Start Up Sunday series Week 7 - 6 Steps to Better Branding

Welcome to Week 7 in our Start Up Sunday series - today we'll be talking about branding and detailing the 6 Steps to Better Branding.

So what is a brand? Well, it isn’t just your logo, your strap-line a colour or your ever so pretty packaging. These are representations of your brand.

Branding is your connection to your customer. It is the personality of your business, key to generating sales and should be at the centre of your marketing strategy.

In order to develop an effective brand there are a 6 things you should know inside out:

No. 1 - Your Competitors:  Watch them and analyse them. Social media is great for helping you do this. Follow them on Twitter and "like"  them on Facebook.

• How does their pricing compare to yours?
• What marketing do they do?
• What is their product or service offering?  

No. 2 - Your Marketplace:  Looking at your marketplace will help you determine how to brand your product/service.

• 
  
  How much is the market worth?
• 
  
  What are the underexplored areas?
• 
  
  What are the best selling ranges, products or services?
• 
  
  Can you identify any niches or gaps in the market? 

No. 3  Your Customer: What do they want? Know as much as you possibly can about them. Get under their skin, listen to them, understand their lifestyle. 

• Are they cash rich and time poor or watching the pennies?
• Do they have children?
• How do they spend their time? 
• How much do they spend with you?
• What channels are best to reach them? 
• Where do they buy from?
• What search terms do they use on Google? 
• What magazines and newspapers do they read?

No. 4  Your Product or Service:  What exactly are you selling? Sum it up in a simple message. What makes you stand out from competitors? Cheaper, better quality, customer service? Once you have researched and understood all of this data, then you can start to decide the look and feel of your brand.

5  Your Tone of Voice:  Establish a tone of voice to use across all your communications. Serious and business like, fun and lively, knowledgable and approachable, you choose what suits your brand. If you sell face to face you should be able to carry this across then too, so pick a style that you personally are comfortable with. If you are selling bank accounts your tone of voice will be very different to selling baby clothes. What’s right for you?

Use your communications to spell out the benefits and features of your product or service. For example, a feature of myroo skincare body butter is that it is deeply nourishing and moisturising. The benefit for the customer is softer, smoother skin.

6  Your Style: Develop the visual aspects of your brand, your font, colours, logos and so on to match the output from all your hard research. So if your target market is high end don’t go for lurid colours, if it’s mainly men, don’t choose pink. If you are going for a vintage look, avoid over contemporary fonts and so on.

If this is all a little mind boggling and your business can afford it then it can be well worth spending some money with professionals to help you create your brand identity.

And finally, a little caution, there’s no point in spending time and money developing an image that you can’t live up to. Choose branding that feels honest to you, then aim to always deliver what you promise, maybe a little more, and you won’t go far wrong.

Friday Feature featuring Janet Mc Kenner from Delicakes

Welcome to Feature Friday from Creation|Collaboration - today we're featuring Janet Mc Kenner from Delicakes.

Thanks for chatting to us today Janet - can you introduce us to you and your company?

This is actually my third career - previously I have been an auditor and taken a second degree in psychology as a mature student. I am delighted to be back with my first love of food after originally studying food science and cooking.

Where did the idea of running this as a business come from?
As I was finishing my degree, I realised I was making more and more cakes in the evenings and weekends for friends and friends of friends. It evolved into my business because, being honest, it's all I ever wanted to do was bake and create exceptional sweet foods. I was worried that it may not be financially viable so I agreed with my husband I would not expand out of the home kitchen until after the first year.

What do you love most about your business?
Transforming pure ingredients such as; sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, and chocolate into a cake that becomes the feature point of a celebration. A birthday party needs a cake to put candles on, a wedding needs a centre piece. I love that the cake provides the central photo opportunity of the event and my creative skills bring pleasure and a WOW factor on special days.

What would you like to change?
I wish that local authorities did publicise your Hygiene score if you work from a home kitchen – but the rules are they only do this if you work from a purely commercial kitchen with no dual use.

