It is never too late - To work together

Thursday 6th March 2008

Whatever your age or stage, there's always time to fulfil dreams, big or small. Lorraine Conway speaks to five women who have done just that

Maggie Roberts, 56, runs French and Floral clothing company with her daughter Karen, 35. She lives in Faversham, Kent, and France, with husband Keith.

“Karen and I have always loved clothes and fashion, and spoke about opening our own business. The inspiration came from being in the Dordogne in France and the gorgeous French toile de jouy fabrics we saw there. To start, we each made a bag and looked at how we could improve the quality.

From there, I drew some patterns for bags, dresses and aprons. It happened so quickly and at the start of this year I decided to take early retirement from my job of ten years with a government children's organisation to focus on the designs.

We got together £5,000 from savings and used this to buy fabric and new sewing machines, photographing the collection and to set up a website. Our husbands have been supportive and were there to help out when we showcased at the Top Drawer design exhibition in London this year. We had to market ourselves to buyers from major departments stores and, at first, I was nervous, but I got into full selling mode.

We're now putting together a business plan to help us with the new orders we picked up at Top Drawer. We've taken on two machinists and I'm planning to take a step back from the machining side to focus on the business and marketing aspects with Karen. I really feel so lucky to be working with my daughter and having so much fun.”

Next dream? To have our own shop, selling our own designs.
Karen says: “Mum's always been so glamorous – she's an inspiration.”

• To work together
• To do a Thelma and Louise
• To record a CD
• To design jewellery
• To write a cookbook

See a full index of New Directions or discuss similar topics on our forum