Julie Deane, founded The Cambridge Satchel Company at her kitchen table in 2008 with just £600 and has since grown her business to an almost £12m turnover and 70 employees. Her satchels are now sold in 100 countries worldwide.
Julie's quirky, colourful leather satchels, modelled on the 1970s original, have been carried by numerous celebrities and been featured on polpular programmes. The brand collaborates with prestigious designers and retailers.
The inspiration for the company came from Julie’s love of an old satchel she had as a child and her desire to find a similar version for her own children when they started school. When Julie discovered no one was producing traditional leather satchels she set about designing and producing them. Since then she has sold them online and created a global fashion craze.
All of her products are carefully handmade to order in the UK. Her team ships all internet orders from an office in a village just outside Cambridge to countries around the world.
An unlikely fashion entrepreneur, Julie graduated from Cambridge in 1987 and worked as a chartered accountant at Deloitte. Before starting The Cambridge Satchel Company, Deane, who founded the business with her mother was a full-time mum.
Bloggers were instrumental to my success, I was very honest with them and told them why I was starting Cambridge Satchel (to make school fees to get my daughter out of a bullying environment at the local school), I told them all about the bags, sent photos or samples and asked for their support if they liked them. I ran competitions with them and generally did everything I could to get noticed - there wasn't a blogger or fashion editor I didn't contact.
We have grown incredibly quickly, there are growing pains but standing still wasn't an option as there are so many imitators waiting for an opportunity.
I would say that I have been too hard on myself many times along this journey - wanting everything to be perfect and to run like clockwork, there are several stages, several levels - each with its own set of challenges. The systems you put in place now won't last you for ever, be prepared to change them and to constantly evolve.
Sometimes I feel that it's easier now, I have so many very talented people who care passionately about the business, it's not just me and my mum trying to make every decision and having our fingers firmly crossed that we've made the right one. Other days the size of the organisation, setting up a factory, managing the IP protection, fighting cyber fraud sites… there are many distractions and complications but seeing the whole picture is very important. At the end of the day it's still me at the school gates, my family keeps me grounded.
After about a year a Cambridge Satchel was included in The Guardian's Christmas Gift Guide - the sales that day and the visits to the website were so much higher than we had ever had, that was the moment I felt the business was going somewhere.
Being an auditor and seeing so many businesses, how they ran, what they struggled with, the experience has proved invaluable. I was able to manage the business effectively for a long time without the need to employ anyone and that helped do what I needed to do - make money for the school fees.
In 2010 we needed more manufacturing capacity. I had never used a noncompete or NDA and I now realise that I had been exceptionally lucky in coming across manufacturers who had good ethics and integrity.
Then the bad apple surfaced and I saw a rival brand emerge, from the very people we had given our patterns and designs to. It could have knocked us for six but we decided to make a stand - to bring a High Court action and to start our own manufacturing facility.
Our factory has grown and now makes around 600 bags a day, the team there is very skilled and hardworking and their efforts have led to our rapid expansion. It's important to not give up, to not feel sorry for yourself but to fight for your business and you will both emerge stronger.
My family come first, I know what I need to do to make sure I don't feel guilty and those things are non negotiable. I take and collect from school, if I get stuck somewhere and can't make it then someone from the office will go with my mum and pick up the children. We eat dinner as a family, sitting down together and discussing our day. Naturally there will be occasions when we can't all be there but it's not often. I need to keep my priorities straight, I am replaceable in many aspects of my life but not in my role as a mother.
Word of advice
Don't think of yourself as a woman leader - you are a leader, do it your way, don't start thinking you are at some kind of disadvantage.
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