Sophie Baron
(Picture: ES)Sophie Baron used to work for Vogue at Condé Nast’s gleaming global headquarters in New York. These days she travels each morning to an industrial estate in Staples Corner — on London’s less-than-ritzy North Circular — and she has never been happier. That’s because she’s running her own business, Mamamade, a direct-to-consumer brand specialising in infant and toddler nutrition, delivering organic meal kits to parents’ doors.
Making such a leap is never easy but, for Baron, it was her own experience as a new mother that motivated her. “To start a successful business you need to feel like there’s purpose in what you’re doing because it’s really hard to build something from nothing,” she says.
It’s a message she will drive home at the Evening Standard SME XPO next month, where she will appear alongside a raft of fellow entrepreneurs to share hard-won insights over two days of keynote speeches, panel discussions and networking.
Seeing an opportunity where others don’t is also crucial. Much like Baron, Amy Williams seized on changes that have been accelerated by the pandemic. Her startup, Good-Loop, is an “adtech for good” which delivers digital advertising while also funding charities. “I had an idea and I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. I wanted to use brands’ new-found sense of purpose to create an advertising business with purpose,” says Williams, whose turnover doubled since lockdown and now employs 28 people.
“There’s so much potential in this new world. Young staff are looking to work for and consumers to buy from businesses with purpose and brands. We all want to be proud of what we do in the nine to five and how we consume, so if you have an idea that you think will chime with those new values, there’s never been a better time to act on it.”
Technological acceleration under lockdown has been very helpful for entrepreneurs. Zoom has made it easy to build relationships — Williams launched her US business on Zoom —while reducing costs. Social media, notably Instagram and TikTok, and online retail services, such as Shopify, have also become ever more powerful tools — as Brodie Meah can attest.
They helped the entrepreneur — who will also be at the SME XPO — transform Top Cuvée from a small wine bar/restaurant in Highbury with an annual turnover of about £400,000 to a £3 million-a-year retailer of wine. “After lockdown we shifted almost 100 per cent to online retail overnight and set up local and national distribution faster than I ever could have imagined.” He too has benefited from social change.
“Lockdown tempted people to find value in interesting new products,” he explains. Much of the wine Shop Cuvée sells is English, organic and low intervention. “Consumers are also looking to local suppliers like us.” His dramatic pivot has convinced him that businesses should “think bigger than you think is even possible”.
At the same time, it is important to avoid burnout, says Baron, who says to “take care of yourself”. “Give yourself permission to go easy sometimes. I’ve definitely been guilty of wanting it all right now, rushing to do things. We had a period of about three months when we clamped down on growing the business — and the result has been tremendous.”
SME XPO, from the Evening Standard, is at Olympia London. Register for free, smexpo.co.uk
