping experiences, so subscription services can help fulfil that desire.

Image courtesy of @dashdrinks via Instagram.

Dash Water

Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

Dash Water is yet another of our favourite subscriptions we have delivered to NSC HQ each month.

For us, Dash Water is proof that well-constructed, impactful Facebook ads do work – they managed to convert us to loyal customers!

From a business perspective, one of the things that stands out for Dash Water is their visual identity.

They’re consistent across all their platforms, and eye-catching with a bright colour palette combined with striking designs.

So make sure your brand’s visual identity is consistent over everything – use the same fonts, colours, and illustration styles – and that your visuals stand out from the crowd.

Even if your customers don’t know about design, they’ll subconsciously appreciate it.

Click here to save £10 off your next Dash Water order (plus we’ll get a little discount, too!).

Those were our top nine businesses of 2020, along with some key lessons other independent businesses can learn from them.

What were your favourite businesses from 2020, and what lessons did you learn as a small business? Let us know in the comments, we’d love to hear what you think.

We’d love it if you could join us in supporting these businesses, and others like them, so don’t forget to support small businesses wherever you can.

We’re also always on the lookout for other small businesses to buy from, so tell us a little about yourselves, and we’ll have a look at what you have to offer.

Here’s to supporting more small businesses in 2021!