1) What are you currently doing with your life?

Since setting up The Lifestyle Company Scotland office in Edinburgh, Lucie Holly and Celia haven’t stopped! On a day to day basis we first and foremost look after our clients. We have a mixture of corporate and private clients. Our private clients consist of wealthy time restricted individuals who need help with everything and anything from sourcing cleaners and tradesmen to running errands and waiting in for deliveries.

Our corporate clients are usually small to medium sized business that need ad hoc admin support PR and Marketing briefs and social Media help. At TLC Scotland we work very much to our strengths although our clients and our to do lists are always overlapping. Celia concentrates on Social Media and marketing, Holly does all the writing, PR and blogs and Lucie looks after most of the private clients. We feel we compliment each others skills and communication between the three of us is key! 

2) What did you do before this?

Lucie worked first at Farlows on Pall Mall as Wholesale Assistant and then she moved to Quintessentially Home where she worked with private clients helping them set up homes in London after relocating from the US.

Holly worked for a lifestyle management and concierge service looking after Russian Oligarchs all over the World. She was also the International Editorial Assistant for their monthly magazine.

Celia was International Marketing Manager for Aylesford. She was also an International Negotiator for France, Italy and the Caribbean.

We all worked inLondonfrom 2008 to 2010 when we made the big decision to up sticks and moved to bonny Scotland. All three of us became disgruntled with the expense and hassle ofLondon – although we loved our network of friends we wanted a better lifestyle!

3) What was your moment of truth?

We were 3 24 year olds sitting in the Sydney Arms in Chelsea moaning about our bosses and the Victoria line and we suddenly had the collective realisation that we could leave London- we didn’t HAVE to stay! We had had more than a few glasses of Vino but I think once the idea was born their was no turning back. From then it was a whirlwind of quitting jobs, market research and business plans before moving up north for good.

4) How did you plan for it?

This took a lot of practical planning. We were sacrificing three great salaries in London for an ‘idea’. That said we were focused and as with all entrepreneurs quickly fell in love with the concept which quickly turned into a business.

Celia and Lucie were the first to leave mid way through 2010 then Holly followed in the October when we moved into our flat and office in New Town, Edinburgh. We had no capital so we approached PSYBT (Princes Scottish Youth Trust) and started the process to get a soft loan. We had to submit a very in-depth business plan (ours was 48 pages!) and then went up in front of a panel during the big freeze of 2010!

It was all very daunting but when we had the loan authorised it was a wonderful feeling. We got to work straight away with finalising the branding and the website and entered into a year of networking our socks off around Scotland

5) What have been the best and worst things about making this happen?

The worst bits have to be the stress of starting your own business and knowing your pay at the end of the month is down to you, and you alone! A scary prospect and times have been very hard. That said it has made us all into young entrepreneurial business women something I don’t think any of us thought we would be 3 years ago!

Our career highlight so far has to be securing Bob McDowell (Vice President of Microsoft) to fly over from America to speak at our Launch party. He is a very lovely and inspirational man who we met at a PSYBT event. We keep in touch and meet up everytime he is back in Scotland

Our lifestyle change after the move to Scotland is another huge positive, you can walk 20 minutes from our door in the heart of the city and either be on a beach in Portabello or up Arthurs Seat, one of the seven hills of Edinburgh. Scotland is very beautiful and we love how laid back everyone is after London!

6) What was the best advice you have received

We get a lot of amazing advice because we get to meet a lot of amazing people but a couple of nuggets of wisdom include;

Celia - ‘every no you get just means you are closer to a yes’. 

Holly - The really unhelpful advice has served me the best - ‘it won’t work in Scotland’ is just one comment that gets me through a bad day because I just think ‘Ha! I have proved you wrong!’

Lucie - Ask for advice, listen to it and be open to it.

7) What resources or information have you found really helpful?

PSYBT were are starting point and if it wasn’t for them and their funding we probably wouldn’t be here. We have since put our vouchers forward for PSYBT charity auctions which has been a great way of giving something back!

We also got a lovely and fabulous mentor through PSYBT who is a great sounding board and has stuck with us through thick and thin. Business Gateway were also incredibly helpful during our business start up time giving us help and advice!

After going to many networking groups we eventually found WeDOScotland owned by Belinda Roberts probably the best networker in the World! She has been a great help, mentor and inspiration to us and has probably been our best resource!

Women's networking in Edinburgh is phenomenal too and people just seem to love our story and want to help us!