Interviewing founders of start ups is an interesting activity, they generally fall into two categories – the ones who go at it guns blazing; securing investment, quitting their jobs, living, breathing and immersing themselves in the world of Mashable and TechCrunch and then there are those who come at it from a different angle; the small ‘kitchen table’ entrepreneurs who invest their own savings, who stay on in their jobs, who work every hour that God sends, evenings, weekends, holidays. But of the two, who is likely to be the most successful?

Yes that’s the conundrum; faced by legions of women using the restraints imposed by motherhood, marriage or simply full time jobs to bring a whole new working model to the web. Never is this trend more in evidence than when talking to Elle Mason, founder of new beauty site Beaut-e.co.uk; a veritable beauty EBay; a retail site that aggregates sellers from all over the UK and gives them a glossy high spec platform from which to sell their wares.

But what are the challenges of working in this manner? ‘I get up at five o’clock in the morning,’ Mason says, ‘I go to my full-time job. I get home at between six and seven at night, and then I’ll be on the website until about midnight/one o’clock in the morning.’

Commitment indeed, one that is dependent on a loyal army of followers; ‘I do live with my boyfriend,’ Elle laughs, ‘he’s very supportive. I’ve got friends and family that totally understand – you know, if I say, ‘Sorry, I can’t come and see you today.’

This is one entrepreneur who is used to juggling, but how did the site originally start? ‘It was April of last year. I was working at the time; we were told there would be redundancies. I had always wanted to work for myself and start my own business, and that stirred me into action.’

‘I’ve always suffered from acne and very sensitive skin,’ Elle continues. ‘I spent ages trawling through websites and various shops trying different products to find something that would help. And I just thought, if I had a website where I could have gone to – one place to search for all of these kind of items, it would have helped me so much.’

There it was; a tried and tested method of starting a business; find a common problem and offer a solution; exactly the strategy Mason set about implementing; ‘I’m quite lucky that my sister and her partner are both web developers, so when I came up with the idea they were like ‘Yes! We’ll get on board with that.’

The three musketeers grouped together, putting their noses and hands to the grindstone; ‘It’s taken a long time: we’ve all worked full-time jobs whilst doing the website and building up contacts. But it’s been amazing.’

The business is not the only thing that has benefitted from their collective input, ‘It’s brought myself and my sister a lot closer as well, because she lives in Bristol; it’s a shared passion…’

Why, I wonder, has Mason created a platform as opposed to her own retail site? ‘You get all these creative people – they’re all so open and self-depending and they’re really passionate about what they do. That’s what I feel drawn to; the sellers and the whole process they go through.’

Social media has played a huge part in the site’s success; ‘Twitter has been incredible. That’s where most of our members have come from; without social media, I really don’t think that we would be at the stage that we are now. It’s been invaluable in building up a network of both sellers and buyers.’

Mason is a veritable guru in this field with tips aplenty; ‘I think what the sellers have responded to is our kind of style: when I’m tweeting I’m very positive and encouraging, I like to use catchphrases, kind of jesting. It’s had a really positive response.’

Competitions were another forte; ‘I would ask for sellers to donate a pound,’ Mason explains, ‘and I would promote them for a week on Twitter. Almost everybody who donated signed up to Beaut-e when it launched. If I hadn’t put that effort in before the site went live, then perhaps we wouldn’t have had as good a variety of sellers and products available.’

They’re clearly on top of the tech side of the business, but what about the health and safety risk inherent in allowing small home based manufacturers to sell products often made in their kitchens? Mason admits it’s tricky; ‘Anybody can make their own beauty products; you don’t have to have any kind of certification. You can just start selling. But all sellers on Beaut-e will have gone through regulations. We follow through on that process. We also do background checks on them as well.’

So Mason is at the beginning of the journey, but she’s already learnt a hell of a lot; what advice would she have given herself with the knowledge she’s accrued? ‘I would have advised myself not to jump into things too quickly. There are times when I get really excited about things and I go straight into it, but there’s a certain time scale and preparation that’s necessary. You have to reign yourself back and be a bit more realistic….’

My time is almost up; Mason has to get back to work; she’s speaking to me on her lunch break, during at working day at a water utilities company. I have to say; it’s pretty inspiring, what she’s achieved with Beaut-e, given she’s basically working two full time jobs… But for her it’s the tale of the sellers that’s most inspiring; ‘A lot of them have quit their full-time jobs. I’ve got one person that was quite high up in the NHS; she says that was a stressful job - she makes her own soaps now; she says ‘this is even more stressful! I’m working on this 24-7.’ It’s just kind of nice to support people who work really hard as well and have a genuine passion.’

Passion, grit and a good old work ethic – that’s the USP at Beaut-e and for Elle Mason, it seems to be paying off.

Interview by Alice Kahrmann

September 2012