A mother-of-two who re-mortgaged her home and started a business from her spare bedroom is celebrating after her company turnover topped £1m.
Charlotte Mills had always dreamed of becoming a fashion designer, and in 2014 re-mortgaged her home while working full time to set up a business in her spare room. Her aim was to create a wedding shoe brand with a difference after previously working for companies such as River Island.
She failed to get a government loan or any money from the bank and had to keep her new business a secret from her employer in case it folded, spending every waking moment outside work trying to get it off the ground. But after seven years of hard work and a 'disaster' that saw her plunged into debt, her company turned over £1m in 2021 - making more than £400,000 in profit - with this year's sales so far up by 30 per cent.
