Defining Moment

I was really into research, development, branding, shopping, and having a look around and picking up on current trends. I decided to do a Fashion Marketing Degree at Northumbria University and in the final year we had to come up with our own concept and… read more

Defining Moment

I became pregnant (after being told I couldn’t have children) in April 2007, which was an unexpected but wonderful surprise. I was due at Christmas time, but the stress of having bills to pay for my business in January did get to me. We had to decide if… read more

Defining Moment

Fresh Soap Deli as a brand was bought by a Lithuanian company and it’s still very successful. I act as a consultant for them now, and that’s where I got the idea for my new business. I’m passionate about design and concepts and coming up with ideas.… read more

Lifestyle Story

I’ve never had the mindset of getting up in the morning and going to work for someone else. My mum always taught me to just do what I wanted to do and be who I wanted to be. For any budding entrepreneur, I think it’s important to think about quality of… read more

Mistake To Avoid

We didn’t get all the investment that we needed, and I think that may have been because we tried to achieve more than what was actually possible at that time. We had so many different Fresh Soap Deli products, all of them made by ourselves, and once we… read more

Mistake To Avoid

We did everything ourselves, which I think was a mistake. To a degree you can save money and cut costs by doing things yourselves. For us it was like, do we pay ourselves or do we pay an accountant to do our finances? There were so many roles that… read more

Pearl Of Wisdom

I think sometimes when you have a business, you can just run away with it and not look back. From previous experience, I think it’s important to just look back and check that you are going in the right direction, and you’re following the right signs.… read more

Challenge

From two concessions in two months at Debenhams Oxford Street and then the Metro Centre, we’d turned over £25,000. We’d launched just before Christmas, and following the success in sales, in January the following year we decided to put a business plan… read more

Aspiration

At the moment I’m building up a good portfolio of clients. I’ve got a team of freelancers who come together for Imagine on certain projects, so people who create websites, illustrators, product designers, packaging designers, all team up to help me when… read more

Support Story

What’s really helped me is the support I got from other entrepreneurs. It is difficult for people coming out of from university and everything they hear is, “Go and get a job”. But I think there’s a lot to be said for young people taking the plunge, and… read more