The Untold Podcast
UNTOLD Podcast is where business, family, and life collide—raw, unfiltered, and brutally honest. No fluff, no fake success stories—just real conversations about the highs, the struggles, and everything in between.
The Untold Podcast
Women in Business Pt.1 | The Reality They Don’t Show You
This isn’t a TED Talk. This is two real women, running real businesses, talking about the messy, emotional, and brutally honest side of building something from scratch.
Kelly owns two florist shops. Danielle runs an award-winning bathroom studio. Together, they open up about:
- What no one tells you about juggling motherhood and business
- Feeling like you’re failing… even when you’re winning
- Why they almost broke down (but didn’t)
- And why being “the rock” might not look like you think
This episode will make you laugh, cry, and rethink everything you assumed about women in business.
🎙️ Part 2 drops tomorrow.
You know, people say don't put all your eggs in one basket. I made myself ill. I was so ill.
Speaker 2:I won't be tricked into social media making me not feel good enough.
Speaker 3:When you run a business and it's good, it's amazing, but there is nothing like the lows of when things are going bad.
Speaker 1:It's mixing work and life that can make or break me.
Speaker 2:Embrace those moments as learning opportunities. Oh, that is so cliche, it is true.
Speaker 3:Today's episode is sponsored by Closer, the app that helps you discover exclusive local deals right here in Sussex. Whether you're after a pint, a haircut or a last-minute gift, closer shows you where to go and what you can save, all from the comfort of your phone. It's free to download, easy to use and packed with offers from the best spots around. Download the Closer app today from the App Store. That's C-L-O-S-R. Save money, support local with Closer. Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Untold Podcast Again today. This one's slightly different because I want to talk about women in business. Now. I've got two lovely ladies here with me today that both have their own businesses, and very successful at that. So, without further ado, let's introduce you to Kelly from Belladune Flowers and Danny from Ripple's Bathrooms in Linfield.
Speaker 1:Hello.
Speaker 3:Morning, morning Afternoon, whatever time it is you're listening to this.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. It's not live. No, thank God, thank God.
Speaker 3:So welcome to the Untold Podcast and thanks for coming on. I thought it'd be really good for other female listeners to hear what it's really like running a business. So, kelly, what is it you do?
Speaker 2:I am a florist.
Speaker 3:I have two retail florist high street florist shops okay, and danny six so I own a ripples bathroom franchise in an infield okay, and how long have you both been doing that for?
Speaker 1:me, I go first so we opened our doors november 2023, so really we're still within our infancy, um, but yeah, not that long really and has it been?
Speaker 3:was it tough? Was you scared when you first started doing it? Was you worried about it? How did it about? How did the idea of opening a bathroom showroom come about?
Speaker 1:All right, it's a bit long, it's fine. So I got into bathrooms, probably about eight or nine years ago. What a thing to get into, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm into bathrooms Bathroom design there is no, and kitchen design there is no qualification for it. You can, like, go to college or university and study just bathroom and kitchens and a lot of people I know in the industry just fell into it randomly and a lot of people I know are self-taught because there is no thing that you can learn um. So I randomly fell into it all those years ago and I just realized it was the only job that I was waking up every morning and I wanted to go and do it that's so important yeah it's the only job and I really struggle with authority, working under people, and that's one of my bad, that's one of my flaws entrepreneurs have ended up yeah, business.
Speaker 2:Because of that exact reason.
Speaker 1:I just struggle, you know, having to uphold people, other people's morals that don't match with mine or not as good as mine, and I just knew that bathrooms, that's what I want to do. It's so random, but I was just like, I love it. It's just so different, it's creative, so much you can do with a bathroom, especially now, like the times have really changed, which you'll know yourself how much bathrooms are changing um, and we had covid. We had a covid baby, baby number three, and I was also on uh furlough as well. So, because I was one of the shielders, so it kind of ended up that I just we sort of like I mutually kind of just left where I was, not for any other reason other than who knows how long this is going to go on, for I've now got a newborn.
Speaker 1:I feel unemployable right now. Yeah, and um, unfortunately my husband's dad passed away and um, which meant there was inheritance, so, but it wasn't enough inheritance that we could buy a house, like we couldn't buy a house we, you know it wasn't like enough to do something like that with, but it was enough that we didn't want to.
