Sarah Williams and Louise Baragwanath : In The Pink Gifts
Sarah Williams and Louise Baragwanath have been looking for a challenge as their children have grown and gone to school… so they decided to set up their own business selling gifts mainly aimed at girls and ladies…. Read how Sarah and Louise went about their new challenge…
Louise and Sarah are two busy mums who have known each other for about 12 years. Our husbands work together. Louise has 2 boys and Sarah has 3 boys and all five go to the same school, so we regularly see each other in the car park at school where many a business meeting has been had. Both of us provide secretarial support for our husbands’ careers, which can be quite lonely working on our own.
We are both in our forties and have been looking for a challenge as our children have grown and gone to school. We are both creative and have good practical and management skill. I am very interested in computers whereas Louise is keen on keeping records up to date (stock taking, business accounts).
When we were considering setting up a business we had to find something that would fit in with our children who are in full time education and wasn’t reliant on us being available during school holidays. So we set up a direct selling gift company mainly aimed at women and girls.
We both live in small rural villages in Warwickshire and not too far from each other. The beauty of the outdoors has given us a lot of inspiration for the types of gifts we make and sell.
How the Women’s Business Development Agency helped me?
We got in touch with WBDA through Business Link because we were trying to work out what type of business was best for us i.e. partnership, LLP or fully registered company with Companies House.
The Women’s Business Development Agency helped us to formulate a business plan which highlights where we are now and where we need to be to make the business work. Although we both had an idea how much work we have to do, the business plan has made this much clearer. It also gives us a good sense of “business” which we will carry with us as we develop in the future.
The Women’s Business Development Agency has given us clear guidance on the legal and tax implications. We both attended the Inland Revenue Course on becoming self employed and got a lot from this. I shall be attending a web building course to ensure that we have tackled this element of selling in an appropriate and business like manner.
By providing the support and information regarding the legal and practical aspects of running a business, especially details on partnerships. Carolyn, our advisor, also gave us confidence in what we were doing and confirmed out belief that our business could work.
About In The Pink Gifts
We sell gifts mainly aimed at girls and ladies (only because our boys don’t like pink things – understandably) although we do sell items for the garden and a few decorations for boys’ bedrooms. Our business is run through direct selling and at local village/school fetes and gift fairs. We will be launching our website at the end of June when internet buyers can peruse our shop and buy online.
The impact on the business
We decided to draw up a partnership deed to legally form a partnership. How to manage our accounts so that it will be easy to fill in our tax returns at the end of the year. It has also made us start to think about the long-term possibilities,
Our outlook has changed subtly in that we feel more “business like” through the development of the business plan which can only help our image of being good business women and earning the trust our people we meet. We are also starting to think how we can develop in the long-term.
For more information or to contact Sarah and Louise on 078844378791, email inthepinkgifts@yahoo.com or check out their website www.inthepinkgifts.co.uk
