Laura Tenison MBE founded her niche baby wear and goods business JoJo Manan Bebe before she was a mum. But she confessed to an audience at the Salisbury Big Business Event that she had a much better idea about what to make for young children after starting a family.

“Having my own kids really helped. So many of best selling designed when my children were little,” said Laura.

She managed to turn a backroom start-up to a multi-million pound international company through organic growth, but she had some rules for success.

She said companies need to be proactive with marketing, have a good web presence, use social media (it is free advertising), have brand consistency, offer great service and offer a point of difference in their goods or service.

It was also important to analyse and evaluate all that company is doing.

The award winning businesswoman said she believed one of the keys to her success was loyalty. She described a trip to a potential supplier in China who she discovered, only on arrival, produced cheap bonded rainwear.

The owners asked her to teach them to sow. “I did it because I had nowhere to go for a day. Today they are now supplying JoJo Mama with 750,000 garments.”