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Founder
My Buzz
Following on from the feedback we received after Dragons’ Den, we have decided to launch a new version of The Present Club to cater for all ages and occasions.
Not only is the site suitable for kids presents but now for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, baby gifts, teachers’ end of term gifts, corporate incentives and leaving presents.
www.thepresentclub.co.uk is also celebrating the launch of our “Start A collection” platform which allows an instigator to start an online collection for a friend and send it out amongst mutual friends to chip in, eliminating the hassle caused by organising whip rounds!
The lucky friend then receives a presentation pack in the post with messages left by their friends and an amount of credit to spend on a multitude of brands including Marks & Spencer, Next, Harrods, Argos and many, many more!
My Bio
After having 3 children myself, I realised there was a gap in the market for a website that could make life easier for busy mums whose children attend Birthday parties, whilst empowering the Birthday child to receive presents that would usually be out of their grasp with individual giving.
You’ll often find that children having a Birthday party invite 30+ friends, subsequently bringing 30+ small gifts and accumulatively spending a fortune! Following on from my market research I found that the children and potential givers would all prefer to use a website that offers the facility to all club together for a present.
After spending a good proportion of my savings, I launched in 2009, ThePresentClub.co.uk. The website went well and had a great first year but I needed more money to take the website to the next level. I was offered money from various investors but I declined as I already knew what I had to do for the good of the company…so I filled out the Dragons’ Den application form!
When I was selected to film, I was so happy but I also felt daunted by giving a presentation for the first time! Luckily, despite my Dragons’ Den appearance being described as “Car crash TV!” I gained investment from Theo and Peter Jones!
Since receiving the investment and taking various feedback into consideration, we decided to have another website built which would cater for all ages and occasions. We had to decide which website development company to choose for the rebuild so we held a Dragons’ Den style presentation day at Peter’s office. It is so much more fun being on the other side of the desk! We eventually decided on a company and it has been exhilarating seeing the fruits of my labour transpire.
We are a week away from the launch and I hope so much that our current and prospective customers will love the changes to the site and the latest additions to the innovative concept, which will inevitably take the hassle out of any collection!
My Business Tips
1) Be persistent- don’t take offence if prospective businesses don’t return your emails, just keep resending intermittently. You have nothing to lose, they are most (probably) busy!
2) Learn from your mistake. I have made so many and I do every week, but I try my best to learn from them.
3) Have everything in writing! If taking a phone call try and summarise what has been agreed on the phone in an email to that person.
4) Have a 15% contingency fund. I’m yet to begin and finish a project on budget. There are always ideas or improvements to a project which transpire whilst completing the project, hence being over budget.
5) Be amiable and amenable- you’ll never know who you’ll meet on the way up the ladder!