BusinessWings.co.uk

What inspired you to start the company?

Ali Nestor-Smith: I used to get frustrated by the fact that when you wanted to show you cared and send a client or colleague a gift, it was hard to think of anything more inspiring than flowers or champagne.

Ali with one of her gift boxes

So the whole point about Happy Box was to be the antidote to that. I thought that in both a corporate and a consumer context there was a massive opportunity to do something more meaningful.

The original idea was to cater for PAs and senior people so you can reinvigorate corporate gift-giving and make it more thoughtful and creative. If you can have the same effect as you do when you send a great gift to a friend then that’s going to reap dividends in terms of building relationships.

Any plans to broaden your appeal to include gift-giving to family and friends?

Ali: We have had such a good response to a site now that we are now producing Happy Boxes that start at a lower price point so we can target the consumer market.

Have you always wanted to run your own business?

Ali: I have always wanted… a committed business career, shall we say. I haven’t necessarily always wanted to run my own business, but I’ve always wanted to work in business. The first stage of it has been in an advertising career and I see this as being the next thing that is different and exciting in a business context.

But it’s certainly different working for yourself. Nobody pays my salary every month – that was the most extraordinary change!

Congratulations, by the way, on your appearance in the Independent’s top 50 e-businesses.

Ali: There’s been a huge expansion in retailing websites so the benefit of an endorsement like that – especially for a new, unknown brand like us – is that it reassures consumers that we’re legitimate.

It’s fantastic from a vanity perspective obviously, but the most important thing is the reassurance it gives and the recognition you get for executing an idea.

Great publicity for Happy Box. What else have you done to market the site?

Ali: Fortunately, my background in advertising means that was the thing I was least frightened about. For me the most challenging thing was the technical side, which I had no previous knowledge of.

Then again, it was a shock to the system when, instead of having a lovely £50m Sainsbury’s advertising budget, I had very little to spend.

I am embracing digital as much as I can and learning as much as I can. We’re talking to a digital marketing agency about other ways to get our site noticed. There’s obviously no point having a site if no one knows about it.

Apart from the obvious things like databases and email flyers I have been using PR, both online and offline, partly because its the most cost-effective marketing method for new start-ups. It has been the best method for us in terms of converting to sales.

We exhibited at the Times Crème [an Executive Secretary and PA Event], where we get to put our products in front of 6,000 top PAs.

Emailing links and affiliates so you can mutually raise each other’s profile has been very useful.

What have you enjoyed most about running your own business?

Ali: The creativity.

The whole point of Happy Box is that you are not just buying a nice pair of socks or a nice candle and a bar of soap – the sum is so much greater than its parts.

If you are congratulating someone on their promotion and you send them a big cheesebox with a message inside saying “because one big cheese deserves another” – that gets such a good response. The whole point is that it will put a smile on someone’s face.

The freedom to be creative, to think of that idea and just make it happen because you don’t have to ask anyone’s permission… especially having always worked in the biggest ad agency in the country – not that Abbott Mead was a bad place to work by any stretch of the imagination.

And what was the most frustrating thing about setting it up?

Ali: It sounds obvious, but I set up an online business yet never really engaged with that fact that… well, in the ad agency if I had a problem I would just call IT dept.

Coming to grips with the digital world – the things that you can no longer turn your eyes away from but you now have to embrace.

And also the really mundane things – not the big things that one would expect. The day when your broadband goes down, and you’re the one on the phone waiting for hours for BT to sort it out.

It’s the minor frustrations of being such a small player. If you’ve set up your own business having worked for a medium to large organisation I think what you miss are the support structures.

If someone starts an online business you expect them to have a natural affinity for technology in the same way that you wouldn’t be an actor if you didn’t know how to act or weren’t interested in theatre.

But the thrust of my idea at the beginning was that you should be able to go somewhere to get more creative and inspirational gifts than endless flowers and champagne. Gifts should make people happy; if they don’t then you’ve failed.

There are things where, if you are looking from an external perspective you’d say “duh, of course it was going to involve those things”. You imagine you spend your evening saying “that would be a great Happy Box combination!” when you actually ask “how do I unsubscribe people from the database”.

Has anything taken you by surprise?

Ali: The huge level of financial, legal and administrative responsibilities and obligations that you never really embraced when you worked for someone else because you didn’t need to.

It seems so obvious – of course there’ll be a lot of admin – but it only becomes real when you’re actually doing it.

Would you do anything different?

Ali: The only thing I would have done – and am still considering – is working with a business partner, because it is quite a lonely job on your own. I mean someone to help with everything from overall strategic planning to through to writing a press release and asking them “does that sound better than that?”

Some people need to be around people; put them in a room on their own and they just die inside. But others like to do things on their own.

Maybe that’s the point – to work out how you work most effectively then make sure you set up in a way that exploits that. I work better in teams, but I chose quite a lonely, individual route.

You’re obviously a good ideas person, but even the most creative people have some bad ideas. Perhaps it would be useful to have a business partner brave enough to tell you when you’ve got it wrong…

Ali: Yeah, exactly: a filter.

Your husband helps doesn’t he?

Ali: Yes and no.

He still works full-time in advertising, but he is a fantastic help from a strategic and a financial perspective. He’s better with numbers than me, so the division of labour makes more sense.

Who else works for you?

Ali: I have a web chap who looks after the web design and updates.

The whole point about Happy Box is that each individual gift is packed to order so it’s all very beautiful and boutique. That’s why we have a team that look after packing and distribution.

We also have a PR.

It’s all very different to having 550 people in the room!

Have you got a five or 10-year plan?

Ali: A five-year plan. It’s very much a general route to keep me on track rather than a road map. Even though we are so new, other opportunities have come along so I have had the flexibility to do them.

Any advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?

Ali: This one’s very personal to me. Just ask for advice – don’t be too proud or too scared. I reached a point in advertising where I knew what I was doing and I had professional esteem.

When you start again in a new environment you are completely back to scratch. It really is about getting on the phone and asking questions.

Network. We set up dinners with lots of other entrepreneurs and share advice. You don’t have to be too proud to share problems because it is difficult – and anyone who says otherwise is fibbing!