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For Starters is the essential weekly briefing for starting the business of your dreams. It’s written by Danny Giacopelli, former editor of Courier magazine & host of Monocle’s The Entrepreneurs podcast. Not a subscriber? Join for free
This is For Starters #12
Over in Idaho, Casey Ames runs a small business called Harkla. Casey and his team sell developmental and sensory toys for kids with special needs. This week, he had a shock: the tariffs on the stock he ordered from his manufacturers in China went from the usual $26,000 to… $346,000. As he’s said publicly, his short-term options include shutting down part of his company.
I can’t even fathom how stressful that must be. I’m just a humble keyboard warrior. But for the people I talk to everyday – small biz owners and anyone else who relies on the stable, predictable flow of global trade to make a living – this past week has been intense. (Just check the r/smallbusiness subreddit to see what I’m talking about.)
But, you might say, we’re mostly out of the weeds now, right? Well, no. If anything, this past week has reiterated that you can’t ever reliably predict what comes next. This has always been true, of course, but it will become even more true as we hurtle, at 5,000 mph, into an era of pandemics, climate change, protectionism and AI. A world of Rumsfeldian unknown unknowns.
This week has also been an illuminating lesson for starters just setting out on their journey. But here’s the good news: You have the luxury of time. You can learn. So expect the unexpected. Prep for contingencies. If a factory or supplier suddenly drops out, what will you do? How fast can you pivot? Give it a good think. Have a plan B. And a plan C. Maybe a D.
None of this is simple, cheap or easy. But surviving to fight another day is always more important than growth.
What do you think about all this? Get in touch → [email protected]
Ari Siegel is the founder of History By Mail, which sends its customers realistic replicas of historical letters and documents through the old-school mail. The subscription service has 10 full time employees and brought in north of $1m in revenue last year. → Clever idea + enthusiastic audience (the nerdier the better) + solid execution = $$$ 💌
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Husband and wife journalists Emma Barnett (BBC Radio 4) and Jeremy Weil (The Economist) started a hyper-local coloring book company called Colour Your Streets. 🎨
“In 2023, Emma and I were on shared maternity and paternity leave. Our five-year-old had developed a taste for colouring-in books and, to keep him entertained, we wanted to find one that would allow him to colour in pictures of the local area – Herne Hill in south London. We were surprised to find that nothing like that existed, so we set out to make one ourselves… Now we’re on course to turn over between £2m and £4m next year, which I think is reasonably achievable. We’ve created around 150 books for neighbourhoods all across the UK and even launched some international ones for cities like New York, Paris and Barcelona.”
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When she was volunteering at a charity shop, Charlotte Liebling discovered that 8 million stuffed animals end up in landfill every year. So, with no biz experience and £5 in the bank, Charlotte built Loved Before, a sustainable 'soft toy adoption agency’. If you're thinking of getting rid of a toy, you can send it to Loved Before, where they’re repaired/restored, given a deep clean and a new name, repacked in a lovely box, and sold to a new home. 50,000 toys have been ‘adopted’ through the company so far. → What’s not to love? 🧸
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Check out this behind-the-scenes video (the best kind) in which a couple in the seaside UK town of Margate explain how they found, designed, and opened up their own gift shop, On A Whim. 🛍️
@onawhimmargate We thought it was about time we shared the story of our shop renovation in Margate and how it all came about ♥️ #shoprenovation #margate #... See more
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Meanwhile, Ukraine-based small business Ochis creates eyewear made from… coffee grounds and natural oils. They’re apparently waterproof too, so no fears about your glasses dissolving in the rain! ☕️ 👓️
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And congrats to Lyn Harris, the London-based, Grasse-trained perfumer and owner of the brand Perfumer H. I interviewed Lyn mannnnnny years ago when she had a single shop in Marylebone, and I’ve since been happily tracking the brand’s growth as she’s opened other London locations, plus outposts in Paris, Hong Kong, Japan, Taipei, Macau and, just this week, a beautiful store in Shanghai. 👏
It’s been a long week, people. Rather than share the usual tips on business models, hiring or sales, let’s take a deep breath. Below are 50 ways to rest, from psychologist and author Nicola Jane Hobbs. 🧘
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‘Emotional bookstore’ → In Naples, author Lorenzo Marone and family mediator Roberta Nicodemo have opened up a new bookshop called Luce, which organizes books not by traditional genre but by four emotions: joy, anger, sadness and anxiety. But why only four? Let’s take this idea all the way. Point me to the embarrassment section. Or Amusement. “Which way to Frustration?” 😭 😊 😡
Resources 🛠️
→ Any beauty starters out there? Clean Beauty Summer School 2025 is a 10-week virtual program that “uplifts minority-owned clean beauty businesses and creators.” Run by Amy Liu, founder and CEO of LA-based Tower 28 Beauty, it features expert-led classes, 1:1 mentorship, opportunities for cash grants, retail support, and partnerships with companies like Sephora and Ulta Beauty. Applications are open from April 21st to May 5th.
→ Check out Our Kind, a new ‘therapy for entrepreneurs’ consultancy. Co-founders Alaina Malik and Alysha Malik are offering a 'founder pod' program which blends coaching and therapy, “designed for founders who are tired of performing, holding it all in, and figuring it out alone.”
