, on maternity leave. ‘Within a year we had bagged Carlsberg as a client and have never looked back,’ says Hilary. ‘My daughter, now eight, was under Great Ormond Street and on steroids for the first 18 months and by working from home it meant she could stay with me and not go to nursery where she may’ve fallen ill.’Rhianne started Cley Celebrations which is a children's party supplies store, in August 2017.
"When I found out I was pregnant in the April of 2017, I was working a desk job at Camden Council. I’d always loved the idea of running my own business and thought that this might be the right time to start thinking about starting it. So, before I even went on maternity leave I was determined to start something and use what I thought would be “free time” get things going.
"I then went back to work part time so carried it on as a side hustle. I found it too difficult to work, look after my son and the house AND run my business so I knocked it on the head." "When my second son was 10 months old in 2016, I decided to start up the business again as I had 2 months of maternity leave left and I didn’t want to go back to work in my regular job."
"So I went into my garage, dusted off my engraving machine, restarted up my business facebook page and 2 years later I have a business that is really starting to pay off. It’s taken a lot of hard work and long, long hours but it’s been totally worth it!"