Sparkling success story started with just £1.50
NEW STORE LAUNCH IS LATEST STEP FOR SEQUIN PANELS FIRM
A BUSINESSWOMAN who started her venture with just £1.50 has spoken about how she’s gone on to work with Strictly Come Dancing and a host of celebrities and is now launching a new store in Mansfield.
Datsa Gaile, 48, whose interior design company All Things Decor sells trendy sequin walls, opened a new showroom warehouse on Maun Close, Mansfield at 10am on Saturday.
The company’s most popular product, which are sequins panels that can be stuck onto walls or used as signs, have been used by celebrities like reality TV star Gemma Collins, various Love Island contestants and in Britain’s Got Talent Judge Amanda Holden’s dressing room.
They have also been used in competitions such as Strictly Come
Dancing and Miss England, where she has been chosen as a judge due to business achievements.
Datsa, who lives in Mansfield, moved to England in 2004 from Latvia seeking a better life for herself and her two sons.
The owner of All Things Decor thought that the change in her circumstances had been stunning.
She said: “I didn’t even start this as a business but just as a little side thing to earn some extra money to help my sons. All I had to invest at the start was £1.50, with which I made a light up box with a bow on it.
“The first two years were very difficult as I was doing everything on my own and doing it all for the first time - I didn’t really know what I needed or what I was doing. So I’m going to be so proud when we finally get to open.
“We’re at the point now though where we’re working with big celebrities, but also with Premier league football clubs for their executive boxes and we’re even got our sequin walls up in part of Tube stations in London. It’s amazing.
“Last week we were doing work with Strictly Come Dancing so our panels will be in the new advertising for that on TV.
“I even once got asked to fly out to Los Angeles to do some work, which was my first time flying to a job - I had no clue how we were going to get the walls there but we got it done.
“When Amanda Holden’s stylist got in touch I thought it was definitely a joke. I’m finally getting used to the fact that this is my life now, it’s very different!”
Datsa started the business in 2017, but only registered as a company in 2019 when demand grew for her signature decorations.
She has now been selected as a finalist in the National Businesswoman of the year for the ‘Most inspirational Businesswoman’ category.
Datsa added: “Finally, after a four years I feel like I have an actual business after seeing all the staff here.
“We’re excited but so busy that I don’t sleep at the moment.
“We just want to show people what we can offer and why everyone is coming to us.
“The people who have been inside are very impressed at the difference between the inside and outside of what is just a normal warehouse.
“Not many warehouses in industrial estates have gold sequins all across their wall.”
Sales manager Angela Parkerhurst, 52, said that every member of the team couldn’t wait to open.
“I can’t wait for everyone to see what we’ve been doing.
“Everybody is going to be immensely proud and we’re all just happy to be going along on this journey, it’s a huge success story.
“It’s been a lot of work, lots of earning mornings and late nights.
“There’s a lot of butterflies in the tummy but when you look back on where we are it’s just really exciting.
“We’ve had lots of people coming past and they’re all amazed by the signs and they all have a peak through the windows, there’s a buzz about the opening but we’re still trying to keep some things a secret so we can have some surprises.”