→ And Dia is a new ‘AI browser’ from The Browser Company, the team behind Arc.
Reads 📚️
→ “This is far more stressful than COVID. Consumer founders on trade policy that is less reliable than the f*cking AccuWeather App.” Feed Me
→ “Game of Tariffs. All the roads lead to uncertainty” Snaxshot
→ “How Brands Are Responding to Tariffs on Social Media. ‘Customers want to know what's going on. They feel unstable, especially when it comes to their own spending. People are looking for more predictability.’” Link in Bio
→ “The enduring appeal of pens and paper in a digital era. Analog forms of communication are far from dead. U.S. indie brands are capitalizing on a dedicated customer base that has had to look abroad for special stationery goods.” Retail Dive
→ “The collector who became the envy of TikTok. How Alexander Widener made antiquing go viral.” Embedded
→ “Spain Is the Latest Country to Have Caught the Texas Barbecue Bug. Three pitmasters inspired by – who else – Aaron Franklin blend traditional Texan methods with Spanish tastes for a hybrid that’s finding success.” Texas Monthly
→ “Curtains, wellies, nuclear subs and a tsar’s palace: how William Morris mania swept the world. His unmistakable floral patterns – awash with willow, blackthorn and pimpernel – are now on everything from walking sticks to the seats submariners sit on” Guardian
→ “Why So Many Chefs Don’t Want Restaurants Anymore. Some of America’s most lauded cooks have stepped away from the lunch-and-dinner grind.” T Mag
→ “The who’s who of beer cool in 2025. The country’s top brewers, beer writers and buyers weigh in on the 10 breweries to know right now.” Punch
→ “One product, multiple benefits: ‘Makeup-care’ rises in China. Skincare-infused makeup becomes the new standard — not the exception. Brands must adapt.” Jing Daily
Findings 🧠
66% → US adults who have never tried ChatGPT, according to Pew Research Center.
3,735 → B Corp certified companies by the end of 2020. That number has ballooned to 9,600 today. Which is great! More businesses are taking their social and environmental impact seriously. But the fast growth also led to critiques of greenwashing and questioning the quality of the standards. In response, B Lab, the nonprofit that runs the B Corp Certification, has published new standards this week. → Read about in the FT (paywall) or via B Lab.
52% → US millennials who work side hustles to earn extra money. An incredible 24% have three jobs, and an even more incredible 33% have four or more income-earning gigs outside their main 9-to-5.
Fun 🙃
→ Bauhaus Clock, from German software developer Atilla.
→ This is my favorite discovery of the week:
Kids in the rural town of Kawara in Japan’s Fukuoka Prefecture have become obsessed with collecting trading cards with local people on them. Let’s make this a thing everywhere. (And, you know, include women, too.)
“As of March 18, there are 47 different cards in the collection, including 28 featuring local men with stats and special abilities. Take the Firewall card, for example. It features Mr. Honda (74), a former fire brigade chief who helped keep the town safe for decades. Then there’s Soba Master Mr. Takeshita (81), who runs a local soba noodle-making class and now holds legendary status among the town’s youth… The most popular of them all is probably All-Rounder Mr. Fujii (68), a former prison officer turned community volunteer. His card is so sought after that local kids have even started asking him for autographs… A card called Plasma Conductor, featuring a smiling, bespectacled ojisan juxtaposed with an image of a lightbulb, is an electric type. At the bottom of the card, there is a line of text explaining how he can fix any electrical appliance without fail.”
→ Basketclub weaves baskets based on an emoji. Discovered this one via It’s Nice That.
→ There’s a new edition of Inque coming (Issue 3, you can pre-order it now). In case you haven’t been following this project, it’s a giant format print magazine, with no advertising, no web version, some of the best writers, photographers, illustrators on the planet, and they’re only making 10 issues before they shut it all down. I like when projects have a definitive end-date. It's a memento mori sort of thing ('remember you must die'). In fact, memento mori would be a great name for a company that does temporary projects. Take the idea and run with it!
📩 Share your juicy links: [email protected]
🏫 Shoutouts to the FS community
I’m thankful to FS subscriber Rossella Frigerio for including me in her regular interview series this week. I met Rossella a decade ago when I was still at Monocle and I featured her lovely sandals brand Sofia Capri. Today, she runs an editorial services company called One Blue Dot. You can read our conversation here.
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And Brooklyn-based subscriber Cole Kennedy, who worked at furniture company Burrow for the past seven years, has now launched his own small creative studio. It’s called Saunter. I asked Cole to share what he’s been up to:
“I spent seven years at Burrow, learning how to build a direct-to-consumer brand from the inside, and sort of honing my craft with a few select freelance clients, so I felt like I had the expertise, and just needed the motivation. Then, when Burrow was acquired, at first I was applying for jobs, because starting my own studio felt like something I always wanted to do but for some reason it felt like a ‘future me’ thing, where I needed, I don't know, permission to do it? But as I focused more and more on freelance work, I realized I really liked working for myself, I really did know what I was doing, and I really was ready to start something that I could own and grow and be proud of. Had a few conversations with my wife, who leads product design at Rent the Runway, as well as a few friends and mentors, and decided to let ‘er rip. It's scary and exciting, but what good things aren't?”
📩 Share your news & updates: [email protected]
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