I’m looking at £1m after I stuck my neck out…
A FORMER City worker who launched a tie business after he was made redundant expects sales to reach seven figures next year, but he does not think he would have been ‘brave enough’ to start up had he not lost his job.
Patrick Dudley-Williams said: ‘I had worked in the City for around 13 years and then I was made redundant in November 2012 – two days before my wife had twins.’
The concept for Reef Knots was ‘the idea that my ties were going to remind you of life as far away from the corporate world as possible’.
Dudley-Williams designs the ties – featuring images such as fish and boats – himself. He launched his website in August 2013 and sales increased quickly.
‘We opened a pop-up shop in Putney in December 2014, which was a huge success. I opened that with a guy that sold socks and we came up with the shop concept called Knots & Socks.’
He and sock maker Philip Morrow then raised £20,000 via crowdfunding website Indiegogo and opened a shop in the City. A second shop opened in Putney last month.
He said: ‘We’ll probably hit turnover of just shy of half a million this year, and we’re growing at about 100 per cent a year online. Sometimes you just have to hold your nose and do these things.’