A Sheffield mum plan's to 'leave her full time job one day' after her lockdown side business continues to thrive, despite the cost of living crisis.
Millie White, 27, from Sheffield, found herself a lockdown business during the coronavirus pandemic which she hopes one day will be so successful she can leave her full time job as a marketing project manager.
The mum of one founded The Little Leopard Co. in 2019, which is an independent business that makes curated and build your own gift boxes.
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Gifting and shopping small has always been something Millie has loved, if it was coming up to a friend or family member's birthday she would enjoy scouring around on Instagram to look for a new or old small business to buy from.
She would regularly use Instagram hashtags to find independent businesses which would spiral through more and more recommendations. She would think about people's birthday gifts a month in advance, thinking about what she has seen that they would love.
Millie said: "I just thought why am I not doing something with this? How can I share my findings with the small business community?"
The 27-year-old, who works full time as a marketing project manager, already had some of the skills needed to set up her business through her full time job. She had experience in design, website curating, marketing, and social media. In 2019 she set out to write a business plan.
Millie said: "I worked out how much of my own savings I would need to start a small collection, looked at suppliers, what products and general approach to the public. I only started with four curated gift boxes - which were suitable to gift for birthdays and not be dependent on gender.
"I had a plan to expand so that I had more to offer, and always wanted to do a build your own box and sell individual items on their own.
"The 2019 pandemic had a huge impact on me in a positive way, it got the ball rolling just before. At first it sparked panic but once I started to realise what the pandemic meant for us it gave me the push to launch the business.
"I knew it would be successful with people not being able to see friends and family, my business was the perfect gift for people, everything was done for you and sent to the person. I had a lot of boxes that went out that were 'thinking of you' boxes for people who were ill or struggling during the pandemic.
"It gave me the boost to launch the business and it was lovely to see the sales come in quite quickly, because of the situation we were in at the time, despite the uncertainty for everyone."
Millie claims her peak in business is at seasonal times of the year, especially Christmas, Valentines Day and Easter - she does a lot of themed boxes and always launches new, limited boxes for every occasion.
At the moment business is booming for The Little Leopard Co although this year has been slightly quieter - she claims it's hard to tell whether the lull has been as a result of the cost of living crisis.
The current rise in energy and living costs has definitely made Millie change marketing activity, she claimed. Millie said: "It's harder to be seen on Instagram and Facebook now, even with as many thousands of followers you have you may only be shown to so many people. I've had to strategies on other avenues such as email marketing and PR.
"I've done some in person events too which have been great for getting the name out there, I think it's good to see the products in real life.
"I have always thought about opening a shop, it's not a no, I think the only thing with a shop is losing that element of flexibility. It's important that we have independent shops on the high street, but because I do this alongside work and have a little girl my best option is to stay online for now.
"It is in the plan to leave my full time job, but I can't leave right now because I don't earn enough too."
You can shop at The Little Leopard Co. here
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