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MumsClub Name: valerieetoile
Real Name: Valerie Salomon
Age (or age range): 39
Children’s ages: Rebecca is 7 and Laura 3,5 years old
Business Name: Becky and Lolo
Website: www.beckyandlolo.co.uk
Business Contact:01252 733 536
What are the key features of the products or services that your business offers:
Exclusive in the U.K to Becky and Lolo, we have a wide range of baby and children tableware in melamine, porcelain or ceramic. We are exclusive stockist of the Californian lunch boxes; “Laptop Lunches”, our products are quality focused as opposed to being price focused and are original in the design of the products.
Why should customers and clients use your services?
For the quality of the website and of the images of the items sold, we have lots of gorgeous and exclusive gifts to the site which cannot be found anywhere else in England supported with excellent customer service.
When & how did you start up in business?
2 and half years ago when I was looking for a good lunch box for my daughter. I found the ideal concept in the States with the Laptop Lunches lunchboxes and decided to import it in to England. We became the UK exclusive distributor of Laptop Lunches and built a website to sell it online. We gave information through our website on how to pack healthy lunches and had the lunch box endorsed (for free !) by 2 specialised nutritionists.
How did you decide what business to go into, and what was your motivation?
I was worried by the fact that my daughter did not eat properly at school and frustrated by not finding a proper lunch box to make packed lunches easier and more appealing for her to eat.
What were the most challenging aspects to setting up?
To get the exclusivity right from the American, to find a shipping company, to stock the products, to build a website from scratch, to get our finance sorted out.
What has been your biggest business achievement?
To promote the lunch boxes and manage to get it published in lots of national magazines and newspapers.
What stage is your business at now & what are your plans for the future?
To get Becky and Lolo known and promote it more actively. We also need an investor, expertise on how to market our website successfully in order to extend our range of products, offer a mail catalogue and become an established baby and children’s company.
How has online networking, specifically with other mums, benefited your business?
It gives a great support to share the experiences with others and ask advice as it can be very lonely to work from home.
What resources do you NOT have now that might make your life easier?
The budget to promote my website and more expertise on PR, how to approach press/media.
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