entrepreneurs 19


Pictures by Angus Thomas


see me and noticed some material for She Who Dares, another brand I had registered, and he loved the idea of it. We set up She Who Dares UK, and slowly but surely my confidence grew. I’m proud of the product range I’ve developed for She Who Dares over two years, it’s a very exciting time – we signed a branding deal with Swarovski, and our fragrances, Eminence and Dalliance, will be in the bigger retailers going forward this year, so Christmas will be a big one for us. Simon has allowed me to not only create a new brand, but also to get my other brand back: we went together to the administrators and on Christmas Eve 2010 we secured the Destination brand back into She Who Dares UK. Shortly after that I signed deals with the London 2012 Olympic Games for Destination London 2012 and Warner Brothers for a final Harry Potter edition – which sold out – and the games went back into Debenhams, Toys R Us and Harrods. It means I can hold my head up, I know there was nothing wrong with the game, I didn’t fail, it was just circumstance, and for those licensors and retailers to want to work with me gave me my sense of worth back, as did the MBE.


Tell me about the MBE – would you consider it your greatest achievement?


I nearly didn’t accept it at all, because I got the letter from the prime minister’s office at roughly the same time that the company went into administration. I thought “how can I be honoured an MBE for services to business when my business has just gone under?“ but my dad got me to accept that it’s not about money, it was acknowledging that I’d done a lot of work in schools and colleges, promoting enterprise and education.


For me, success is incremental – it’s all those step-by-step little achievements, and no-one can take them away.


I would say my greatest achievement is pulling myself up from the gutter, getting back out there, facing all of my fears and having another go. This past two years has taken me more guts and strength than anything I did six years ago, because I’ve had to come back in knowledge of everything that could go wrong. But the sense of worth that the MBE gave me has completely inspired She Who Dares as a brand – it’s all about acknowledging women.


Both the fragrance and board game markets are difficult to penetrate – is it this personal aspect that sets your products apart?


The game is successful because I had that personal connection with it, and it had a great story behind it, and now She Who Dares is part of what I’m about. One of the straplines is “Nothing is Impossible“, and I truly believe that. If you had said to me three years ago, when I was on my knees, “You’re going to come back with this game“, there’s no way I would have believed it.


Anything can happen, but it does take a lot of hard work. I play the lottery but I don’t believe I’m destined to win it – I’m destined to make my own success: the more you put out in life, the more you get back.


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – MARCH 2013


You are keeping much of the production for the fragrance in the UK – why is that important to you?


I suffered personally during our recession, so I know how important it is to have as much money going into our UK economy as possible. With the fragrance, every single company that we work with, for every single component, our money goes into a British company at its first point. It’s probably costing us five or six times the amount you’d pay to have it made in China, but I wanted it to be a high-quality product that we can be proud of and I love the fact we’re having it made here.


What is the most important lesson you have learned?


Balance. The first time round I put in too many hours, too much energy, and I will never get that time back with my children. Now, they absolutely come first. My life is so much more balanced, and I’m delegating more. As an entrepreneur you have to accept that there is only one of you, and people make successful companies, and I’ve got a great team. Something else I’ve learned is to be focused. I’ve developed an enormous product range for She Who Dares, but we’re only going to market with four products initially, and we’ll focus on promoting the brand. There’s so much we can do, and the games side is where it gets tempting because it’s easy to adapt Destination to any licence, but it can become a distraction, so we’re going to keep it balanced.


Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions?


My dream is to have She Who Dares the fragrance sitting alongside Chanel, Marc Jacobs, Prada, and all the other top brands. That’s going to take time but I believe it’s possible. Personally, my only ambition is to be happy, and I do feel happy, life is good. During the time of having nothing I learned to laugh and be happy with nothing. If you can be happy with nothing, you’ll always be happy.


Details: www.rachellowe.co.uk www.businessmag.co.uk


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