Episode 11 - with Emma Watkinson, Co-Founder of SilkFred

She can. She did.

As the We can. We will. series came to an end in May, I received a personal email from today's guest sharing her story with me and knew straight away that I wanted her to feature on this series. Not just because she launched her business aged 24 nine and a half years ago and together with her two co-founders, has grown a team of over 100 employees since then; partnered with over 800 independent fashion labels; and grown a dedicated customer base of over one million women; but because despite being at the helm of such a huge company juggling the pressures of running an online fashion business during this pandemic, she made the effort to reach out to me personally.

Something that is pretty much unheard of for a founder running a company of her size and something that little old me respected no end.

The lady in question being 33-year-old Emma Watkinson, Co-Founder of the online fashion platform connecting independent designers with over a million, loyal customers that is SilkFred.

From why she's always pushed back against conventional wisdom since day one opting to focus solely on the company's data at hand instead; how she navigated SilkFred's exceptional growth and her honest thoughts on the growing pains that the company endured thereafter; to her thoughts on juggling being the CEO of a 100+ team whilst raising her two-year-old twin girls too; plus of course, how she navigated a 90% drop in sales when the UK went into lockdown in March; Emma's humility and honesty throughout this episode will stay with me for a long time to come. Her story should also provide a handy reference point for those wanting to scale their businesses going forward... I hope you enjoy it!

The She can. She did. podcast is hosted by Fiona Grayson (that's me, hello!) and this bonus series is sponsored by Tide Business Current Accounts who happen to be the only place in the UK where you can register a limited company and open a business account in one process, for free! Essentially, for those of you that want to set up as a Limited Company or switch from being a sole trader to a Limited Company like I did, all you do is search the company name you would like, enter your personal and business details and in a matter of minutes, your limited company application will be sent, your Tide business current account will be set up, and you're good to go! For more information if you happen to be interested, please feel free to visit: www.tide.co/start

The good old social handles should you fancy a further peek!

She can. She did. @shecanshedid

SilkFred @silkfred

Emma Watkinson @silkfred_emma

Tide @tidebanking

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