MEET OLIVER SWAN, FOUNDER OF GRACEFUL
How did Graceful start?
Graceful launched in 2016 and I’ve been selling products on Amazon since 2013, when I launched my first brand. That brand was sold in 2015 and after spending 6 months recuperating and considering my future I decided to launch Graceful in a perfect storm of vision, skill & demand.
The wholistic vision of the company is to “Build a world where every product and business flourishes on their true quality and value.”, I was tired of seeing low quality products succeeding and so many great brands failing to reach their potential or even worse having to shut their doors.
Amazon having the huge customer base it has and its unique focus on customer service from its sellers makes it a perfect match as the best possible tool for our vision.
The real gap in the market that allowed us to grow was the lack of knowledge most businesses have of Amazon as a platform - in both customer behaviour and algorithmic preferences, it is vastly different to what you see with any other channel.
Tell us about yourself
I live a life I’m sure most business owners can relate to. I work for 12 hours a day, 5 days a week, with another 5-10 hours on the weekend. I have 2 incredible daughters, Poppy (2 3/4) & Holly (1 3/4) and my way-too-supporting wife, Danielle.
Since I was 6 I knew I would run my own business, when I started reselling joke-shop toys outside my house after school and on weekends, which grew into yu-gi-oh cards when they came around, and then when I got into secondary school I was the kid that turned up with 3 bags every day, all full of coke, sweets and, chewing gum. Chewing gum was the real secret weapon. It had a much higher profit:gram ratio - and they were empty by first lesson without fail. At one point I even had staff when the load was too much for me alone.
I left school at 17, and I held my first directorship on my 16th birthday - the first day I was legally able to. As much as I’d love to list off a long list of different hobbies and interesting activities, there are only really 2 things I care about in my life. Most importantly, spending time with my family, raising my daughters (although I’ll admit by wife does a lot of the heavy lifting there), and spending quality time with a close knit group of friends & extended family. And number 2 is business and what makes it tick. I have what I’ve been told is a way over the top obsession with the world of business and after my own personal challenges with the birth of my daughters both coming with their own challenges, a real need to scrap 99% of old useless business principles and replace them with fact that happy staff means better results and a better planet. My eldest daughter, Poppy, suffers from Hydrocephalus and a few other related issues, and we’ve became friendly with an amazing charity, Shine, who I like to support whenever possible too.
What services do you offer?
Right now we offer 1 service, which is complete Amazon account management. More details on what Oliver can do can be found here!
How did you become a partner with Visionary Food Solutions?
Having worked with Rhys on some amazing projects to-date on Amazon and seeing the promise of all the brands working with Visionary I’m very excited to see how together we can build on our shared vision!
Contact Oliver