At 25-years-old, Grace Beverley has already founded two successful businesses, been awarded Young Entrepreneur of the Year and written a Sunday Times bestselling book. But how did she turn her quest for fitness into a multi-million pound empire, all the while studying music at university?
Grace, who started her career on YouTube, reveals how she used £50 to launch a small side hustle in 2016, as she joins YouTube's new Edition series and takes a full 360 degree turn in her career. Talking about creating her first business Shreddy, Grace told the Mirror: "I didn't invest any money into the company and neither did anyone else.
"Though I did pay my friend who was a graphic design student £50 to make the PDF documents look nice.
"We spent about a week mocking them all up in my kitchen and I used a free Shopify theme, then went from there.
"There were no initial costs at the beginning, it was just all organic social media promotion and my brain."
Grace designed tailored fitness guides and sold them to thousands of her dedicated social media followers online, in between juggling exams and coursework at Oxford University.
"I worked university like a job - I'd be at the library all day and spend evenings on my socials. I'd batch create content and set aside one or two mornings a week for YouTube videos," Grace said.
"In my second year at university, I started conceptualising the idea of Tala, talking to factory partners and companies. I didn't hire anyone until two months before we launched the business."
After the success of her fitness guides, Grace spotted another gap in the market for sustainable activewear and launched clothing company Tala.
"I wasn't looking to start a new business. I was just a customer that so badly wanted to buy sustainable activewear and couldn't find it," Grace explained.
"It seemed insane to me that there were no sustainable activewear brands in the UK, literally none. My desire to have that product drove me to create my own."
In just the first year of Tala, Grace sold £6 million worth of sales and the company has since blown up everywhere.
"I juggled a lot at university and made sure to schedule and plan each day - that's very much how I still do things today," Grace said.
Last year, she fundraised a wild £4.2 million to grow the business and says it's her biggest achievement to date.
"In the UK, 1 percent of VC funding goes to women-owned businesses, so when you look at that statistic, I'm very proud to have raised as much as ours," she said.
Grace is also proud of making Forbes 30 Under 30 List during lockdown, alongside Lewis Capaldi and Greta Thunberg.
Sharing her business goals for 2023, Grace added: "I want to find a better balance and do less, because often doing fewer things is a lot more effective."
Sustainability will also continue to be a priority in Grace's lifestyle as she expands her eco-friendly fashion business this year.
Touching on the concept behind her new YouTube Edition, Grace said: "I'm a huge proponent in talking about sustainable swaps.
"We all need to consume less, but if we told everyone who is currently buying fast fashion to stop, no one would change.
"I wholeheartedly believe that we aren't selfless enough as a species and we aren't motivated by going cold turkey.
"Instead we can make small swaps that are kinder to the planet. For example, I swapped my deodorant brand to Wild which is plastic-free and infinitely recyclable.
"The same can be said for Estrid razors and Riley tampons. All of those things that you think won't make a big difference, but over the course of a year do."
And if you're wondering where Grace gets her planet-friendly inspiration from, it's fair fashion campaigner Venetia La Manna (@venetialamanna) on Instagram.
"Venetia La Manna is one of the really rare creators who just says it how it is and fights the good fight all the time. She always puts out amazing value content and holds people to account," Grace said.
"I've followed her for years and years and she's one of the first people who got me thinking about sustainable fashion."
Do you have a success story to share? Get in touch via nia.dalton@reachplc.com.
