Where did the idea for your business come from? Tell us how and why you get started. I have always loved stationery and could never walk past a stationery shop so when I left my previous career with redundancy (thankfully) I decided to do a start your own business course with a stationery shop in mind and that was it. It is also a little bit different as I personalise some of the stationery too (pencils & notebooks) and I have my own Fold & Seal range
What's a typical day like? It’s a real mix between packing orders, emails, PR and then once my two children are home from school it’s homework, dinner, usual family life and then a little bit of work in the evening when they go to bed.

What is the best part of having your own business? Making decisions, getting good customer feedback and working to my own timetable
What's the hardest part? Making decisions and sometimes the responsibility of delivering good quality products that customers will be happy with.
What’s your best selling product? Definitely the Personalised Pencils & Notebooks – I personalise using my hot foil printing press, customers love this.

If you had one piece of advice for someone just starting out, what would it be? Engage with your audience as much as you can
Let's talk tech. Which softwares do you use in your business? ( Online store, email marketing, scheduling tools, video apps, accounting & banking apps etc)If you're on Shopify, I'd also love to learn your favourite apps. My website is Wordpress, I use Storycutter for my IG stories and Mailchimp for my Newsletter.

Which social media platform works best for you? Instagram

What business book/podcast/courses would you recommend? I’m terrible I don’t read any business books … but I do listen to podcasts , my favourites include The Futurist with Jo Linehen , Let’s Talk Shop with Therese from the Small Business Collaborative and most recently I have started to listen to Work, Actually with Kate Chaundy
I am also the Community Manager for REALWORK which is the online co-working space for Women, founded by Fleur Emery. This is not a course but I absolutely recommend being part of it if you are a female founder or business owner.

Where can people find you? www.foldandseal.ie @foldandseal hello@foldandseal.ie 

Where did the idea for your business come from? Tell us how and why you get started.
My passion for baking started when I was little and was a hobby (actually an obsession) during my university years. After I graduated in Art History, I moved from Florence to London and first job was baking cakes and cupcakes for a small café’ in London Excel. I’ve started my professional journey then, I’ve worked with incredible pastry chefs and worked as a NPD (New Product developer) for a big bakery, developing products for M&S that are still on shelves nowadays. I’ve started Fairypan 5 years ago and switched the bakery fully vegan 1 year ago.
What's a typical day like? My day is divided between my studio/kitchen where I bake the orders, my phone where I juggle social media and my laptop where I do my finances, place orders, book couriers pick ups, reply emails. Since the pandemic started it’s been just me on the business so I often reply to emails at night or work on Saturdays.
What is the best part of having your own business? The best part is that I can organise my time around my family and I have every Friday off to spend with my son who is out of nursery. Spending quality time with him, it’s been priceless.

What's the hardest part? The reverse of the coin is that I end up working at crazy hours sometimes and it’s very difficult to pull the plug. Holidays are never holidays as I keep working, replying emails, feeding social media and planning new products.

What’s your best selling product? At the moment is the Brownie Trio, it sells 8 times more than all the other boxes or cakes! It gets shipped nationwide and received incredible feebacks on it!

If you had one piece of advice for someone just starting out, what would it be? My advice is to get help, paid or unpaid. I did everything by myself at the beginning, to save money, but I’ve realised that if I would have got help earlier, like a mentor, my business would have progressed much quicker. Get help from your friends…I often used their hands to pack orders or build boxes!

Let's talk tech. Which softwares do you use in your business? ( Online store, email marketing, scheduling tools, video apps, accounting & banking apps etc) If you're on Shopify, I'd also love to learn your favourite apps. My website is built on Squarespace but I’ll be moving to Shopify next year, after the Christmas madness! Also my email marketing is in Squarespace at the moment but I’ll probably be moving it to Mailchimp soon. I’m not scheduling yet, as I bake cakes as I mostly use what I produce during that day to feed my socials. For accounting I use Xero which is connected to my Santander Bank account.

