Brand New directions: Beauty is our business the women who’ve made a career out of looking fabulous

Fiona Wright talks to three women who’ve turned looking fabulous into a lucrative career

Elaine Wilkinson, 62, is single with two children and three grandchildren. she lives in Elland, West Yorkshire, and is founder of Hollywood Mirrors, a company specialising in mirrors that create the right lighting in which to apply make-up.

✢ THE IDEA

I worked as an interior designer creating looks for newbuild houses, and I’m very interested in functional, useful items that look gorgeous too. I was fed up with putting make-up on in electric light in my bedroom and then realising I looked orange in daylight! I was chatting about it with my son, and he googled make-up mirrors to see if he could buy me something. There wasn’t much choice. He suggested I use my skills to create the perfect make-up mirror and we could get it made. The more I talked about it and showed people my idea – based on the brightly lit “stage” mirror but using LED technology, four times brighter than standard lighting, perfectly angled bulbs to light every part of your face and high-quality reflective glass – the more I realised how well they’d sell.

✢ MAKING IT HAPPEN

I designed a prototype and, after a lot of research, I found a manufacturer in China who could create what I wanted. It worked really well, and I did a focus group with family and friends and some of my interior design customers. I had two different styles made up, in black and white, and two different shapes – square and rectangular. I used savings (£20,000) to have an order of around 400 shipped over. My son designed and built the website, and bought the domain name, which cost £880. I hired a photographer to do a professional shoot with the mirrors and did a lot of social media promotion.

✢ BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT

My first collection sold out within two months of starting my company in 2015, which was very exciting. I knew I had a winning product, so I quickly set about designing other styles so customers had more choice. I now have 13 different mirrors and prices start at £220.

✢ STEEPEST LEARNING CURVE

Realising I couldn’t depend on the manufacturers for quality control! They do their best, but mistakes are made and by the time the mirrors get to the UK it’s too late. One shipment didn’t have the correct packaging. When I sent the mirrors out to UK customers, they smashed in the post. I quickly learned to employ an independent agent in China to double-check everything before it’s sent off. It takes six months to get a shipment from China, so I have to carefully stagger deliveries so we’re not overwhelmed but always have enough stock.

✢ WHERE I AM NOW

We have a staff of four and do everything from PR and marketing to accounts and sales ourselves. We want to stay online because the overheads are cheaper and that’s where most of our business is. >>

‘Make-up mirrors were my lightbulb moment”