Anthropology

When Melissa Shaw's son was born she received some wonderful personalised gifts that she will always cherish. However, they also presented her with an idea for a business.

Name: Melissa Shaw
Age: 37 years old
Business: Anthropology
Type of business: Internet and Mail Order Gifts specialising in personalised gifts
Start date: October 2004

Tell us about your business
Anthropology is an internet business and a mail order catalogue that specialises in gifts that you will not find on the high street. Our range is inspirational and stylish and many items are hand-made and can be personalised with monograms, names, dates and messages.

When did you first decide you wanted to start your own business?
I have wanted to set up my own business and work for myself for many years but it was never quite the right time due to a very busy career and family commitments. Also, it was not a natural progression in my career so it did not just ‘happen’ but took a conscious decision, a leap of faith and a lot of hard work.

Was it your first business idea and where did it come from?
No, I had had a few but none were quite right, sometimes due to funding and sometimes after research. The idea came to me when my son was born and we received some gifts from America, a number of which were personalised with his name and date of birth. These gifts were really special and we knew they would be the ones that we would treasure forever and keep for our son. Hence our company’s strapline ‘Gifts for Life’.

Was your decision to start a business inspired by any other companies or individuals?
From my late teens I knew I wanted to run my own business. However, my ex-boss was an inspiration to me that it is possible to run a business and have a family. She has set up and run a very successful company for nearly two decades whilst raising a family. She showed me that it is possible, if you prioritise and manage your time efficiently, to have a thriving business and full home life. I did set up the business with someone else and this has been great as we do motivate each other and have a good mix of skills.

What makes you think there’s a market for your business?
I don’t believe that there is any other company in the UK offering the breadth and quality of goods that we do. There are a few other companies that ‘dabble’ in personalised gifts but none that offer products for all age groups. In addition, we are offering many hand-made, small batch production pieces that you just can’t get from large retailers or on the high street.

What research did you do?
We undertook some market research, looked at competitors and extensively researched the logistics of the idea, such as packaging, delivery, suppliers etc.

What advice did you seek?
We went to see Business Link quite quickly but had already formulated our ideas and a rough business plan. Due to our business backgrounds we were fortunate that we knew the basics and our plan covered all the necessary areas and eventualities. However, it was reassuring for someone else to look over it and check we hadn’t missed anything. We found Business Link especially good for networking, business courses and areas of specialist advice.

What other help did you get?
We used online forums, mainly Start Ups of course, and talked to as many people as we could.

Does the government need to provide more help to people trying to start a business?
I think the advisory side is great and, as mentioned, the services like Business Link are excellent. However, it is often financial help that is required and I think that the way grants are allocated is ridiculous as it is done on postcodes and is therefore a ‘lottery’.

Talk us through the process of writing your business plan.
We had written business plans before and so did not use any software or receive any outside help. We included our objectives, strategy, milestones for getting the business launched and bringing it to market, critical success factors, sales and marketing plans and traffic forecasts. We also included full financials including a profit and loss account, balance sheet and cash flow forecasts.

How useful has your business plan been and do you think you’ll stick to it as your business begins to grow?
Whilst we refer to the plan regularly, we are finding that, through experience and learning from our customers, our plans and direction is changing constantly.

How did you fund this?
Combination of savings and loans.

When did you stop working?
My business partner gave up his job in April and started working on the business full time. I worked on it from April part time until I was able to give up my job in July. Leaving established, well paid careers is a huge step and it took a lot of courage. We both knew it was now or never and that we would always regret it if we didn’t take the gamble.