Beauty Boulevard is an exclusive online beauty store and home of the popular Glitter Lips product range.
What inspired you to start a business?
From a young age I always said I wanted to work for myself. Some of my friends wanted to be nurses or fireman, but I had no real industry in mind, I just knew I wanted to be self employed.
When I was employed by other companies, I was always hitting my targets and working hard but it was never enough for my superiors, so, I decided that I should reap the benefits of my hard work not my employers!
My Dad worked very hard all his life, so I was brought me up with a strong work ethic.
What is the greatest challenge and the greatest reward in being your own boss?
The greatest challenge is the guilt I think, We are still in the very early stages of our business (we’re only 2.5 years old) and there is SO much work to do.
I’m married, I have a lot of friends and family, but I don’t get to see them as much as I‘d like.
I feel guilty when I’m working that I’m not spending time with them, and vice-versa.
I’m lucky that my family and friends are very understanding, but I feel guilt nontheless.
On the flip side, the greatest reward is the sense of achievement. Knowing that we are where we are now because of our hardwork and determination is a wonderful feeling.
What motivational tips can you give to our members about goal setting and managing both successes and failures?
Write your goals down. If they’re on paper, you’re more likely to achieve them. Put them somewhere prominent in your office where you and your team can see them. You then can’t ignore them and you can all work towards hitting those goals.
It’s an old cliché but everything happens for a reason.
So as much as you may have ‘failed’ there’s a reason for it and you can learn from it and use it to your advantage.
When we put Glitter Lips into production we were unaware that the factory closed for 2 weeks holiday. This put a long delay on the order and we felt like we’d failed, BUT, we decided to use the time wisely to make little changes and put more work into our up and coming products. When the factory re-opened we had improved our first product and had other products ready to put into production.
What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a business owner?
There isn’t enough hours in the day. If I didn’t need to sleep, I could achieve so much more! We are a small team of 5 and our work load is large.
Everyone always says ‘Work on the business and not in it, well that’s pretty impossible when you’re still in your early years but putting time aside to take a step back is vital to the growth of your business.
How have you benefited from mentoring or coaching?
We have worked with Paula Finch, from NBM Business Growth for the last 2 years. She has helped us plan, develop and grow our business. She knows how we work and has help us helped us a lot.
Sometimes just talking to her helps us make decisions by her playing devil’s advocate. She really has helped us enormously.
What advice can you give about the benefits of networking?
We love meeting new people. You never know who you’re going to meet or where. Some of our best business relationships with people have been built on a chance meeting.
Paula and I always seem to create more business by being out and about. We could be glittering people up at V Festival and meet the Head Beauty buyer of Superdrug in the queue………. (which actually happened)
What are your tips for scaling a business and how do you plan for and manage growth?
You need to make sure you grow at a pace that you are comfortable with, if you grow too fast, you many not be able to sustain it.
What you don’t want to do is grow so much you have to hire people to help with the work load, only for it not to continue and then have to let people go. It’s a chicken and egg situation, but if you take it steady, growth is much easier to manage in small steps.
What does the future hold?
More adventures!!
We have been to some amazing places and met the most amazing people – done things I never dreamed I would. We took part in London Fashion Week, We’ve been to V-Festival (in the celebrity louder lounge) we’ve traveled to far away places and all for the good of our glittery product. So long may it continue!
Keep your eyes on Beauty Boulevard because we have a new range coming out soon called ‘Confessions’ you’re going to love it!
Visit the Beauty Boulevard website here.