Speaker 1:We did not want to waste it yeah like we really wanted to do something for our family with it and we probably could have just lived off it for a year maybe, yeah, but that's all it would have. You know, it wouldn't have lasted very long. And just, I've wanted to have my own bathroom showroom for so many years, specifically a Ripples one as well, because when I was working in Red Hill, they used to have one in Reigate. I walked in there as they were one of my competitors at the time and I thought I'll just walk in there and see who's this Ripples, you know. And as soon as I walked in there, I was just like I want this, this is what I want.
Speaker 1:And we forgot about it for a long time because we were really young and didn't have the sort of money you need for a franchise. Because we were really young and didn't have the sort of money you need for a franchise. And, um, it was in that moment in covid, when I decided that I might as well just be at home with the boy for a little bit, that Sean said why don't we look at ripples again? And I was like, really, and he was like, yeah, like let's look at it, let's see, see if they want us for a start, because, you never know, they're quite picky about how they want, and that's how it came about. We just I don't know, it's really difficult to explain. It just came about that I spoke to Roger Kime, who's the CEO of Ripples Holdings. We got on like a house on fire straight away, even with my kids screaming in the background, for biscuits.
Speaker 3:um, we got on like a house on fire straight away, even with my kids screaming in the background for biscuits, like, honestly, I had.
Speaker 1:Isaac and Toby must have been about five or six years old at the time. This has taken a while to get to this point and it was half term and they were just like mum, mum, can I have this, can I have that? And I'm like I'm really sorry, roger, can I I just? I just need to give my kids a biscuit shut up for a minute.
Speaker 1:um, even with that, he was still like, oh no, it's fine, I get it. Like we are all family run. And I was like, oh, I love that, I love that they didn't care that they could hear my kids in the background. And we went there. We found the property that I wanted as well, which was a real long shot as to whether we'd even get it, because it was right at the beginning of the process.
Speaker 1:it was in like the January that I found it, the property that we're in now yeah and I took it with me anyway to the meeting with um Paul and Nicola Crowe, who are the sale director and managing director of Ripples, and we went all the way to Bath, managed to get child care for night. That is a challenge in itself and I presented it to them and said this is the building I want. And they were like, well, you know, it's kind of really early days by the time we get to it. There's no way you're going to have that building, you know? And lo and behold, it was still there. It was still there. It kept coming on and off the market, on and off, on and off constantly. But, like in my head, all I could see was me standing outside that building.
Speaker 2:We looked at another, manifested it I just that's all I could see.
Speaker 1:All I could see was myself standing outside that building and it came off the market for a little while. So like it must have got quite serious with another company, I guess. And I remember we went and looked at a place in Calfold and Roger the CEO came down from Bath up down. He came from Bath to come and look at it with us and he hadn't even seen the Linfield one in person. So we were pretty convinced that this Calfoldfold was one that we'd have to go for. I just everyone else was like yeah, it's gonna be great here this is great.
Speaker 2:This is a really good spot. Something wasn't right. I just, I just couldn't, I just didn't feel it.
Speaker 1:I didn't feel it in my gut and I trust my gut so much. I really really do trust my gut. And the Linfield one came back up again. And by this point it was like April and the probate with Sean's inheritance was. You know, it was so close to being done and I basically turned into a solicitor for like six weeks, running around my kitchen pacing back and forwards. That poor baby was in the high chair a lot.
Speaker 1:I wasn't making phone calls to push this. You know, push this hat, this flat sail through so that we can. It was a nightmare, to be honest, it was a real nightmare. And I remember saying to Roger I said I just don't want to do cowfold like this Linfield waist back up, and that's what I want.
Speaker 1:I really want it and what I normally, what I normally want. I will normally get it because I'm just laser focused on it. That's what I want. I really want it and what I normally want. I will normally get it because I'm just laser focused on it. That's what I want. I said all I can see is me standing outside that building. That's what I want. And he just came back saying well, do you know what? I think? Alphold's great, but I think you've made your mind up, so let's just run with it then. And yeah, it all went through and in the end and I didn't get the keys, bearing in mind that I wanted this building from the January, I didn't get the keys to the end of September wow, that's a long time of anxiety and waiting around on it it was awful, especially with the kids as well.