What is your aim for the next year?
I want to expand my wedding cake business to form the core of my work. This would mean I have more planned work and less ad hoc and last minute orders. To achieve this I am currently creating my website and it will be styled as WeddingDeliCakes.co.uk

Where do you ultimately see yourself?
I believe, by my third year, I will have a house style and will launch a new range each wedding season in keeping with the upcoming bridal trends for that year.

What are your Top 5 tips for new Business Women?
Tip 1: Stop doing the research and give it a go now – especially if you can limit costs
Tip 2: Be financially organised so you know your profit margins on every product you sell
Tip 3: Think of ways of upselling your product or range – in my case if you order a birthday cake, I ask if you want cupcakes to match, or if you order a wedding cake I ask if you want cookies as favours
Tip 4: Be flexible, my original idea for expansion was to deliver cakes to local businesses but I found this was time consuming and not as profitable as celebration cakes – hence I am now going to focus on the big celebrations
Tip 5: Don’t walk before you can run – yes a shop would be lovely but with overheads and the cost of staff this is a step change investment that needs to be just right before

A few last words - How do we contact you?

I am featured on http://www.mykingshill.co.uk/ until my own site http://www.weddingdelicakes.co.uk/ is launched; you can email me at delicakesme19@gmail.com; you can also catch me on Facebook: at http://www.facebook.com/delicakes and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/delicakesme19.

Thanks so much for chatting to us today Janet, your cakes are fabulous looking and I'm sure people are so delighted to receive them!

Don't forget to check back next week when we'll be featuring another woman run business!! If you're interested in being featured on this blog, please drop us an email to creationcollaboration@yahoo.com with the words "Feature Friday" in the subject line and we'll get back to you.

Wedding Wednesday - How to Save Money on your Wedding

Welcome to Wedding Wednesday on our blog - today we'll be talking about how you can save money on your wedding costs, a hugely interesting area especially in these recessionary times.

Weddings and celebrations can be an expensive business, but there are many ways where you can cut costs, without comprimising on quality.

1. For a wedding, consider a long engagement.  This gives you time to save up but, on the flip side, a short engagement doesn't give you time to keep changing your mind.

2. Subscribe to wedding or party planning forums to talk to like minded people who will share their tips on saving the pennies - You and your wedding, Wedding Ideas, Scottish wedding Directory, Confetti.

3. Book suppliers as far as you can in advance to get offered "this years prices".  This might not always work though as you have to take the chance, especially in this economic climate that suppliers will cut prices.

4. For a wedding, if going abroad, consider buying your wedding rings there as you can often get better value for money.

5. Consider a midweek or Sunday wedding or event as usually less expensive than a Friday or Saturday event.

6. Look for a stunning party dress at the New Year or Summer sales and also for bridal shop sales for your bridal gown or attendants dresses.

7. Many high street retailers now offer beautiful bridal gowns and bridesmaids wear at reasonable prices - For example, BHS, Debenhams, Monsoon, Coast all stock fantastic party wear.

8. Beautiful tiaras and bridal and event jewellery can now be found in the high street- Monsoon, Next, Debenhams, BHS and consider fantastic designers such as http://www.nujoolz.com/ , http://crystal-jewels.co.uk/ , http://www.weddingandbaby.co.uk/,  http://www.chezbec.com/ or http://www.tantrumsandtiaras.org/ 

9. Ask a friend that is gifted at make up to do yours for your party or big day.

10. When hiring kilts and suits for weddings and events, ask for details of discounts for multiple hire.
Available in places such as Moss Bros and Youngs suit hire, and most Highland Wear suppliers do deals when hiring many.

11. Book that special holiday or honeymoon through an independant travel advisor rather that the high street chains, thus avoiding overheads ie. http://www.travelarchitect.com/ or http://www.travelcounsellors.co.uk/

12. If you have time and are crafty, consider making your own stationary for weddings and events.
Hobbycraft is an excellent source of materials for this. However, if you decide to go with this option, it's important to remember what you save in money should be balanced in time cost.

