Before we get to your most recent project Emma and what your "difference" is, did you always have an entrepreneurial mind set?
From an early age, I have always naturally questioned where others seem to just accept and over the years, this has certainly caused a few issues.
I started my first business, waxing at Uni, and after scraping through with a 2:2 I secured a graduate trainee role with L'Oréal where I certainly got an incredible international grounding.
I truly believe that you do not have to be a natural to start a business, you just must have a big why? plus masses of grit & determination.
How did your early attempts at establishing a business go? and were you a mum at the time?
Having children completely puts running a business on its head - there are all these gurus, who tell you not to multitask......mmmm they are usually telling me this when I am literally running around the garden attempting to keep out of earshot of my screaming child chasing after me! There must be a lot of acceptance and knowing that you can only do what you can do, but mindset & planning are absolutely key in not digging yourself a huge gaping hole.
I fell pregnant with twin boys while international development manager for an Australian cosmetic company, Red Earth and very quickly decided to head home. Back in the UK, I set up my first ‘real' business - Pure Flavour, an online ‘free from' cake & ready meal business, looking back, it was a little before its time, but I won the national ‘free from' award. There were a few other businesses too; I embarked on, kids clothing, a wedding venue, log sales, but eventually after searching around for something ‘grown up' I came across property. Property was interesting, challenging and weirdly creative!
Were they all successful?
Absolutely not! I have made so many mistakes, the only thing I have not failed on is giving up. You hear it time and time again, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start again. I like to think I never fail, I win, or I learn!
Business and life success, I believe is majority down to mindset and being in the professional property world, I found my tribe.
Any words of wisdom for other would be mumpreneurs ?
I always felt I wanted to write a book titled ‘Mumpreneur' and say it how it really was. When those webinars that are booked at 6.30 - 7pm start and they ask you to go into a quiet room, shut the door, get out your note pad, well, that is clearly solely for a man - throughout all of these webinars, I had my laptop balanced on the toaster, making dinner, doing homework, asking questions on the webinar. Hilarious when I think about it - but rather annoying when attempting to juggle business, life & kids!
My kids have always been a part of my businesses - I home schooled my twin boys for 6 years, so I constantly had kids biting my ankles while baking cakes, helping with log deliveries and putting together lkea furniture! My daughter is my littlest & she loves coming to Mummy's hotel & running up and down the stairs and having ‘her' room! We recently had a case study day and my son helped with videoing the day.
Kids give me my grounding but also test me more than my businesses do, and that is saying something. But my children drive me, they are what I think about when my alarm goes off at 5am, I do not move but grab the laptop that is beside my bed so that I can squeeze 2 hours work before they get up.
I am so proud to know that I speak a different language to them, that I did not hear growing up. I only talk about what is possible and always pull them up on words such as ‘try' - "you do not try, you either do or do not" and ‘can't' "if you say you can't then you can't." By exposing them to a life that is better than they know, to give them something to aspire to, but to know that if they want it, just that fact that they see it they can get it. Which brings me to one of my all-time favourite quotes: "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." - Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich
How did you become a property developer?
When I found property, I scraped some money together to learn about serviced accommodation and this is where my venture began, by renting flats and then legally subletting them! This grew to a decent business and eventually I was fortunate to sell it 3 years later. In the meantime, I met Lurie, my now business partner, and we hit it off. What I love in property is the creativity. We are led to believe there is only one way to buy property, but inherently I am in the problem-solving business and there are many people with property problems.
When we came across a school that had been empty for a year, been refused planning to change to an HMO and needed to be up for sale for a year before changing planning to something else - we knew we could solve the problem. We agreed an option agreement, subject to confirmation of planning for a hotel. We also were able to help investors solve the problem of getting small return from money in the bank & they get great return by investing in our hotel project.
The Hotel the company has purchased in Folkestone just opened, is billed as an Eco-Apart Hotel, how Eco is it inside?
I have always had an interest in being eco - purely because I believe we should not only be respectful to others but to our environment - hence the tagline of my operations business Eco conscious, high tech homes from home.
In our hotel, we looked at every aspect to see if we could make it more eco conscious. This includes scaffolding boards & industrial materials, ordering in bulk, smart locks, smart lights, smart thermostats, infra-red heating (so many incredible benefits from health to eco), local trades, local networks, natural shampoo/body wash, no single use plastic, glass kitchen bowls with bamboo lids, locally ground coffee, local tea bags.
We designed the hotel around convenience of a home from home, but in the context of a hotel We say ‘like a hotel but better'.
How is 2023 looking??
We already have several projects in the pipeline & have big goals for the year. A minimum of 3 big projects, more aparthotels or similar & we have a few large apartment blocks that have a lot of potential. We search for property problems and help to solve them.
There are opportunities for a few more investors to join us too.
I mentor & train property investors for Touchstone Education, help people reclaim their time with virtual assistants' recruitment business and I want to help as many people as possible for free via my social media (Clubhouse, Facebook and You Tube ), grow their wealth through property.
My favourite element of being property is that I can be who I want to be, and not feel restricted by the constraints that we feel we should live by. Looking at how I can help people solve their problems, is incredibly rewarding and seeing their lives changing in front of you is a real honour.
For more information visit Pure Abodes