Speaker 1:Like you know, the kids knew something was going on, and but it's also a long time to have this dream in the pipeline and not be able to actually do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like to be sitting on an egg like that. Yeah, so long it was as a creative. You must have just been desperate just to get in there, and it was difficult, get the ball rolling.
Speaker 1:It was really difficult and it was really difficult to prove to landlords that we were the business, that we were the right business to take that on um, because obviously every landlord's looking for longevity, aren't they? And it's something that they've got in their family portfolio. So I think they own quite a few, like you know, commercial premises and it's one that was really important to them because it turns out the landlord had a um like an antique shop, for about 20 years in the same building, so it obviously means quite a lot to them as well. Um. So I had to. I had to really fight my case, not only with like ripples and saying I want to work with you and I think I'm going to be an excellent franchisee, but then also to prove myself to landlords banks, accountants just just having to, you know make jump through hoops yeah, just to just say, I know I can do this, and once you've jumped through all those hoops and you're in, then you've got to prove yourself to the customer base and the village.
Speaker 2:Yeah and well everyone small villages like that can be quite particular about what they want on the high street.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very much, I was really I was really nervous, actually, about how will the village perceive a bathroom shop turning up. Because you know, I was looking at like linfield gossip, you know all the like facebook pages, and I was constantly scouring it and looking at it to think, to see where people were speculating what's going to be there and none of it was anything to do with a home renovation place, nothing at all. So I was thinking, gosh, like you know, people might not be happy about this. Yeah, and is that going to in such a small community? Is that going to really go against me? Um, but eventually, when all the posters went up that we were coming soon and all that stuff, we started seeing a little bit more positive talk on those community pages and things and I thought, okay, it's gonna be all right, it's gonna be, you've done really well.
Speaker 3:Oh, thanks you have to and I've. Obviously I've seen you on linkedin and stuff winning awards and stuff winning awards for doing it. So, yeah, it's amazing. That is really amazing.
Speaker 2:So, kelly, let's move on to you oh, my story is quite a lot shorter. I'm so sorry. I'm gonna try and work it out for you we don't edit unless something really needs editing um, well, how did the shop come about?
Speaker 2:yeah, um, actually I probably wouldn't be in that shop if it wasn't for my husband, because we moved moved to um Hassex, which is where my first shop is, and I was out we'd only been there a couple of months and I was picking up a takeaway and when I was in there, the takeaway guy sort of said, oh, what do you do? And I said, oh, I'm a florist, and at the time I was working for somebody else. Um, he said, oh, we need a florist in hassox. I didn't know hassox, so I didn't know there wasn't a florist. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. He said, actually there's an empty shop down the road. You should take that and put it as a florist. And I sort of giggled it off, went back with my takeaway, told paul, and he didn't giggle it off so he goes in there the next day and arranges to take over the lease.
Speaker 2:And he comes back to me and he says, um, we had a newborn at this point we were renovating a house, planning a wedding. And he says, oh, I've just agreed the lease. There was a bit of back and forth and it all fell through at one point and then it came back to us. But it was him that sorted it out and I wouldn't have taken that leap without him. I was quite happy, sort of bumbling along on, just as long as I got to play with flowers and be creative and do my form of art. I was quite happy to bumble along under somebody else's branding. But when you finally get that freedom of being able to do it all yourself. And I walked into this empty shop and we were like what are we going to do with it? What colors are we going to use? What style are we going to go for? And I was no longer under somebody else's branding and I had all the creative choice in the world. I was like, wow, this is. I could not step out of this now yeah.
Speaker 2:I could never work for anybody else now it's your own thing, I found my brand and found what I like and how I like to do things. Put me under somebody else's umbrella now and I would shrivel up and die.
Speaker 3:I don't think I could do it, I'm unemployable.
Speaker 2:I can't be told what to do the problem, I think, isn't it you.
Speaker 1:I think you'd kind of do become almost unemployable oh yeah, how do you go from?
