‘ ‘We might earn less now, but we laugh a lot more’
Gill Sherwin, 46, and husband Will, 55, quit their high-pressure jobs to start a business together.
GILL SAYS:
My husband Will is my best friend. We work together, parent together and laugh constantly. We never run out of things to say to each other and, through some very tough times, he has been my absolute rock.
But rewind a decade and, though we had married two years earlier, we hardly saw each other. With a job in insurance that took me abroad, and Will working weekends managing a chain of bars, we were lucky if we spent two nights a week together.
I’d phone him from India and not know what to say. We were living different lives in clashing time zones and barely knew what the other was doing. But big salaries allowed us to go on plenty of holidays. Once, in Rhodes, I noticed we were both seeking things to do alone. I’d grab my book and head to the balcony, while Will would go for a swim. This “separateness” began to bother me. I wanted more “us” and less “me”.
Around the same time, we moved to the country. But the lovely community there felt closed to us as we had no time to meet people. We also wanted a family, but being apart got in the way of that.
We had reached a crunch point. At first, I was nervous of telling Will how
I felt – but it turned out he felt exactly the same. After years of putting in long hours, we wanted to have some fun and flexibility. Most importantly, we wanted to spend time together again.
When the idea of starting a business together came up, we were both struck that this could be our answer.
We brainstormed lots of ideas. We started talking about a different future, one where we worked together on our own business. I cut down my hours and eventually quit, and Will had contacts in the drinks industry, so, in 2011, we set up Best of British Beer. At first, it was a novelty, spending time together visiting brewers, but as the business grew, we were lucky enough to ride the crest of the craft beer craze. Selling bespoke beer packages, we found a receptive market, becoming the first beer company on gift site notonthehighstreet.com, as well as being stocked in stores such as Selfridges.
Nine years on, we’ve thriving, in business and in our relationship. Seeing how the other one works, we have huge admiration for each other.
Most importantly, if we hadn’t changed our lives we wouldn’t have been able to adopt our daughter Isla, 10. We started the adoption process after losing a baby at full term, a couple of years into working together. Without Will, and our rock-solid relationship, I don’t know how I would have got through it.
We love waking up together, doing the school run and driving to work as a family unit. We have to stop ourselves talking shop at home, but we enjoy it so much that work is an extension of family life. We are happier now than ever.’
WILL SAYS:
‘When you marry someone, you want to be with them, so while I loved my job, we knew things had to change. The great thing about the work we do now is that it’s fun – and that spills over into home life. We get a real buzz from what we do and my admiration for Gill knows no bounds – I was blown away when she sold 1,100 units in seven minutes on QVC! It’s great to celebrate successes like that and to be able to look back on them together. Where once we hardly saw each other, now we’re inseparable. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.’ • bestofbritishbeer.co.uk
After years of putting in long hours, we wanted some fun