13. Supermarkets now offer celebration cakes that can be customised for your event with your colours and theme.  A three tier comes in at under £100, feeding at least 120 people. I am a big lover of the Marks & Spencers cakes having had one for my own wedding.  Also speak to many cake designers who these days can be adaptable to budget constraints.

14. Have a buffet or hog roast instead of a sit down meal and, to follow this through, consider an independant venue instead of a hotel where you can bring in caterers.

15. Ask a friend or florist to move your flowers from ceremony to reception to cut down on costs, and consider seasonal flowers.

16. Ask a friend with a luxury or quirky car to drive you, also VW camper vans are very "in" right now.

17. Consider having disposable cameras on your tables, it's a good an cheap way to capture the informal side of the day. These can be purchased at camera shops such as Jessops and in most supermarkets Tesco, Asda etc.

18. Consider asking friends or family that are talented at perhaps singing or playing and instrument. This will save you money on entertainment for your guests and can also be a lovely personal touch to your ceremony.

19.Consider hiring a wedding planner whose job is to get you the best at the best prices and within your budget and who will also save you time and money, ie http://www.plansandpresents.co.uk/.

20. Always, always, always get wedding insurance. It will be the best £50ish you will ever spend, especially in this economic climate.

There are an enormous amount of ways that you can save money on your wedding, without feeling like you're skimping on what you really want - the most important thing about the day, of course, is enjoy yourselves!

Start up Sunday Week 6 - Insurance & Legislation

Welcome to Week 6 of our Start Up Sunday series - today we will touch on Insurance and Legislation.

Insurance:
Smart business people work to reduce the risks to their businesses from outside forces. One of the best ways to do this is by having in place the relevant insurances. Depending on your type of business and how you trade, you will be required by law to take out certain types of insurance. Other types of insurance are not compulsory but may be appropriate for you and your business.

Employers Liability Insurance - If you have employees, this insurance is a legal requirement. It provides cover for claims by employees who are injured or become ill as a result of their employment.

Vehicle Insurance - You need to insure your car or van for business use if you will be using it for business purposes.  Some insurance companies don't carry business car insurance so please ensure that your insurance company does. 

Public Liability Insurance - This provides cover against claims made by members of the public who have been injured or has property damaged as a result of carelessness at work by you or your employees.

Premises Insurance - Insurance will be required for the premises you work from, even if you work at home and there is already a domestic policy in place. This is because residential insurance policies usually only cover domestic use. Please contact your own insurer for clarification of your own policy.

Contents, Stock and Materials Insurance - This will be required to cover the replacement costs of contents, stock and materials even if you work from home and have a home contents policy.

Illness, Accident and Life Cover - These will pay a regular income or lump sum if you are unable to work as a result of illness or accident or if you die.

Insurance policies serve to protect you and your business against the unknown and it's vital that you anticipate any risks in your business and protect yourself against these.

Legislation:
All companies will be covered by some level of legislation - and some more than others.  Legislation deals with areas such as protection of employees, the length of time worked in a day/week, product legislation, health & safety legislation to name but a few. 

As business person, it is incumbent upon you to ensure that you and your company are fully compliant with the various pieces of legislation that apply to your area of work. 

As an example, those who wish to start a business selling bath & body products have a raft of EU legislation to adhere to.  You might think that making soap or body butters or lip balms would be an easy, fun job and that you could just make them and sell them.  However, there is EU legislation that all sellers/producers have to comply with - these will involve ensuring that you list all ingredients in the order of percentage used, that you include a batch number for each batch made, you list your name and address so that any customer can contact you directly if they have an issue with your product and you have to include a best before date. 

For this industry, the legislation also insists that you, as a producer, are certified as safe to make the products. You must be certified by a qualified cosmetic chemist and keep full files on every single thing you produce, including a copy of your safety assessment.  For each ingredient you use, you need to have these included on your safety assessment and these can, at times, only be used at certain concentrations - for example, if you use citrus based essential oils, you can use these at 1% maximum.  For more information on cosmetic legislation, click this link.