Speaker 2:the only reason I got on well with the florist I was working with is because she was so trusting in me and she was an air hostess. Later on I took over running the florist for her while she did long haul flights for virgin and she was so trusting in me she was basically said do what you think. And if I ever phoned her up with a query, if I could get hold of her, what? I trust you, kelly, I trust you to do what you think. And I eventually learned that she trusted me. So I did start running it like I liked it and it worked and she was happy with that and I think that's the only reason I was unemployable. If she had been like, no, do it my way, do it like this, do it like that, I just I wouldn't have lasted you know, yeah.
Speaker 3:So what happened next? Then? You got the keys got the keys were you petrified? Were you because obviously you didn't Paul kind of forced you to take that late and I didn't know this story? Yeah, I didn't know this story, that was just like, um, do it.
Speaker 2:Like, let's do it. You've got a talent, you've got a skill. You can make some money out of this. Let's, let's do it. And I was a bit like, okay, paul takes more risks than me. Yeah, he definitely takes more risks than me, which you wouldn't expect if you met us, like because I'm the chilled out, laid back one and he's quite like everything's got a spreadsheet, and so in life I'm quite free and quite chilled and quite hippie, but with taking big risks like that I'm not, so I'm a bit, a bit more careful.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I was terrified, I was, I was scared, but I 100% trusted what, that I was good at what I was doing. There was no doubt in my mind that I couldn't do it and I couldn't do it well. There were things that scared me where I didn't know Haseks and I couldn't do it and I couldn't do it well. There were things that scared me where I didn't know Haseks and I didn't have friends and family in that village that would support by from me. So I was relying on coming into a high street where I didn't know anyone. I didn't know all the school mums. My kids didn't go to school there. I didn't have neighbours and friends that I knew had just moved there and we weren't far away from where we lived.
Speaker 2:But, um, I didn't have that community support. But I didn't think I did. But it turns out I did. I opened the doors and people coming in and were like, wow, I was so pleased to have a florist on the high street. I think for me, I'm lucky because I think every high street needs a florist, a butchers, a bakers. There are staple shops that you need in village high street. Yeah so, and I think I'm one of them, so I I think yeah, even more, so now even more so now.
Speaker 3:Now I've bought flowers from you obviously a hell of a lot, um, and I've bought it before that. I was buying stuff, and you never know what's going to turn up yeah you spend this money online and you never know what's going to come. I remember I bought like 24 roses for Valentine's Day and when I got there, I said did you get your flowers? Yeah, they're shit.
Speaker 1:Not from me Not from you, not from roses, are we?
Speaker 3:Not from you, not from you, but it's yeah. So now you look back on that and it felt like a risk at the time. Now you look back, what's it been now? Seven, eight years?
Speaker 2:I've been in hassocks eight, eight years now.
Speaker 3:Yeah was it even a risk, really, obviously, now you look back, do you think about like you must have had sleepless nights.
Speaker 2:You must, oh yeah, I mean a year after we opened, covid hit oh, yeah, it was I think six months after we opened we were flooded. They have big flooding issues where we are there. Um, we, we were flooded and anything that was on the floor was ruined, all the floor was ruined. And then covid hit and we flooded again. Um, so, because all the shops, everything seemed to time out right there, all the shops were shut during covid, obviously, and my neighbors, those hairdressers, and they were obviously shut and I said, would you mind if I emptied my shop into your shop so I can pull up the floor and see what damage is been done by this flood? And they're like, absolutely so.
Speaker 2:We literally emptied my entire shop into the hairdressers next door during covid and my husband, paul, was in. Well, he was in building, so he pulled up all the floor and it stank. It like the wet, it's like dead bodies, like it's. It was just it stank. It was so damp, everything was wet and he was like this has got to be filled in. So we've concreted the floor. We actually raised it by a few inches to where the flood line was to make sure that if it happened again it wouldn't ruin everything on the floor. We lost lots of stock and furniture and during that time I thought I don't know if it's worth it. Is it worth spending all this money on somebody else's shop?
