We got the opportunity sit down with one of our newest customers, Consultea, to find out more about their history, what they love about BASE, and their advice for new businesses.
Consultea has two streams to its business. We provide business transformation consultancy and solutions to clients, including supporting large public sector change programmes and private sector improvement initiatives. Services range from programme delivery, leading PMOs and design teams, to the development of people and talent solutions to bring organisations together and build capability for the future.
Alongside our core business, Consultea is building its first ecommerce shop, Lift Me Up Crafts, which produces and sells handmade gifts showcasing inspirational quotes.
When and why did you start your business?
We launched Consultea in 2014, more out of necessity, rather than a solid plan to start our own business. Both myself and my husband, Adrian, worked for a consultancy firm with public sector clients and I decided to take a career break to raise our young children. When I returned to work almost five years later, we decided that we wanted more control and flexibility over the clients we worked with and were also in a position where we could take more risks around our income streams.
What does your business do and who does it help?
For the majority of the last 10 years, we have delivered business consultancy services, focusing on large scale transformation programmes and have had the privilege of working with some great public sector clients. More recently, we have branched into the private sector, supporting firms that have experienced rapid growth through acquisition and needed to transition from a collection of smaller businesses into single organisations.
In the last year, alongside our consultancy work, we have taken on a new project to launch an ecommerce shop, called Lift Me Up Crafts. This is a super fun endeavour and has forced us to learn new skills and explore our creativity.
What do you love about working at BASE?
BASE is a great place to locate our business. The space feels creative and we have been able to build the right environment and set up for our business. It is super flexible and the team are really supportive and what we love most is the sense of community. Running a small business can feel very isolating at times, but at BASE even if everyone is working independently, you see friendly faces every day and can always find someone to talk with.
If there is anything you could share with other businesses about what you wished you knew when you started your business, what would it be?
What do I wish I had known when we started our business? When we started, there was a fair amount of anxiety about if it would work and also as a parent returning to work after an extended break, I believed that my career break would make it more difficult to find clients. I was wrong. People really didn’t care that I had an almost 5-year break and actually recognised that I gained useful life experience during that time. New clients were focused on the now and what we could bring to their project. We used our network to find our first clients and have been going strong ever since.
What has been your biggest challenge to date?
The biggest challenge for us has to be extended working from home. Having mostly worked at home for the last four years, it has started to impact my wellbeing and mental health. This was a big part of our move to BASE. I can already feel the positive difference in creating a new routine of going to BASE for work and of having greater separation between home and work.
What has been your biggest success to date?
I think our biggest success has to be creating enough stability in the business that we can dedicate more time to new initiatives such as building our ecommerce shop. We have also struck a balance between work and life and secured time away from the business between projects to focus on family life and our own personal interests.
What is next for your business? What projects/ambitions do you have for the future?
2024 will see us secure new clients for our business consultancy and, hopefully, if all goes to plan, we will see growth in our ecommerce shop and its social media followers.
