Call for business advice
Case Study: Bloomin' Sexy
There’s always a right time to set up a business according retired nurse and co-founder of Newton Abbot based lingerie business, Bloomin’ Sexy.
During her career as a nurse and midwife for the NHS, Carol Westwood noticed that women were suffering from a lack of body confidence after giving birth – most women feel uncomfortable and can’t find good quality lingerie that made them feel fantastic. And that didn’t chafe!
- Company Name: Bloomin' Sexy
- Website: bloominsexy.com
The birth of Bloomin’ Sexy
With business partner Jill who designs the lingerie, Carol set about providing a quality solution for her niche, and together they created Bloomin’ Sexy.
Like a third of women out there who suffer from thigh-chaffing, Carol tried various solutions, from shorn-off leggings to cycling shorts, specialist creams to talcs, but she wanted something feminine and sexy – something that would make her feel proud of her body rather than ashamed.
She searched all over the world, but it seemed sexy and comfy anti-chafe knickers just didn’t exist…so she decided to fill the gap in the market.
From birth to business
So Carol and Jill had the idea, they had the gap in the market and they had the expertise to fill it. But as most business owners find out, it wasn’t always a smooth sail from concept to success.
“I made some silly investments in our business in the past because we didn’t have the advice or support we needed to make those investments viable.” Says Carol. “But now, we are working with Jane Tope from Business Information Point, and feel much more supported and secure that we can ask advice from Jane before making investments.”
“Carol has been great to work with. She is so open to advice and support from her advisor and through her workshop attendance. Carol knows her own products so well that she can make informed decisions herself based on her early experience of knowing what doesn’t work for her.”
Carol says “knowing that there’s someone there to give advice is really important for us, and it was suggested that we needed to get out and about with our brand so that people could feel and see the quality of our products rather than relying on online sales.”