Speaker 3:because we were leasing at that time.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I was like is it worth me like flood proofing this shop for somebody else, for the landlord, if I'm only going to be here for a couple of years? And it doesn't go through? And like, we didn't know how long COVID was going to last. We didn't even know if we were renovating that shop to ever even open it again. We didn't know if we were going to open those doors again. And you were seeing small businesses just closing during covid. When their leases came to an end, they were going well, we're not going to continue the lease, we'll go online. Um, so that was really scary, covid and the flooding and stuff. But after covid it all just picked straight back up again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I don't know if we were lucky or I don't know what it was.
Speaker 1:I don't think it's luck, kelly, because obviously I'm also a customer of kelly's as well and I think, like you said, you're branding you as a person as well. You know, people can't help, but really like you and buy into you. But do you know what I mean?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's such an important thing. If a client really likes you, they will naturally be loyal and supportive.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I agree.
Speaker 1:And you know, even if you close Linfield High Street shop, I'd still be using you.
Speaker 2:Do you?
Speaker 3:know what I mean. Yeah, thank you, if another florist could go in there and I wouldn't use them. Yeah, thanks, it's a yeah it's, and that's the thing. I think you sort of we consistency pays off, oh yeah consistency pays.
Speaker 3:It's easy when you've got a business to have. Like we've said before, we started recording. When you run a business and it's good, it's amazing, you feel on top of world. But there is nothing like the lows of when things are going bad, like when it flooded, when you had to rip all the floors up, spend money that you didn't really probably didn't want to spend at the time because nothing was coming in.
Speaker 2:Didn't have the money to spend, it was luckily I got the COVID grant. That's how I did it, so the timing just worked out for me that I spent that grant that they were giving out to small businesses on flood proof in the shop, um, and just surviving like those, what year or whatever it was that we practically didn't trade, because it was a lot of events as well our weddings got cancelled and stuff yeah, yeah, very true yeah so, but yeah, those were the moments where I was like, oh, I don't know if I can continue with the risk taking and the what if it's scary times when it's low, like you said, the lows are really low.
Speaker 2:They're really low and they're really lonely because you haven't got a boss to go to to ask for help or to get advice from. You're on your own, you've got no one to look to and they, the lows are low, they're really low, and in the moment you forget all the highs we were saying this earlier, weren't we danny? In the moment of those lows, you forget that actually, for that one low moment, there was 10 successes and 10 wins, but you forget those when you're feeling the pressure when you're under it.
Speaker 3:When you're under it, it's so easy to forget how good things have been and you like, you wake up in the morning. I can't do this anymore.
Speaker 1:I've not got it in me anymore just can't do it that's like when I have moments and we're still in our infancy. So I suppose we're in the biggest risk area now, timeline wise, you know and there's been mornings or evenings when I've said to Sean because my husband works in the business with me so he gets the pleasure of seeing me literally like 24 hours a day.
Speaker 2:I don't know if me and Paul could do that like well, do what though?
Speaker 1:Sean is so laid back, he might as well just be laying down like it's just so chill, honestly, um. But you know, there's times like that where I've just been like I just don't know why have I opened myself up to having all this responsibility on my shoulders, like you know, because you can't get away from it.
Speaker 3:It is on you.
Speaker 1:And then you know, sean turns around and he's like but think of those awards that you've won, like you've only won those because of you. Like nobody else has done that you just have to keep thinking. That's what you're doing.
Speaker 2:You've got to remind yourself constantly of the highs. You are good at what you do.
Speaker 3:And a bad day is a bad day as long as you have more good days in a week than you have bad days then you're doing something right, and if it was a bad day, like I've completely flipped the way I think of things. Don't look at it as a problem. Look as you need to find a solution what happened? Oh, that didn't turn out. Okay, let's just get through it let's make it work and you've learnt for next time, yeah embrace those moments as learning opportunities.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is so cliche it is true, though, isn't it? It is one of the hardest things to do to genuinely learn from your mistakes. Yeah, own it and admit to it and build on it. I've got to a point now, throughout life anyway, where I don't. If I have to say that I've made a mistake, I'll just be like do you know what that's on me? But I'm going to fix it. And I think it's all about how you're going to fix it, isn't it?
