Parents in Business featuring Inscripture
This week for my Parents in Business series I’m really excited to be featuring Hayley; the founder of Inscripture, the UK’s Leading Handwriting and Jewellery specialists. Hayley has an incredible business and this is a story of success and inspiration! Even I am in awe just reading this interview.
Inscripture has been a huge success so far, with jewellery seen worn on the Love Island cast to winning the Theo Prophetis Small Business Saturday #SBS award, which is an amazing achievement. I love Hayley’s point about celebrating success, no big or how small that success is. Hard work has really paid off to create a business dream for Hayley, and one that works around family life too! Have a read……
Tell me a little bit about you, your background and Inscripture?
Inscripture is the UK’s leading Handwriting Jewellery & Gift Specialists. We are an award winning family run business established in 2016 with a vision to create timeless, unique, sentimental and style savvy items to treasure. A little bit different to the high street and personality driven.
After 9 years in the banking industry and a longing for my own business I finally took the plunge when I went on Maternity leave in 2015 and set up Little Legs Boutique. Inspired by my daughter and the want of personalised items, I decided it was the best time to fulfil my dream by dipping my toe in the water without the risk of giving up my career. I could never of imagined its success and rapid growth, our items are loved by celebrities and our Trademark My Mummy & Me Bracelets became an overnight success. I couldn’t keep up with the demand and soon had my partner join the business, followed by my Dad and now have an amazing team surrounding me. With family at the heart of what we were creating and why we were in business we soon expanded our range. One evening we were looking through old cards & I commented to my partner “Isn’t it funny how I know who my cards are from just by their handwriting, I don’t even have to look who signed it” and that is how our Handwriting Jewellery was created. I had a vision of taking the handwriting from the cards and engraving it onto our Jewellery for a truly sentimental & treasured keepsake that isn’t stored away in the loft or in a drawer. This once again was a huge success and I constantly reinvested in the business to perfect our craft to ensure every aspect of what we were creating was perfect. In May 2018 we rebranded to Inscripture as the business had evolved so much over time and LLB was no longer as relevant to who we had become.
What were your motivations for setting up Inscripture?
The main motivation for me always was, and always will be, the flexibility to be able to spend time with my children whilst doing something that I love.
Inscripture allows me to not only spend time with my family, but to pursue my passion and create personalised, timeless pieces that can be treasured by the recipient. It has never been about money for me as money can’t buy happiness, but the pure joy & comfort that our items provide is simply priceless. It is such an honour to be trusted to create such meaningful items which the majority are for those who have lost someone special. We hear so many heart breaking stories, including involving children & it truly breaks our hearts, so the knowing that something we are creating can let our customers feel closer to their loved ones again is worth more than its weight in gold.
How do you balance the business around family and childcare?
Flexibility. As a mum of two, juggling children and a career isn’t always the easiest and with the rising costs of childcare it’s easy to see why some women can’t go back to work as it isn’t feasible. Having my own business has given me ultimate flexibility, although working into the early hours of the morning isn’t always ideal it is a choice I will always choose to ensure quality time with my children during the day.
With flexibility being so important to me, it was something I wanted to be able to offer to my team so we have a number of ‘virtual’ staff who are mums which gives them the flexibility to work from home during the hours suited to them, whilst also suited to us for the workload. Now whilst I appreciate this may not always be the case as we get busier, I will then aim for others to have the same flexibility around one another to fit the business needs whilst meeting their own.
Since setting up the business what’s been your biggest success to date?
It is hard to pinpoint our biggest achievement as there have been so many amazing proud moments that I am grateful for, including winning Theo Paphitis’s SBS Award and having our Jewellery worn on Love Island 2018. We are also regularly spotted on a number of Celebs which is always exciting to see, that will never get boring.
Our first ever big achievement was being approached to be featured in Vogue Magazine which was then followed by Baby London Magazine, being nominated for the Mother & Baby Awards 2018, our Wedding Bouquet Charms in You & Your Wedding Magazine and being interviewed by Essex Living Magazine
We will always celebrate every success, big or small, as we are so grateful to be where we are today.
What’s your top tip for parents who are thinking about setting up their own business?
The best advise I could give for any would-be mumtrepreneurs would be to be original, do something you are truly passionate about and are happy to put the hard work into.
Nothing is an overnight success, things take time and determination but if you are passionate about what you do then go for it and don’t give up at the first hurdle. You will come across many things which will make you want to quit sometimes or seem impossible to overcome but nothing is impossible if your heart is truly in it. One of the most common issues we hear of and have experienced ourselves is copycats but don’t ever let someone else’s lack of originality dull your sparkle, use it to fuel your creativity which in turn will further your success. As Coco Chanel said, “If you want to be original, be ready to be copied”. Unfortunately in business not everyone will have the same ethics but as long as you are true to yourself then you will feel a true sense of achievement in your successes. Collaboration over competition is our moto as when people support each other, amazing things happen and it is a truly rewarding community to be within.
Thank you so much Hayley for your interview. You can find out more about Inscripture by visiting the website or their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram channels.
If you like what you’re reading and would love to be part of my Parents in Business series just drop me an email: thepramshedblog@gmail.com. Or have a nose at some of the other businesses I have featured in the series: The Nuture Circle, Love Ladies Business Group and This Is Silk.
Claire x
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