The Times has just run an article on Retail & Consumer award winner Anne Walker. Thirty years ago, dance teacher Walker started making leotards in her bedroom for students. Pretty soon, demand grew and her business, International Dance Supplies (IDS), was born. Now turning over £7m a year and shipping as far afield as Australia, IDS is the UK’s largest B2B dancewear mail-order firm. Check out this great profile of Walker, who started her business with a £50 loan from her mother. It’s an inspirational story from an inspirational woman: "What I say to anybody is a line I pinched from Mary Poppins: ‘If you reach for the stars, all you get are the stars . . . if you reach for the heavens, you get the stars thrown in’."
Then there’s the "first woman of trucks", Nikki King. There’s a great article in The Independent detailing her journey from housewife to head honcho of a £22m-turnover global firm. King picked up the gong for Lifetime Achievement at the First Women Awards. She said, "I hope that I can show other women that it’s never too late to start a business. I began my career at 41. If I can do it, anyone can."
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