Speaker 2:And sometimes fixing. I did a reel actually a little while ago that was really popular. Sometimes, as a business owner, fixing a mistake gains you a new customer, gains you a loyal customer, because every we're human and humans make mistakes and these things happen, and I work with fresh produce. I sometimes flowers don't last as long as I hope they would last, and it's not always my fault. Sometimes they've put them on a radiator or in a sunny window, but I'll go. Those flowers should have lasted longer. Here's another one and they're like oh, thank you so much, dealt with that so well. And it's about how you deal with these things, yeah.
Speaker 3:I think the biggest thing is to hold your hands up. Yeah, and internally for you. You can duck and you can push the problem down the road. Yeah, and you're going to make the same mistake again and again and again like you all understand deliveries.
Speaker 3:A delivery's not turned up, but you'll probably have it. Delivery's not turned up. It's valentine's day and the flowers didn't turn up till eight o'clock, when you needed to be in there at five prepping them to get the bouquets out to people. How do you deal with it? It's a problem, find a solution and move on yeah um, so then you decided to open another one, so you loved it that much yeah, so that one paul wasn't so pushy about it was actually my idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was the one I kept saying to danny so danny was a customer of mine before I was in linfield and I kept saying, if you ever see a shopcom available in linfield, I want it. I really love linfield. I like the vibe on the high street. I felt like I had a bit of a customer-based building in the Hayward Seaf, linfield area, ardingly, all of that. I sort of had this little customer-based building and I just thought I need a plot there, I need a space there, something. Just like you, I follow my gut. Something was telling me that I needed my brand over there. It naturally ended up there anyway. So I kept walking.
Speaker 2:Those shops come available in Linfield. How you found that one you've got so organically, I have no idea. I had to walk up and down the high street every every few months. I'd walk up and down the high street over a period of about eight, nine months, um, and walk into the shops and keep asking the shopkeepers if they're leaving or if they're retiring. And could you let me know if you, if you're, if your shop comes up or if you know of a shopkeeper that's coming up. And eventually this one shopkeeper was retiring and said, yeah, I'm going take it. And there, there it was, and it all went through really quick yeah, it was well.
Speaker 3:I didn't have time to think about it. I didn't even know you was doing it until I saw something on Instagram saying Bella Drew Flowers opening Linfield. I was like what, when? When did that happen?
Speaker 2:see the fear wasn't really there for Linfield. I was excited, I was absolutely buzzing yeah, I was so excited for it. There was not really a couple of times, obviously. I sat there and gone we don't make enough money in that first month.
Speaker 2:I can't pay my landlord the first month, what's he gonna think if I can't pay him? What if I can't pay my staff? What if I can't pay my suppliers? Like I started thinking I had no capital like back up. There was nothing in a pot to get me through the first few months. So we got the keys and we turned it around in two weeks.
Speaker 1:You turned it around so quick two weeks.
Speaker 2:We got the keys and I got in there. We got the keys on the 2nd of January and we were open like soft opening on the 16th of.
Speaker 3:January. That's nuts, because that's a really bad time for people to spend money as well. It is a really bad time.
Speaker 2:Not so much for a florist, though, because four weeks after opening we had Valentine's Day which is a really great way of getting people's feet through the doors, like just en masse, to show them what we could do, um, and the quality of our stuff. And that paid off, because off the back of that then they come back for mother's day and then they just remain as customers. Yeah, so it kind of hit the ground running Linfield, but something in me told me it was going to. Yeah, so I wasn't. I I wasn't worried because I was worried, but there's something about that high street, though it's just so unique.
Speaker 1:It's a beautiful place.
Speaker 2:It's always lovely, independently owned.
Speaker 1:Yes got a lot of female business owners yeah, it has.
Speaker 2:We were talking about this before. It's lots of lots of female business. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's leaders on the high street. It's cool. The community itself.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Everyone's like really lovely and people want to shop small and shop local in Linfield.
Speaker 3:And this is I think people should be doing that more in more places.
Speaker 2:Yeah, supermarkets and stuff.
Speaker 3:It's so important they're just pulling our pants down for they really are the produce is terrible, the for? Yeah, they really are. The produce is terrible, the meat's terrible. You buy a chicken breast and it's that big and then it shrinks when you cook it. The flowers are terrible yeah, do you know what I mean? And you pay over the odds for them, what you would pay going into someone like you. But I think it's we're more and more lazy as human beings. It's convenience isn't it?
