Monday 28 March 2011

Passion, Karren Brady and bears on wheels!


The lovely Nicky Sherwood of From Britain with Love is someone who shares our passion for UK design. We enjoyed a really good lunch at her local Italian deli, Zoran's (above) in St Margaret's a few weeks ago and the time flew by as we shared stories of the ups and downs of setting up our own businesses. The common factor for us both was how strongly we believe in what we do.

Nicky's directory website is an invaluable source of great ideas for things to do, eat, drink, buy and more from around the UK. We discovered the most adorable range of antique looking animals made by Sarah of Northfield Primitives. We love her Bear on wheels! Lasso the Moon is proud to be listed there too (visit our listing by clicking here) and we have invited Nicky to write a guest blog for us which she is putting together now. We'll share her thoughts with you when we have them.

A week or so after meeting Nicky, I took part in a hugely inspiring business masterclass with Karren Brady (above) from The Apprentice in Guildford. It was interesting to hear how much of what Nicky and I discussed came out loud and clear from Karren too; that the idea behind the business has to be good but then it's all about leadership, grit and focus. Sheer determination is what creates a successful business from a good idea. Determination is something Nicky and I also have in common, I think. We've both fielded work calls whilst looking after a sick child, sat down to do some work in the evening once homework is done, school bags packed, babies asleep... and found ourselves still there in the early hours. The lovely Donna who takes most of our photography often uses these quiet hours when the children are asleep too, I notice, from the ungodly hour on many of her emails!