If you wish to sell your products online, then you must ensure you comply to Distance Selling Legislation.  If customers place orders with you online or on the phone, then this is termed distance selling.  You still will have a contract with customer, whether there's a written contract or not. If you offer something for sale at a particular price, and the customer agrees to that offer and pays you for, then you automatically have a contract with them. 

You must provide information to your customers prior to sale, to inform them of their rights - this information includes:

• You must identify yourself at the seller, giving a name and address where you can be contacted
• The characteristics of the goods or services you are providing
• The price to be paid, including any taxes
• The cost of delivery to each of the countries you are willing to supply
• The arrangements for payment - how you will accept payment
• The existence of the right to cancel the order
• A note about the cost of communication - for example, if you have a premium phone number, your customer must be informed of this PRIOR to them making the call
• The period of time for the offer
• The minimum duration of the contract

Your customers are also entitled to:

• Written confirmation of their orders
• Written information on how to cancel the order
• Your business address so that they can direct any complaints to you (this must be an actual address, not just your website link or email address)
• Details of any guarantees or after-sales services
• Details of how and when to end a contract

A well written set of Terms & Conditions on your website will ensure you abide by these regulations.  If you require any further information about Distance Selling Regulations, please this link.

We don't have enough time or space here to cover the full raft of legislation that will apply to each and every company, but please ensure that you, as a competent business owner, make yourself familiar with the legislation that is applicable to your specific industry as well as general legislation that covers issues such as Health & Safety and labour, to name but a few.

The key point to take away from this post is that you need to make yourself aware of what is required of you as a business owner.  A good business person will have researched all regulations related to their business and worked this into their business plan, especially if there are additional costs involved in you having to comply with these laws.

I hope this quick look at required legislation and insurance assists with your business - the two words to take away from this are "research" and "comply" ... you won't go wrong if you abide by those words!

Remember to check out our next article in the series, which will be published next Sunday.  And don't forget to join our forum at http://www.creationcollaboration.myfastforum.org/.

Feature Friday featuring Emma Hall of Emma Hall Designs

 

Welcome to our regular Feature Friday on Creation|Collaboration - today we'll be talking to Emma Hall of Emma Hall Designs. 

Hi Emma, thanks for chatting with us today - can you introduce us to you and your company?

My name is Emma Hall and I have been running Emma Hall Designs for the past 4 years. I am 30 years old and have been married to my amazing husband for 5 years. I live in a beautiful village in a barn coversion that myself and my husband converted ourselves. I work from my studio that was my old stable – don’t worry we built another stable in the field for our horses! 

At the moment it is just myself running the business, which covers everything from Bridal Jewellery & Tiaras, Stationary & Favors to Bouquets and Buttonholes, which are all handmade. We also have many items to hire, which is the other side of the business. Choose from Ostrich Feathers, Beautiful Silk Flowers and Vases, Bay Trees, Wishing Wells, Lights and many many more items.

Where did the idea of running this as a business come from?
I initially started making jewellery as a hobby and sold to family and friends at parties. Within 4 months, I gave up my job as a full time chef, and decided to concentrate on the Bridal Jewellery. I was working out of my living room with “Brides to be” making appointments to see me on a regular basis. This quickly escalated into Stationary, Favors and Wedding Bouquets. The Table Centrepiece Hire is the newest part of the business but has quickly become very popular, along with the Candy Bar! 

What do you love most about your business?
I Love, Love, Love my job! To see a clients face light up (and sometimes there are tears of joy) when they see their design for the first time is priceless! I also love working for myself, its so fulfilling when you can actually see the difference you are making to someone’s Big Day!

What would you like to change?
I would love to have some help as the business is really busy, and although I have had lots of job offers I am finding it hard to take someone on. I have frequently been called a control freak, which makes me good at my job. If I could clone myself I would, as there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done.

