Mumpreneur Profile: Charlotte Semler of Charlotte & Co
Name of Business:
Charlotte & Co.
Your Name and Age:
Charlotte Semler 41yrs
I co-founded Myla in 2001 and had an amazingly exciting 5 years growing that business into an international brand.
Although the Myla brand and product concept was groundbreaking our business structure was pretty conventional: A London head office with full-time staff, a dedicated call center and fulfillment warehouse in Essex, 10 retail outlets inLondonand one inNew York. And a 7 day a week work schedule for the myself and my business partner.
The birth of my twins in 2005 coincided with new investors coming into Myla. And by 2006 I was absolutely sure that I could not be happy in the conventional working set-up I had there.
I wanted to be able to live in the country, spend time with my kids and genuinely be my own boss in a way that you never are when you run a conventional business.
So I left, moved with my husband and 1 year old twins the Cotswolds and started my second business: Charlotte & Co.
Charlotte & Co. is a fashion label that combines comfort and style. It is inspired by busy mums who need comfortable, good looking clothes to see them from home, to a meeting or a lunch and back in time for the school run. Or, in a nutshell: it’s for stylish women who’ve had kids and don’t live in the big city anymore but who refuse to look a mess or to look like a Boden housewife. The Charlotte & Co. lifestyle collection includes everything from knickers to loungewear and cashmere to coats.
The business model I have constructed for Charlotte & Co. was born of all the lessons I’d learned in the previous 5 years founding and running Myla.
Everything that can be outsourced is outsourced.
Everyone on the team works flexibly from home.
I work every day but not all day.
We invest in our product quality and in our customer service before we invest in anything else.
The biggest lesson I have learned is how to delegate. I have an amazingly talented team of flexible home workers on my team and I know I can count on them to do a great job.
Charlotte & Co. has grown fast via word of mouth and now we are leveraging the enthusiasm of our customers on Facebook and Twitter – follow us @charlotteandco – to spread the word further.
Your website link.
