Jan Cavelle - Designing an empire from under the stairs
As a teenager, Jan Cavelle went to a very posh UK boarding school which groomed young ladies for marriage. Failing to be groomed, Jan progressed to London and became a ‘suitable secretary’, which lasted about a week.
With a keen desire to be independent, Jan started working her way through a succession of jobs, finding secretarial work a nightmare, and sales easy. She hated being employed and at the mercy of the decisions and expectations of others, so initiated a series of hustles, from selling to catering.
She travelled around Europe and had a memorable job as cook, but also found some excitement in taking an old ferry boat for a test sail to see if she was seaworthy (she wasn’t).
A marriage left Jan with two small kids to support and very little experience to do so. Refusing to go out to work and leave them, she started a small business, telephone selling bits and pieces to interior designers, operating from a shelf under the stairs of her tiny cottage.
After a lot of mistakes and crazy gambles it succeeded and became a multi-million-pound business.
The designers wanted furniture, but as Jan was no furniture designer, she put her sales hat on, looked what sold, and developed her current ranges, earning herself the honourable title of “designer”.
Despite awards and exciting experiences, Jan still struggled with insecurity and imposter syndrome.
Once her son had left for Australia, she struggled to scale the business, not having the same motivation she had with small kids to support, and after several years and progressively worse health, decided to break it up and sell the only bit worth having which was the brand.
It took Jan quite a little while to crawl back out of her hole after that, but she decided she wasn’t beaten. She had always wanted to write since she was small.
Jan’s first book - ‘Scale For Success - Expert insights into growing your business’ is due to be released in 2021, after winning a contract with Bloomsbury Publishing.
So it’s full circle, Jan’s childhood dream out of the ashes.
Socials:
Website - https://jancavelle.co.uk/
FB - Jan Cavelle - Scale for Success @JanCavelleWriter
LinkedIn - Jan Cavelle
Twitter - @jancavelle
Insta - jan.cavelle.scaleforsuccess
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