What is your aim for the next year?
My aim is always to beat the previous years targets and to promote the business. I would also like to increase my range of hire items to include more unique items that are simply gorgeous. I also have lots of new ideas in my head for some unique bridal jewellery and tiaras, which I simply haven’t had time to create.

Where do you ultimately see yourself?
In the future, I see myself expanding my range and, eventually getting some much needed help. I would love my husband to work with me more, as we work really well together. He usually adds at this point, “when she makes her first million, I will” He might be waiting a long time!

What are your Top 5 tips for new Business Women?
Tip 1 Make the most of every situation whether it’s good or bad
Tip 2 Treat everyone as a valued future client – manors don’t cost anything
Tip 3 Never say NO to a job just because it would make your day longer or harder
Tip 4 Definitely make the most of free adverting & repay the favour if you can
Tip 5 Remember to have fun along the way, you might be a workaholic (join the club) and work hard, but you stated the business for a reason, so enjoy it!

A few last words - How do we contact you?
I can be contacted via my website at http://www.emmahalldesigns.co.uk/, by email at info@emmahalldesigns.co.uk, you can chat to me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Emma-Hall-Designs/241253909915?ref=ts or you can catch me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/emmahalldesigns

Thanks so much for chatting with us today Emma, your designs are so beautiful and any bride would be delighted to wear any of your products. 

Remember to check back next Friday when we'll be featuring yet another fabulous woman run business! If you would like your company featured one Friday, please drop us a line at creationcollaboration@yahoo.com putting the words "Feature Friday" in the subject line and we'll get back to you.

WEDDING WEDNESDAY - Remembering !

There is no better time to remember loved ones then at your wedding.

A wedding represents a new beginning for the bride and groom, a "birth" of their new life together.
But to truly celebrate the future, it is important to remember the past, and those that have influenced our lives in some special way.

From a personal point of view, we dedicated two of the dances at our wedding to my husband's mum who had passed a few years earlier.
She loved Jennifer Rush's "The Power of Love" and Chris De Burgh's "Lady in Red" and though it was hard for him, and my sister in law, it made his mum a big part of our day.

Aside from dedicating a song or dance to a loved one, you can consider : -

A special framed phtograph

Remembering  your loved one in a speech

Lighting a candle in memorial

Choosing charity pins for favours [ ie. Cancer Research pins, British Heart Foundation pin]

Suggesting a charity donation instead of gifts to your guests.

Incorporating the person's favourite flowers in your bouquet or wedding flowers,  and/or  leaving your bouquet on the grave of the loved one that has passed.

Also wearing a piece of jewellery that was special to the person, can make them feel much closer to you on the day.

We find that if we choose to pay tribute to those that have passed, then those moments spent remembering will be some of the fondest of the day.

We know that our loved ones are with us in spirit, but remembering them on one of the most important days of our lives is a very poignant way to say "Thank You" for helping make us the people we are.

Photo Credit : http://www.weddingbycolor.com/

Start-up Sunday: Week 5 - Self Assesment, PAYE & VAT

Good Morning and welcome to Week 5 of our Start Up Sunday series.

Today we are going to touch on the subject that you have all told us scares the living daylights out of you. We are limited for space and taxes is such a wide ranging subject that I will touch on the most common problems or fears. If I do not cover anything you need to know, just leave a comment and we will pick it up at the end of the series. We all like to know how we are doing, so please leave us a comment and tell us what you like or would like to see being featured.

Self Assessment:
When you actually start your business, if you are a sole trader you automatically become regarded as self employed. You therefore have to register your self employed status with HMRC. You can do this online, or via telephone or post. I personally recommend registering by phone. You can find more about the 3 methods or registering on the HMRC website here. 

You also become liable for Class 2 National Insurance contributions. If you expect your self employed earnings to be small, less than £5,075 for the tax year 2010-11, then you can apply for an earnings exception.  However, please consider your position carefully - Class 2 National Insurance contributions are counted when calculation your entitlement to a basic state pension, incapacity benefit or ESA, bereavement allowances and maternity allowance. If you are over state pension age, you are automatically exempt from Class 2 National Insurance contributions no matter what your projected income may be.

