Business Birthday Interview: Jo McGivern,The Handpicked Collection

Jo McGivern set up The Handpicked Collection in 2007 after a career in luxury travel PR. This award-winning online gift shop and catalogue provides a curated selection of attractively priced, stylish and high quality gifts. Its expert panel of entrepreneurs, trendsetters and journalists road test products, giving customers added confidence in the products they choose. We catch up with Jo as she celebrates the company's fourth year of trading.

We are celebrating our fourth birthday... in the office with the staff - a few glasses of champagne and, as happens on all birthdays, someone will bake a cake.

The best moment of last year was... winning the award for best all-round business or brand at the ECMOD industry awards. We were not expecting to win it at all as there were so many other great brands shortlisted, so we were thrilled when we were announced as winners. It was a great endorsement of our approach to catalogue and online selling, as well as a huge boost to our staff who have worked so hard driving the business forward.

I couldn't you live without... my team in the office. Starting your own business is all-consuming and the early years of Handpicked were tough with me working into the night most days at the expense of family life. But I am lucky enough to have built up an extremely capable, strong and supportive team which now enables me to balance my work life and family life because they all perform their roles so well.

I manage to split my time between... working in the office and from home as I moved out of London last year. I have the most brilliant Managing Director at Handpicked who runs all the operations, so I concentrate on product selection and the style. I also have three young children, and after years of working all hours and not being there for them enough, I now have a strong team so can fit in work and family.

I am a big fan of... the website Feefo which provides independent feedback to online retailers. Once you sign up with Feefo, it invites all of your customers to review everything they purchase from you, and their feedback appears on your (and Feefo's) website. The customer is also invited to review their overall shopping experience on your website. We were nervous before signing up, but it is brilliant. Customers feel much more confident buying something, where there is genuine feedback from other people who have bought it. And we have much closer interaction with our customers. Often, if someone has a minor issue, they don't complain, they just won't shop with you again. Feefo gives the customers an easy opportunity to air their complaint, and we can respond and make sure we put it right.

My advice for would be entrepreneurs is... don't be scared to ask for advice, and ideally put together a team of experienced advisors. There will be many times in the early years when you are faced with unanticipated challenges, and having some people to turn to who are one step removed from the business will really help with tricky decisions.

If money was no object, I would buy... my dream home. We moved out of London to the country last year and finding the dream home within our price bracket is tough so we are renting until the right place comes along. If money was no object, it would be much easier.

You might not know this but...  I have a secret urge to write a novel and have started several over the years. But I have never had enough time so now realise I will have to save this dream until I retire.

My best piece of advice came from... my husband, who runs his own business. He has an amazing belief that no obstacle is insurmountable. He advised me early on that when faced with a challenge instead of wondering "if" you can get around it, you should always assume you can overcome it and should immediately start thinking of "how" you are going to do it.

My pet hate commercially... is arrogant customer service. All too often a company lets you down, and you ring up or email to complain, and the response you get would imply they don't value you as a customer. It makes me so angry as I just don't understand on any level why they would not look after their customers better.

I admire... Jo Malone. I was lucky enough to meet her soon after she had sold her business and she was unbelievably nice, approachable and helpful. She managed to retain a small business feel among her staff and within her company, even when it was turning over tens of millions. She gave me some great advice on how to retain a company's character as it grew.

My best and worst business traits are... empowering my staff to make their own decisions and accepting that they will make some mistakes along the way. My worst would be returning to my desk just before I go to bed and then doing a whole load of emails which results in me going to sleep thinking of work - and my poor team waking up to emails from me.

23 November 2011