Business Birthday Interview: Sandrine Wyatt-Gonord, The Nautical Company

As The Nautical Company, the fashion brand, celebrates its 1st birthday, we catch up with Sandrine Wyatt-Gonord, its founder, to talk about the business and her working life.

We'll be celebrating The Nautical Company's 1st birthday with… a giveaway competition, run on our Facebook page and via our website.

The best moment of last year was… being chosen as Small Business Sunday (#sbs) by Dragon's Den Theo Paphitis and having our first feature in The Times Saturday Magazine the same week back in May. Months of PR work finally paid off. The positive feedback from our customers has also been so welcoming and overwhelming.

The worst moment of last year was… not being able to fulfill customers' requests for lack of stock. All my labels have different production cycles and it was difficult to anticipate customers' demand for a particular clothing item. We have learned a great deal in the past year.

I couldn't live without… the internet - not only from a business point of view in that we operate online but also on a private level. The amount of wealth available at a click of a button is quite amazing.

Being a full-time mum, wife and a business owner… there is no average day; it is full on, seven days a week. I typically wake up in the night to write down to-do list and business ideas. The minute you decide to start running your own business, your mind never stops

There are lots of excellent sites out there for business owners… but these three: businesslink.gov.uk, marketingdonut.co.uk and smarta.com have invaluable information from starting-up to advice on how to grow your business. I like to follow them on Twitter for updates and take part in the dicussions.

My advice to a budding entrepreneur thinking of starting a business would be… to be passionate and be prepared for a lot of hard work; there is no overnight success. Make sure you have financial support or savings in the first few months to keep you afloat and allow you to focus all your energy on your business, especially in the current economic climate.

If money were no object, I would buy… a vineyard in France within one hour's drive from the coast - my husband has this long-lasting dream of running a vineyard but I am a seaside girl at heart, so this would be the best compromise.

As a French and English speaker… I never come to over-use one expression - I just switch languages!

You might not know this, but… I love fishing and seafood collecting. I spent all my childhood's summer holidays on a sailing boat in Brittany. Armed with a fishing line at the stern, I made the most of the low tide, picking delicious fresh clams, oysters, winkles, crabs and shrimps.

My best piece of business advice… came from my father, who lost his 15 year old electronics company to bad debtors. He said, "never look back; always go forward."

My pet hate is... bad customer service and lack of respect

I admire… my grandfather. At 19 and living in occupied France, he created and headed a regional resistance group during the 2nd World War. Sadly he got betrayed, captured, tortured and sent to German's Buchenwald concentration camp for 18 months. I have always been full of admiration for his bravery and leadership at such a young age.

My best and worst business trait is… that I am a true perfectionist with all its best and worst aspects.

Interview by Emily Jenkinson

25th October 2011