Name of Business: The Handpicked Collection

Your Name and Age: Jo McGivern (Age 39)

Tell us about your family: I have three children, Annabelle age 7, Thomas age 5 and Jack who is nearly 3. And of course my husband Simon. They are all great fun – and we love spending family time together.

What did you do before coming up with your business idea and how was it making the transition? Before starting The Handpicked Collection, I was a director of a Luxury PR Agency. Moving into retail was a steep learning curve – the first couple of years I worked every waking hour. But it was worth it, as the business is now well established, and the work-family balance is now pretty good.

When did you launch? The Handpicked Collection launched in November 2007.

How did you get started? I set The Handpicked Collection up when, after having children, I got tired of never having enough time to go shopping and find what I wanted, liked or needed. The internet or mail order shopping was the obvious solution to me, but when it came to gift buying especially, there was too much choice available. Also, when I did order something, too often they turned out to be poor quality. After the birth of my second child, Thomas, I decided I wanted to work for myself, so launched The Handpicked Collection, a mail order and internet shop selling gifts. I wanted to create a one-stop shop where people could find a highly edited selection of thoughtful, inspiring, good value and high quality gifts for  anyone, whether their partner, child, sibling, grandparent or in-laws.

The idea behind Handpicked was that, from my background in PR, I knew people trusted what the journalists in their favourite newspapers and magazines said about products. So I decided to put together an expert panel of journalists and experts to review every product we sold, ensuring all products were chosen for their originality, charm, quality and value. The aim was to save customers time and offer them the kind of buying confidence they found in their favourite newspapers and magazines. Instead of sifting through thousands of websites and trawling the High Street, the expert panel does the hard work and picks those products that stand out for being special.

We launched our first catalogue, with a carefully curated collection of gifts for Christmas, at the beginning of November in 2007. The response was immediately overwhelming, and we have grown almost 100% each year since then. Four years after sending out our first 30,000 catalogues, we are sending out 650,000 catalogues for Christmas and there are 11 full time staff members at the office in London.

What’s your favourite thing about running your own business? Although running your own business is stressful, and you never really switch off, I love the fact that I don’t have to answer to anyone. Having young children means there are times you suddenly have to change your plans and might be late for work  – whether to take them for a doctors appointment or because they are suddenly starring in the school assembly that morning. When I worked for someone else, I knew this caused tension, even though I knew I made up the time and always got my job done. Now, I no longer feel guilty if I have to do something for the children. I am passionate about the business so will always get everything I need done, but it might occasionally be at 10pm rather than 9am.

What’s the thing you least enjoy about running your own business? Never totally being able to switch off.

What has worked well about your business? The concept of an edited collection of gifts, reviewed and endorsed by our panel of journalists, immediately seemed to strike a chord with consumers.

What’s been your biggest business mistake? How did you deal with it? The company that designed our first website (a very well-regarded West End agency) claimed to have expertise they did not have and as a result the website was not anywhere near ready on the proposed launch date. Initially, it looked like all our hard work and investment was wasted, as we could not launch, and were concerned about whether we had enough funds to keep going. But we found someone who managed to get the website ready, and although the launch was delayed, it was still a huge success. We are now extremely careful when taking on agencies and consultants, always getting personal recommendations to ensure they have the proven ability to do what they claim.

How do you fit in work with the family? Is your partner supportive of your business? I manage to split my time between working in the office and from home, so can be there for the children a lot. I have a wonderful live-in au pair, so I can be flexible about the hours I work and she is always on hand to look after the children when I need to work. I get up early so I can do an hour’s work before the children wake up, and unless I need to go to the office early in the morning, I take the children to school each day. Equally, when working from home, I collect them from nursery or school. Once I have picked up the two older children at 4.30, I usually manage to focus on the children until they go to bed, taking them to clubs such as football, swimming and tennis, do homework, music practice, supper and bath before putting them to bed at 7.30. I then usually do an hour or so of work in the evening. My husband is extremely supportive, and is also hugely involved in the business, as well as helping with the children if I am having an extra busy time with work.

Are you working towards a financial goal for your business? There is no specific financial goal. We just want to keep growing at the same time as maintaining quality and customer satisfaction. If we can continue to grow the business at the current rate of around 100% a year, that would be fantastic.

Would you ever give up your business to do something else? I have worked so hard to get the business to where it is, I cannot see myself giving it up. However, when I retire, I would love to write a novel. I love reading and have always wanted to write.

Do you have an exit strategy? We have only been going 4 years and are still working hard on growing. So an exit is not something I focus on.

Have you had your ‘I’ve made it’ moment? Tell us about it. If not when do you think it will come? This time last year we won “Best On-Line Giftstore” in the SheerLuxe Shopping Awards and then early this year we won “Best Overall Brand” at the ECMOD awards, which is basically the Oscars of e-commerce, and companies like Boden have won it in the past. Winning these awards definitely felt like we had reached a turning point in the business.

Where do you hope to be in five years time? There are so many things I would love to do with The Handpicked Collection, to grow the brand and business. So hopefully in five years time, we will be several steps along the way towards doing them.

Your website link. www.handpickedcollection.com