This month marks four years of running my own business and our 50th client. A milestone I am incredibly grateful to have achieved.
I started it in an attic room in London, scared but hopeful. The attached picture was taken by my first employee, on our first day in the London office.
Our brand is named after the person who inspired me to start – my elder daughter Lottie. She changed my life in so many ways. She inspired me to want something better out of my career, for myself and others.
So many successful and fantastically good women that I have worked with over the years are side-lined once they have children, or work ridiculous hours trying to pull back the remnants of a once promising career. Always with guilt about everything that they are not doing as well as they would like. The best companies are now recognising that they are losing good people to old-fashioned working practices.
I started Gingerhead because I believed strongly that you can run a successful business in a flexible way to take into account the family / other needs of your employees. That you could choose to work on projects you believed in. With people you enjoy working for.
Over the last four years, I have employed 12 people.
I am very lucky to love my job. I am very lucky to work with amazing, talented and creative people. I am very lucky to believe in the clients we work with and what they stand for.
What have I learned over the last four years?
Be determined. Be honest. Be knowledgeable. Find ways to delight your clients whenever you can. You will work VERY hard. You will make mistakes. Learn to live with them but learn from them. Sometimes it is tough. But sometimes, it is the best job in the world.
Thank you to everyone who has supported Gingerhead so far. We can’t thank you enough.