Speaker 1:yeah, I'm going to get some milk.
Speaker 3:I'll pick some flowers up on the way yeah, exactly um, I just yeah, and I think it's uh, what you've both done is amazing. Now, obviously, when you took your place on, I know that you had a lot of work to do in there to get it to where it is today. How was that?
Speaker 1:I made myself ill. I was so ill. We obviously so a bit like Kelly, we didn't, we didn't have a pot like everything we put into it, that was it. That's all we had. You know, um, it was really. You know. People say don't put all your eggs in one basket.
Speaker 1:Yeah you did um but like, like you were saying, I knew I know I can, I know I'm good at it, I'm good at bathrooms, I'm good at design. So I'm good at bathrooms, I'm good at design. So I just kept reminding myself that this is going to be great when it's done. But it took us about seven weeks to turn it around. But because it's grade two listed as well, we had a bit of planning permission to get through. Yeah, you know, there's certain walls that we couldn't affix anything to. We had to build out from, like bare brick walls and things like that. So it there was. There's a lot. There's still a lot to do. I mean, we've got an upstairs you're building bathrooms in there.
Speaker 2:I mean, all I was really doing was painting the walls and putting up shelves, so it's still our shop fit out, isn't it, at the end of the day?
Speaker 1:and it's hard work. I mean, I designed every bay in the showroom myself, which it was a new. Ripples was, uh, a new product base. Some of the products and brands that ripples have access to. There's a lot of shows that don't have access to that, so I wasn't privy to a lot of these before and I had to. I had to.
Speaker 1:Back to back in linfield coffee works actually great coffee shop um, back to back. For about two weeks I had reps of every single brand come out and see me and I sat in that coffee shop literally two weeks solid, just waiting for the reps coming and talk to me so that I could learn as much as I could about the brands I didn't know as much of, so when I come to design it, I knew what I should be putting in there, what's going to work, what's new stuff that maybe other showrooms haven't put in yet, and things like that. Just try to get ahead of the game. Get ahead, yeah, get ahead of it, and also make it appealing to Linfield, because Linfield is such a specific place. It's very picture postcard, it's very.
Speaker 3:Christmas you have to have the Christmas display.
Speaker 1:Linfield Village Week you have to have the Linfield display 100% and, um, it was making sure I'm lucky, like we've lived on the outskirts of Linfield forever, my kids go to school in Linfield, so, which was also kind of worrying, though, because all those school mums that it's mixing work and life, that can. That can make or break me, because I only need to accidentally upset one person and that could be a whole bunch of people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, don't upset anyone on the PTA. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:though, like it could make or break me, like I have to be so careful and my children have to be careful too. I'm constantly having to coach them when we're out and about. Living where you work is quite hard, because when we're out and about, I'm like you do not know what clients we might see. So I need you to be. You know, just don't run around like loonies, don't scream, don't like touch everything in a shop, just chill.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm like you've seen me with my boys, and my boys are nuts. Don't have to preach to me yeah, you know it's like.
Speaker 1:So that was also something. But yeah, it was. It was hard work getting fit out, but we were fit out within seven weeks and that was just purely. I know that they were also trying to fit out Tunbridge Wells ripples as well. Um, and I just made it abundantly clear to the guy who owns uh ripples in Tunbridge Wells, who is a friend, but I made sure I was like just letting you know I'm going first. You know, if there's a choice between me and you, it's gonna be me um so we fit out like really quickly by a showroom, fit out standards.
Speaker 1:You know it was just like one team doing it. One team with that was it. And you also know as well. Actually, like in the bathroom industry, tile industry, all that kind of industry is a bit renowned for deliveries not turning up on time, wrong things being delivered. So I had to really factor in if I've got to open my doors. I had to pay rent from day dot. I had no rent period, nothing. So if I need to open my doors, I need to be making sure that everything's delivered on time. I had to really schedule myself to make sure I can open my doors. I need to be making sure that everything's delivered on time like it was a real. I had to really schedule myself to make sure I can open those doors when I need to. It was really hard because we had to wait for planning permission as well I want to change the usage to not to change.
Speaker 1:Um no, we didn't have to do change of usage. It was for the fact that we've obviously had to build quite a lot of like walls and stuff.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:So we had to get oh, it's listed.
