About Georgia
Founder and Creative Director of French Bedroom, an award-winning boutique selling timeless, beautiful furniture that stay with you for a lifetime
Holder of the Women of the Year at the annual Contentsquare awards, and has led her team to win even more incl. House Beautiful Awards, Home & Garden Retailer 2022 and Amara Interior Blog Awards
A creative genius! Georgia fuses creativity and design to produce authentic and thoughtful furniture, described by customers as 'antiques of the future'
Key takeaways that made us go ‘a-ha’
Ideas find you in the most unexpected of places, so have an open mind and be willing to ‘listen to the signs’!
“I just needed to find the product - it was my 30th birthday and I wanted something more than just a new lipstick. I asked them to buy me a French style bed and I couldn’t find it, so that was my lightbulb moment…and I never looked back…It is very much my 3rd child”
“I take that approach a lot in business, it’s somewhere between manifesting and knowing that I can do it, but I just need to find the right path". The right thing will find you in the right moment but you need to put you all into it”
There is NO SHAME in starting a business part-time. It is hard work, no doubt. But you can do it if you believe in yourself so don’t put it off if you have an idea
“My day job was my bread and butter, and French Bedroom was my jam! The first year, I would work 9-5, then 5-2 on spreadsheets, data, customer research, building the website,….all the things new start-ups need to do”
Be ready to be different. Don’t just listen to your customers, you also need to proactively know what they want before they want it themselves - push the envelope in your industry!
“When you start a business, you need to be prepared for hard work, and the most important thing is to live like your customer, and know what they want before they even know it yourself”
“It was really important to build trust - the longevity of the products, reliability of the product arriving on time. There was a lot of stamps that I needed to get right. It was tough but you don’t break boundaries if you don’t do something different. I guess I was disrupting (in a polite way)”
Customer service should be #1 in B2C businesses. Always think what they would say or want
“There was no spinning but I wanted to handle it so well the they became the brand ambassadors of French Bedroom. Customer service is paramount and has the be the heart of every business. Customers have so much choice, it is such a saturated market.
“We actually have an empty chair in our meetings for our customer, and we have a name for her. We talk about what she would think of everything when making decisions”
Being a founder is not about being good at everything, it’s about knowing what you are not good at, and bringing the right people in to support you
“There are lots I am not good at, and I was really okay with recognising my skill gaps, and I needed to plug it by hiring the right people. Everything changes all the time, and I am constantly aware of my shortcomings. What I look for is for my team to tell me something I don’t know. You can teach someone how to do something but you can’t change their personality”
Starting small is not a deterrent to building an amazing business, just be smart about when and how you use relationships vs money to help you achieve what you need to do. Focus on building a strong, long-living business with a ‘warchest’ of money to help you in hard times.
“I started with £500. I got a friend to pull my website, and used my house as a shooting studio. I always put a huge emphasis on relationships, and never fail at it. And so I think utilise every single relationship you can before you open your purse and look into your bank. I really didn’t want VC investment, I didn’t want to answer to anybody else with their agenda in mind”
“I built a warchest for French Bedroom when it started making money. It’s like a savings account that helps you get through hard times”
[Our personal favourite] Don’t waste time building a multi-page business plan, when you can just answer a few key questions and focus on getting things done!
“I didn’t want to build a lengthy business plan [part of the reason to not invest in finding a VC], instead I focused my time on building relationships and getting things done with the limited time I had”
If you’re stuck with writing a lengthy business plan, explore Inspirele’s custom-made digital planner that SIMPLIFIES planning a business & life to the most important elements, to help you get going!
Georgia’s advice to women who want to start businesses on their own terms
“You only get to happiness when you get through the hard part…happiness is on the other side of hard. Growth happens when you take risk, you will only grow when you say you are just going to try this. A lot of the times, you will feel like you are slightly winging things and that IS OKAY. Every No is closer to a Yes. So, work hard, take calculated risks, don’t worry about Nos and do everything you can to keep your passion flowing.”
“Start every day with fresh energy. Some days, you will peak and there will be days when you barely leave base camp, don’t be off-putted by this”
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