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Award-winning children’s publisher Barefoot Books recently began a new chapter in its ongoing success story, with plans to expand its direct selling activities across Europe. As the company also prepares for a grand re-launch of its brand in the UK, Madeline Clark finds out more about its pioneering books, its humble beginnings and the Barefoot lifestyle.
Fact FileBarefoot Books recently received two prestigious gold medals from the 2010 Nautilus Book Awards and the IPPY Awards for outstanding children’s books and activities. Gold Nautilus Book Awards were given to two titles: Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing by Guo Yue and Clare Farrow and illustrated by Helen Cann; and the Barefoot Book of Earth Tales, by Dawn Casey, and illustrated by Anne Wilson. The best selling of its 500 plus titles, Animal Boogie has sold 2 million copies across the globe, and is available in audio and animated video formats. A new game which teaches children to say hello in 36 different languages, based on its popular If You’re Happy and You Know It title, is also proving popular with parents looking for multicultural content. Meanwhile, its multicultural bestseller, We All Went on Safari, teaches children to count in Swahili. Later this year the company will be launching the Barefoot Books World Atlas, which will also be available as an app. The company also offers a wide range of books with sing-along and story CDs. For a taste of the Barefoot experience, visit their free storytime podcast at www.barefootbooks. com/podcastor listen to a free sing-along on |
What sets Barefoot Books apart from other direct selling companies is that it started off as a traditional publishing business. It wasn’t until some years later that founders Nancy Traversy and Tessa Strickland saw the benefits of branching out into direct sales.
“It dawned on us that the whole direct selling concept fitted in perfectly with our company’s philosophy of connecting more closely with customers and communities,” said Nancy, who is also the company’s CEO.
Today the company continues to operate through traditional channels alongside its direct sales activities. But what also makes it different from similar businesses is that it isn’t just about selling books; it’s about promoting a whole lifestyle. Nancy calls it Barefoot living.
“We feel the name, Barefoot Books, conjures up a very powerful image of a barefoot child; a child with his feet firmly planted on the ground and enabled to explore his own inner creativity and imagination,” explained Nancy. “We believe children need to take time to play and make-believe and imagine, and our books offer fantastic stories that engage their creativity while also helping children forge connections with other cultures and with the earth itself.”
Barefoot Books was founded by Nancy and Tessa in England in 1992. They both worked from their homes for the first eight years, juggling running the business with raising their seven children. Later on, the idea of providing opportunities for other mothers through direct sales made a lot of sense to them.
“We’d walked the talk ourselves, so to be able to empower other mothers was something that really appealed to us,” recalled Nancy.
“We also felt that, because our product was about children and books and education, it was ideally suited to young mums looking for a flexible lifestyle and wanting to raise their children and earn money at the same time. We found people who were attracted to Barefoot fell in love with the books and the ideology behind the company, which is as much about wanting to raise connected, socially conscious kids as it is about creating and selling beautiful books.”
Today the company is dedicated to creating a global network of what it calls ‘Barefoot Books Ambassadors’ not just to sell its books, but also to spread the word about the Barefoot philosophy.
Plans are also now under way for a big re-launch of the company in Europe, which will include the opening of a new flagship Studio in the literary hub of Oxfordshire, England, later this year. The pioneering new venue will enable Barefoot Books to bring its stories to life through storytelling, music, yoga, dance, arts and crafts and other activities. The centre will also be home to Barefoot’s new UK offices, currently located in Bath.
Nancy explained: “We firmly believe people are returning to simple, family values and want to spend more time with their children, doing things that matter. We think people need places like this to go to with their children that will inspire them and encourage imagination and creativity.
“People who love our books can come along and meet like-minded people and find out more. There will be lots of interaction and lots of fun for children and grown-ups. Our Oxford Studio will also be a showcase for our complete product collection – a place where people can come to learn more about our offer and our story and also share their own stories.”
Canadian-born Nancy first met Tessa in 1992. Nancy had lived in London since 1985 and was working as a business consultant, but had also spent a lot of time in the design industry. Tessa was in publishing, working for large publishing companies including Random House. At that time Nancy had a baby daughter, while Tessa had three young children, aged one, three and five.
Nancy recalled: “As young mums, we were concerned there was a gap in the market place for books that offered high-quality content for children, but which also put as much emphasis on the design and the calibre of the illustrations. We were also concerned about the commercialisation of childhood and wanted to provide an alternative. We felt it was more important than ever that our children be exposed to the values and traditions of other cultures; and stories provided a wonderful way to do this.
“We decided to set up our own publishing business with the aim of producing beautiful titles that were fun and enchanting, but that also had meaningful, educational content.
