Inspirational Woman: Lise Herud

Lise Herud ImageLise Hérud is a bespoke tailor for women, making individually designed garments and outfits that fit like a glove and make the most of each client’s figure, image and personality. I work with women from all walks of life, and for all occasions from the boardroom to your wedding day.

1. Why is it a great time to be a women in business?

It is a great time to be a woman in business as it offers a completely different kind of flexibility compared with being an employee, and you are able to create opportunities for yourself you may not have been able to within a company. There is a real feeling of a new wind in our sails as women entrepreneurs, and a lot of great networks for support and opportunities.

2. Why did you setup your business and how long before you reached a point you were confident it would be successful?

I knew from an early age that I wanted to run my own business. I didn’t want to jump straight into something and become another of the statistics of start-ups that failed within it’s first year or two, so this was a determination that stayed with me all the while I was working my way up within other companies to get the experience I felt I wanted and needed in order to be successful and choose the right path for the business.

For that reason I always had a very strong belief that I would be successful, however, as the first year was primarily taken up with creating sample collections and setting up the business rather than finding clients and creating revenue, it took about a year and a half before I felt secure in the knowledge that I had established a good business model and new client orders were becoming a regular thing.

3. We found you on twitter, how useful is twitter in your business?

I have not been using Twitter for very long, but have already received several leads and introductions that have been very useful. I think it can be a great tool if used in the right way, and I am still learning!

4. What advice would you give to our members on being successful?

If you want to be successful I think there is one vital ingredient you have to have, and that is a real passion for what you do. If you are passionate about your product or service and you want to be the best you can possibly be, you have a real chance of making it. You also have to be incredibly determined and know what you want to achieve even if you don’t know how to get there. There are of course many other factors too, like building your career or business on good, well informed foundations, not being afraid to listen to advice from peers and create a strong network around you, as well as working on your personal brand and image to ensure the message you want to put across is what is being perceived by those around you.

5. If you could start over again what would be the one thing that you would change in hindsight and what would be the one thing you did that you would want to keep doing?

If I could start over again I would have liked to have had a larger pot of savings before giving up the day-job, as I think the costs of development are always certain to be higher than what you plan for when you set out and the initial financial worries when you realise you just have to keep spending before you can start earning can be quite tough. I have sometimes thought that perhaps I wouldn’t have “lost” any time even if I had waited another 6 months to have a bigger amount in the pot to start with.

What I definitely would not change is the way I decided to keep total control of the design and pattern development process myself, after testing a couple of suppliers and finding that the product was not up to the standard I wanted to put my name to. It is what gives my products their unique style and fit and which no-one else can copy or imitate.

6. What do you see to be the next big enabler for you?

I am working on some new ideas for where to take the business next but as it is early days I don’t want to say too much as yet – watch this space!

Web: Www.liseherud.com
twitter: @liseherudtailor

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