HMRC has several advice teams all over the UK and they run free courses on a wide variety of subjects. I strongly recommend that, whenever possible, you attend the newly self employed course they run. It covers everything from registering as self employed to Class 2 contributions to basic recordkeeping and where to go for further help. I also feel it helps you see HMRC as just another organisation that is human and not something to fear.

So now you are all registered as self employed, its time to keep records.

Record keeping is quite simple; however, it is easy to muddy the waters which is why I recommend you attend the HMRC start up course so you can ask questions and get answers right away. Your records should comprise of 3 or 4 different books, you can keep records electronically and there is a wide variety of software availible for you to do so. 

I personally find computers to be unreliable and, as records have to be kept for a minimum of 6 years, I prefer to use paper. You wil need a cash book, a sales ledger and a purchase ledger as wel; as a wages book if you have employees. You can make these out of regular A4 note pads with a ruler to seperate colums but you can buy pre made books from Staples, Amazon and all good stationers. Books can be bought in A6, A5 or A4 size - I personally prefer A4 size as I find the smaller books difficult if you need to write a lot.

So now you have your three or four (if you have employees) books. What do you record in each one?

The cashbook is the final record of what comes in and what goes out of your business, it is often referred to as the cash flow,  To help complete your cash book, you need to keep cheque book stubs, cancelled cheques, paying in books, bank statements, copies of your own invoices, receipts and delivery notes, your suppliers invoices, receipts for all your cash purchases, remmittence advice slips from customers, copies of payments made or received using online banking systems.

The sales ledger records sales your company has made, the amount of money received for goods or services and the amount of money owed at the end of each month. It is recommended that you number your invoices and record each number against the entry in your sales ledger, you can then file your invoices in numerical order for ease of finding in the future. It will also help you fill our your VAT return if applicable. More about VAT later.

A purchase ledger records all purchases made by the business, it helps you monitor your business outgoings and how much money you owe at any one time. This also helps you complete your VAT return. It is a good idea to number each bill as you receive it then record the number against the entry in your purchase ledger. You can then file the bills in neumerical order for ease of finding in the future.

A wages book is only required if you have employees - you can use P11's as the basis for your wages book. If you have employees, you should seek professional advise from either HMRC or an accountancy firm/payroll provider and either be taught how to keep wages records or turn that area of you record keeping over to the professionals.

So now we have registered you as self employed and you have kept full and complete records for a full accounting year. It is now time to complete your tax return.

Despite what I have said about my mistrust of computers when keeping records electronically, I always file my tax return online. Firstly, I feel its better for the enviroment - a tax return has quite a number of pages, many not applicable to you yet (on paper, it comes as a booklet and you just ignore the irrelevent bits). Secondly, when filing online, as you complete the sections of the form you can check double check and amend things before submitting which you cannot do with a paper form.

PAYE:
As we touched on briefly earlier, if you have employees you have to operate a PAYE scheme. If you decide to have employees, you will need to register with HMRC as an employer - you can do so here.

I cannot stress too much the importance of attending the HMRC new employer course that shows you how to keep PAYE records as well as covering statutory sick pay, maternity pay and student loan deductions. If you opt to be sent a new employer pack it will contain everything you need to set up electronic records for your employees. PAYE records should be kept electronically for submission to HMRC but this will all be explained both at the new employers course and in your new employers help pack.

VAT:
If you supply good or services within the UK and your turnover of taxable goods or services within the UK was more that 70k in the last 12 monthsm then you will need to register for VAT.

There are all sorts of other reasons you may need to register for VAT, even if you do not live in the UK but do supply goods or services to the UK. There is more about this on the HMRC website here. VAT is an incredibly diverse and sometimes complicated subject. If you feel anything less than 100% confident in dealing with it, I suggest you employ a prefessional to deal with your VAT returns on your behalf.