“At the time there were a lot of gimmicky or character-driven books for children that sold through the big chains. We wanted our books to be different, and also knew that we did not want to patronise children, whose levels of understanding and empathy can be quite astounding.
“We set out to create beautiful books for children with engaging stories and captivating illustrations. After several years we realised we could extend the wonderful art and story in our books to other products, so we developed cards, gift wrap, puzzles, games, music and story CDs. We also partnered with other like-minded companies who sold puppets, world music and gifts for children, which helped to bring our stories to life.”
“We have a core set of values that underpins everything we do,” Nancy pointed out. “We believe in diversity and imagination, sustainability and creativity in children’s lives. So while, of course, we are running a commercial business, we are just as concerned with growing a global community and connecting with others who share our values.”
The company initially sold its books through traditional channels, including book stores and educational distributors. However, the bulk of its turnover came from selling licences to international publishers, mainly in the US.
In 1998 it decided it needed to take the Barefoot Books brand to North America. It launched its first US office in New York and the company’s core business changed from licensing to global distribution. Barefoot’s offer was incredibly well received in the US. However, with the addition of the New York office, the business suddenly became much bigger and more complex. So, in 2001, Nancy decided she needed to move her family to the US to overcome the practical problems of running the business from 3,000 miles away and to spearhead North American growth.
Nancy continued: “We suddenly went from being a small, home-based business with low overheads to an international company. By this time I had four children under the age of five and it was tricky to be on a transatlantic flight every few weeks. Those were the early days of the internet boom and everybody was talking about connecting directly with customers and e-commerce.”
Nancy and Tessa decided to take full advantage of the internet to launch the business as a lifestyle brand. They were one of the first children’s publishers in the UK to have a website. “The whole idea of living Barefoot was to embrace all the values of our business. The internet enabled us to connect more directly with parents, grandparents, teachers and people from all walks of life who cared about the importance of reading, imagination, creativity and global awareness in children’s lives,” said Nancy.
“Through the internet we were able to build communities and connect with our audience in a way that we were unable to do before. Sending out mail order catalogues to customers or having to rely on how well the big retail chains and other middlemen were getting our brand across and reaching our core customer base was very frustrating. This was especially the case, given Barefoot Books’ high-quality offer.”
It was around 1999, when well-known direct selling publisher Dorling Kindersley closed down, that Barefoot Books first saw the potential for direct sales. “We found ourselves being inundated with requests from former Dorling Kindersley Consultants, asking whether they could sell our books,” Nancy recalled. “The more we learned about direct selling, the more we realised that the concept really seemed to fit in with our philosophy at Barefoot Books.
“One of the first challenges we faced was that we were already in two countries and had overheads to cover. We couldn’t just give up all our other revenue streams. We were still selling to book and gift stores, libraries and educational distributors. We still sold licences in foreign languages. There was no way we could focus exclusively on direct sales. Even if we could, we weren’t sure we wanted to.
“We have always believed strongly in offering customers choice. We want to make sure our books find their way into the hands of children, parents and educators everywhere. In a way, I think that philosophy turned out to be a good thing for us, as we are not pigeon-holed as being just a direct selling company. People love us for our books, not just because they are interested in direct selling.”
Though Barefoot has been selling its titles throughout Europe for some years, it is only recently that it has started to actively grow its European direct sales force. In 2009 the company launched a brand new website and a simplified Ambassador Earnings offer, with the aim of, ultimately, offering price parity across all of their channels of business.
“Our new website and Ambassador opportunity has all the key ingredients of a direct sales plan to attract those who want to earn income from home-based retailing andteam building,” Nancy explained. “But it also appeals to organisations wanting to fundraise and to people who just want to buy our books and gifts for children in their lives. We’re not there yet, but eventually we want all our customers, including retailers, to purchase on our website, engage with our content and participate in our community.”
She added: “Our Barefoot Books Ambassadors work in many different ways. Some use party plan, others do book fairs and fundraising events in schools, some have stalls in farmer’s markets and at other community venues and others just market online. Many Ambassadors offer storytelling, arts and crafts and other activities to bring Barefoot Books to life, create excitement around their events and provide added value for their customers.”
Nancy added: “Sometimes with direct selling companies it’s all about recruit, recruit, recruit. It’s not like that with us. We are about bringing childhood to life in a way that has never been done before. We have been radical pioneers within the publishing industry and I guess we are pioneers in the direct sales business, too, because we are taking a different approach.
“The secret of our success is staying true to our core values and never compromising on quality or dumbing down to kids just to make our books more commercial. That’s what makes Barefoot Books special.”