Speaker 3:It's a listed building. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So we had to get. We also at one point, me and my dad my dad was a massive support, he was there with me a lot we were trying to open up one of these doorways and we started getting into it and we realised there's this old oak beam in it and we were like we can't open that up because it was not on. It was on no plans, nothing. No one even knew it was there.
Speaker 1:So we were like we'll have to cover that back up and change the whole design of that bay and try and make it work. So that was like a big change that we had to do. It's difficult, isn't it, but we did it yeah and we got there in the end booming all right.
Speaker 3:What have you both had to sacrifice in your life to be able to run these businesses the way you've run them?
Speaker 2:that's a big sleep, food time, I think, time with children, yeah, the kids.
Speaker 1:It is always going to come down to that, as cliche as that is, as women in business.
Speaker 2:Look, I think that there's loads of different types of women. There's these women that are just born mothers and having a job or a career, and that is just not for them. They just want to bake and be with their children all the time and just be home and be mothers, and I think that in itself is a full time job and hats off to them because I actually couldn't do that.
Speaker 2:No, I genuinely couldn't do that. And then there's the women that aren't interested in a family and are like career driven and they're quite happy to be this independent boss woman. And there's lots of other women. But then there's these like in-betweenies like us that want to do, do it all, maybe not to the full, like I draw the line at baking bread. It's not happening and I also wouldn't be able to just have a career and nothing else. But I'm somewhere in that gray area in the middle that wants to be a really good mum. But I also have to survive and to function. I have to have something for me, and it's not the gym and it's not horse riding, it's. I don't have a hobby. I actually genuinely love pottering around in my shop and doing stuff with flowers and, um, I think I'm an artist by like it's in me to be artistic and I just chose flowers as my medium. That is my therapy.
Speaker 3:That is my time? Yeah, it is flowers. Is your sanity?
Speaker 2:I have sacrificed a lot of time with my children. I know I have for work, but I've also sacrificed a lot of my time, which is work for my children, and I think the balance is all right. It's okay. I would definitely spend more time with my kids if I could. Yeah, like if I could take a day off from the shop, I would to be that full-time mum, school, drop-off, school, pick up homework and do it from six in the morning till 10 at night. I would. But financially I just it's not there for me at the moment to be able to do that. But it doesn't bother me like loads because I really do enjoy working. I I actually, I genuinely love my job. I wouldn't not want to do it, no.
Speaker 1:I remember when I think Isaac was two, I should have been. Toby would have been about one, so the youngest one didn't exist yet and I just remember getting to, yeah, isaac being about two, and I remember looking at Sean and just going I need to go back to work. Like I can't do this all the time, like I feel like I've completely lost myself.
Speaker 2:Some women just aren't made to be.
Speaker 1:I know you shouldn't feel guilty for it?
Speaker 2:no, instagram, instagram. Instagram does a great job at making working mums. I think feel a little bit guilty for not having making all those special memories. But we were saying earlier, there's other stuff in there too. It's not always rainbows and sunshine and kids can be arseholes yeah they can be utter arseholes sometimes and we need to get away from it. Yeah, some women just aren't built to be around those little arseholes all the time. No, no, I completely agree, I really do.
Speaker 1:I think if I wasn't working, I think my mental health would really suffer. I agree because when Isaac was, you know when he was that age, when I was just saying he you know, I was starting to feel myself mentally slipping, yeah into this, I'm just a mum now. Yeah, like, oh my god, I think I was like maybe 23. I was like at 23, like, yeah. I'm just I'm now mum like, what like? How has this happened?
Speaker 2:I've never actually been a stay. I've never done the mumming thing full time. All my kids were born. Maternity leave was maximum of a few weeks and I was back at work again. Yeah, I wouldn't have been able to put myself through it.
Speaker 1:I think we tried it because we didn't have enough money to put them into care also that's another thing though, isn't it Also?
Speaker 2:you're kind of expected, when you have a baby, to be a stay-at-home mum for a little while and try it. I just, I was just like not for me. I knew it wasn't for me from day dot. It was never going to be for me. I don't think I even ever wanted children. Wow.