Which social media platform works best for you? Instagram for sure. It required years of hard work but I’m slowly seeing that my followers are also starting to purchase more and more, which is fantastic!
What business book/podcast/courses would you recommend? Every business book I start I don’t finish it, I’m a bookworm but it’s seems business book are not for me! I love Fleur Emery's online co-working workspace Realwork.

​Where can people find you?
Instagram: @ fairypanbakery
Facebook: @fairypan
Website: www.fairypan.co.uk

Where did the idea for your business come from? Tell us how and why you get started.  
Our first product Wylde One was in the making for over a decade, ever since I was training as a medical herbalist. At the training clinic we kept seeing young women getting intimate irritations after sex, and this was making them feel awkward with their partners and out of touch with their bodies. This was when I first got  the idea that I wanted to create something completely natural with top-notch ingredients  that would make sex more enjoyable and less likely to cause irritation, whilst allowing them to feel that they were  looking after themselves and their bodies’ needs. 
It was really important to me to create something that made women feel good when they bought and used it, from the design of the packaging to the quality of the ingredients and the information we provided, and  so Wylde One was born. 

What's a typical day like?  
During lockdown, the typical day looks like getting up at 7am for some exercise and meditation, breakfast  and shower, ready to be at my desk for 9am.  I’ll work through, but breaking for lunch and often do live  events in the early evening. I find if I turn my computer on before 9 I can find myself enticed to start work  before I’veeaten breakfast, so that’s a habit I’m in the middle of breaking! 
Postlockdown I am looking forward to getting back to face to face meetings again. 
I’m a real people person and nothing beats making plans with a collaborator in real life! 
What is the best part of having your own business? 
I get to make all the decisions and decide on the direction we’re going in. I love that freedom!! 
What's the hardest part? 
The buck stops with me! Also, I can’t wait to work with a team again! 

What’s your best selling product? 
At this point we just have our  award-winning product Wylde  One.  Wylde  One,  is  a  luxurious,  certified  vegan and organic botanical water-based lubricant ,designed  to  be actively  beneficial  for  a  healthy  intimate environment. Made  from  five  dynamic  botanicals,  it has an  intimately  balanced  pH,  is 100% plant based,and has a ‘body identical’ feel  so you can connect with confidence, even when your  climate down under isn’t wyldly happy. 
What’s more, it’s condom-safe and nasties-free so now you can get down  and dirty,  safe  in  the  knowledge that your lubricant is 100% clean. 
If you had one piece of advice for someone just starting out, what would it be? 
Research, research, research, before you commit your precious funds.  You will make mistakes but better  that they are mistakes in the right direction and you can learn valuable, relevant information about your  sector or yourself that will stand you in good stead for the future!  
Let's talk tech. Which softwares do you use in your business? ( Online store, email marketing, scheduling tools, video apps, accounting & banking apps etc) If you're on Shopify, I'd also love to learn your  favourite  apps.  
Currently we’re on Wordpress, Woocommerce and use Mailchimp, which are all great!  I’m a big fan of Canva too!  It has saved us on many occasions! 
Which social media platform works best for you? 
We’ve found that we get the most interaction on Instagram which is a space I personally love anyway. I love how visual it is and the sense of community on there - we’ve made so many good connections there that 
have gone on to be friends - its a very supportive platform! 
What business book/podcast/courses would you recommend?  
I’ve always dipped in and out of podcasts and courses and taken the bits from them that I need, but I’ve  really loved the work of Marie Forleo and Denise Duffield Thomas.  They  totally  inspired  me  in  the  early  days of researching my set-up for Into the Wylde.
I also really like the work of Amanda Cook too - she specialises in helping Wellness Entrepreneurs 
position themselves and sort out their messaging. Her work rocks! 
 Where can people find you?  
www.intothewylde.com 
IG: @intothewylde 
FB: @IntoTheWylde 
We can’t wait to meet you!!