Hello! We all have a story to share and am so happy to share mine with you here.
The Keepsake Company really is just a happy accident but what I have learnt 20 years on from founding the company is that most incredible things normally are. .
You see I didn’t set out to offer baby castings. What I wanted to offer was handmade beaded jewellery. I was preparing for my first show and came up with the idea of casting lots of hands to display my jewellery. So towers of hands to drape the chains over. I ordered materials from the US as I couldn’t find anything in the UK and I was hooked from that first casting. I loved it so much I invited my friend around who had her new born baby and we cast her feet… I mean we were both blown away. The results were staggering (even with a missing finger or two) and I was determined to master this incredible art.
Business took off in many different ways and I found myself opening a retail shop which a year later I expanded into a premises three times the size. These were some of my hardest years but boy was it worthwhile. I not only leant so much from employing people to epos systems to merchandising but I got to meet my customers each and every day. I got to watch as they opened their keepsakes in front of me and hear them gasp with wonder at the stunning piece of silver in their hands or the life sized casting which was sure to remain in their family for generations to come. I was even featured on the BBC.. my five minutes of fame!
10 years into my keepsake journey people started reaching out and asking me if I could train them as they were stuck and couldn’t quite master it. People shared their stories of how they were stuck in work they hated, how their life long dream was always to have their own business or how they couldn’t face leaving their baby after maternity and wanted to find something else.
I started training in my then highstreet shop. The women I met back then are still very much a part of The Keepsake Co now. The joy I felt from seeing women come to me and then leave with skills which could set them free took over and I then devoted the following 10 years to training and supporting women to start and grow their own keepsake business. I have truly felt privileged to have front seats in watching these most beautiful women grow into incredible business owners and offer the most stunning keepsakes around the world.
I think it meant so much because I had been trapped in a job I hated myself before deciding to start a handmade jewellery company. I was a computer scientist and managed 3 years as a computer programmer before finding myself looking down the lens of a life which made me hope for a car crash just to avoid work for a few days. How desperate can a 20 something be so early into a career. Something had to change or my future looked pretty bleak.
I am still grateful for my 20 year old self for breaking me out of corporate and into self employment. 20 years on and I would not change anything for anyone. My life is a joy and there is no way I would be experiencing such magic if I hadn’t have broken out of a soul destroying career. YES we struggled for money at the start and YES I have had to sacrifice in some areas but the well being and sense of freedom I now enjoy is worth it 10 times over. There is no other path like it.
When the pandemic hit the world and I found I was given time to think (in between home learning) as quite rightly no one was thinking of starting a new business and my clients really didn’t need much support at the time. Many of the ladies in the group had their best months during this time while my training business died overnight. It got me thinking and after much soul searching realized I had been missing my own creative outlet which had slowly been eating away in the form of anxiety… and this was my chance to get that back.
I also had felt an increasing uncomfort about the fact that life had moved on since I launched 20 years ago and was I really ‘current’ enough to be teaching others… “What did I know?!” kept swirling around my head. The good old self doubt/imposter syndrome/lack of worth strikes again! I decided to launch a new business… totally new market and totally different product to a) challenge myself b) give myself back that much needed creative outlet and c) prove to myself that I still had what it takes.
What I found out is that starting a business now is far easier than it was back in 2002.. But P
perhaps due to my two decades of experience which led to this moment. I applied everything I have been teaching over the past decade and wow.. It works 😉
So there we are. That’s my story! I would love to know yours 🙂
Much love
Victoria