So there we have it, a brief overview of self assesment, PAYE and VAT. Unfortunately, with everyones circumstance being different, it's impossible to go into specifics using a particular person or business - however, if you feel there is something that we did not cover,  then please leave a comment or drop us an email.

If you do have a specific queary about anything specific related to taxes, PAYE or VAT and your liability for any of these, please do contact your local HMRC Office.

Don't forget to drop back next week when we'll be discussing our Week 6 topic - Legislation and Insurance.

Creation|Collaboration Friday Feature - featuring Claire Ogden of Claire Ogden Designs

We're really delighted to be bringing you yet another Feature Friday article - today we're featuring Claire Ogden of Claire Ogden Designs.

Thanks so much for chatting to us today Claire - can you introduce us to you and your company?

I am Claire Ogden and I have my own business called Claire Ogden Designs, it is an online company that specialises in individual and unique handmade jewellery, wedding jewellery, tiaras and bridal combs. 

I have always been a very creative individual and like making an impression.  I am self taught and run with the ideas that I see in my mind when I look at the materials - no planning or research, I just make what I see! 

I created my website myself - I created it as a scrap book theme to catch my thoughts and processes of making and creating the jewellery, just like a snapshot of what I see before I settle down to create. All of my products have been created to infuse each piece with a sense of individuality, boldness and an impression made to last. A ‘Once seen never forgotten’ philosophy! I love to make a difference and create jewellery that shines through and gets noticed but designing each piece to last the decades and be wearable for a lifetime.

Where did the idea of running this as a business come from?

I began making pieces of jewellery for myself initially, which I found received a lot of interest and comments so I decided to expand into making pieces for friends and family.  I then ran with the idea of a website and just keep adding new designs and creations all the time!

What do you love most about your business?

I LOVE making the pieces, I LOVE people wearing my jewellery and I get a large amount of bespoke orders and repeat business but what I ultimately LOVE is the fact that a bride is wearing MY jewellery collection on her wedding day and people are noticing! There is nothing better than making people feel special and I order such a personal service I can do just that!

What would you like to change?

I find that quite hard to answer because I feel I change things all the time, I change the site pictures often to create more interest and work with new designs all the time. My notice board and directory on the site are updated frequently and I run blog and website polls and votes often. I love interacting with everyone else, especially when I have to decide between options or jewellery colours or pieces, it is so much fun!

What is your aim for the next year?

To be a recognised brand on the web, I want people to be wearing my jewellery everyday and coming back and passing the information on, I want people to be rushing on line to buy my new releases!

Where do you ultimately see yourself?
I want to be happy, I want to know I have provided an excellent service to each and every person who has passed by my site, I would love people to stock my jewellery and talk about the fact that it is so very different and desired.

What are your Top 5 tips for new Business Women?
Tip 1 NEVER give up, even if you feel really bad! Opportunities arise when you are not looking for them.

Tip 2 Customer service is the MOST IMPORTANT thing, offer a fabulous service and be remembered for it.

Tip 3 Don’t be afraid to ask for help, advice, support, other peoples input and opinions

Tip 4 Believe it what you do and ENJOY it.

Tip 5 Be committed and work really hard, my motto is that you have to do it yourself because nobody does it for you.

A few last words - How can a prospective customer contact you?
I can be contacted in several ways - via Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Claire-Ogden-Designs/121632454543156?ref=ts, on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cogdendesigns, on my website at http://www.claireogdendesigns.co.uk/ or by email on claireogdendesigns@googlemail.com.

Thanks so much for chatting with us today Claire - your work is exceptionally beautiful, any bride would be utterly thrilled to wear your pieces on her big day!

Next week, we'll be featuring another fabulous woman run business - make sure to check back next Friday!!!

If you are a woman running your own business and would like to be featured in one of our Friday Feature articles, please email us at creationcollaboration@yahoo.com with the words "Friday Feature" in the subject line.