Business Birthday Interview: Liz Houghton, Mint Velvet

As Mint Velvet, the luxury fashion brand, celebrates its second birthday, we catch up Liz Houghton, Brand Director to talk about the business.

The best moment of last year was… receiving so many great comments from customers, partners and staff. The support has been overwhelming.

Other than the odd trivial technical issues… touch wood, we haven't had any major hiccups or bad moments to date.

My pet hate is… bad service.

The best piece of advice I've ever been given was… by my dad, who said: "Life's not a rehearsal."

The biggest change to the business over the last year… has been its growth in size as we've taken on more stores and staff. We are incredibly passionate about our personable culture within the business, so making this work for a growing organisation has been the biggest change, but one that we have hopefully achieved...our family keeps on growing.

My most over-used phrase is… "nothing ventured, nothing gained."

If I could thank anyone for their input over the last year… Lisa and Jane - my partners in the business - who are absolute rocks. We bounce ideas off of each other daily and it's been our joint input which has helped bring the business to where it stands today.

My best business trait is… empathy with the customer and every aspect of the business. You have to think of yourself as the customer.

My worst business trait is… running late.

The greatest challenge of the last year has been… lack of time. We're still a small business, but we're trying to do it all, and do it well. There are never enough hours in the day and we have to balance time, with being a business full of perfectionists.

My advice to a would-be entrepreneur is… that it's easier to do it with a partner. You can brainstorm and bounce ideas off each other. In the good times you share the good energy and keep each other going and in the bad times you keep each other afloat and stay strong.

If money were no object, I would buy more… time.

Over the coming year… we hope to do more of the same. We plan to open more of our boutique stores as well as keep on offering our boutique service online. 2012 looks set to be another exciting (and busy) year at Mint Velvet!

18th October 2011