“Take the leap, do it, when you fall down pick yourself up. Find your tribe, your cheerleaders, and ignore the doubters. If you have a passion others will see it and buy into it. Do the things you love and outsource the rest!” – Erin Parnell

Founder@ Interview

Interview with Erin Parnell

Credits@ https://www.capturedbycrissi.co.uk/

“Take the leap, do it, when you fall down pick yourself up. Find your tribe, your cheerleaders, and ignore the doubters. If you have a passion others will see it and buy into it. Do the things you love and outsource the rest!.” – Erin Parnell

Today we feature Erin Parnell, the founder at Eternally Cherished UK Ltd. We hear their story in their own words, their successes, their challenges and their insights.

Let’s start by getting to know you. Can you please tell us a little bit about you and what you do?
I am a mum of a wild young girl. She challenges me in so many ways I never knew were possible and she also ignited in me a passion and creativity I never knew I had. Prior to launching my business, I had a moderately successful management career, working my way up.

I had a good salary and was intent on working in the corporate life and rig moral. However whilst off on my short maternity leave, I found creativity and a passion for making keepsake jewellery.

I wanted to craft something to cherish my own breastfeeding journey, which I did. My first piece was the purple heart which is my showcase item. It is also the inspiration behind my logo, with an E in the centre for my daughter’s name Elara. I began my business in 2018 whilst still working full-time and in January 2021 I became, voluntarily, fully-self employed. Running my own business and finally regaining some family time I had missed out on so much.

A great introduction and start to this interview. Can you please tell us, how did you start, from what age, and what made you decide to change direction and start?

Going Self-Employed (Voluntarily) In A Global Pandemic, I Must Be Crazy!
I just cannot carry on like this.

It is 4:30am, still dark outside. The house is silent as I find my clothes that I laid out the night before. Creeping around, I get dressed and go downstairs. I feed the cats as I wait for the kettle to boil. I make myself a coffee, sitting in silence staring out into the garden, slowly watching as the sun starts to rise a little. I am tired, I am emotional, I just do not know how long I can carry on like this.

As I get in the car, it is chilly, but my coffee can keep me warm and awake for my 72-mile commute to work. As I drive on the motorway every overhead sign is telling me “STAY AT HOME”, and I wish with all my heart I could. I realise after a while I am crying, and this continues every day and just will not stop.

The roads are eerily quiet, I barely see another vehicle on the whole 72 miles which is normally cluttered with commuters and angry tired drivers. Once again, overhead signs telling me “STAY AT HOME” and I wish I could just turn the car around and go home. No one sees me like this, crying as I drive to work. Almost all my friends and family are all working from home or furloughed. I see all over social media people complaining about being bored or updating their houses with before and after pictures, in the meantime me and my partner are like ships that pass in the night. Handing off my daughter to one another for 4 months, all the while I am hiding my tears.

Whilst driving, I wait until it is a decent time to call my partner so I can say good morning to him and my daughter. During the working days I see her for a maximum of 30 minutes a day, that is if I do not have a meeting or get stuck in traffic, then I might not see her at all. I can go days without seeing my daughter even though we are in the same house.
I just cannot carry on like this!

I want to work for myself, running my own business. I have been working so hard for the past few years, so you know what, I am going to do it. I am going to put a date in the diary “this is the day I will go self-employed” regardless of the hurdles I may have to jump through, I will do it.

So where did it all begin?

When I found out I was pregnant, my partner and I were pragmatic about the whole thing, and we also knew we did not have a clue about being a parent or caring for a baby. We enrolled onto a 6-week NCT course where we met other pregnant couples. The course was brilliant and the lessons on breastfeeding were very encouraging. I told myself I was going to breastfeed and that was that.

Skip forward, emergency C section, hospital ward, completely out of our depth. The nurse pops my little one on my b**b and she could not latch. All my plans and preparation out the window, I was devastated. I was crying when the nurse came back with a n***le shield, and long story short, it worked. Apparently we have flat n***les in my family, who knew!!

I could see the days counting down to when I had to return to work, I had 4 months maternity leave. I had managed to stash quite a large amount of breastmilk in the freezer, which had been a lot of work, but I was proud of it. It reminded me of this special time I had with her and wanted something to remember it by.

I looked online for some sort of breastmilk keepsake for me to remember my special journey with her, found a company and was about to place an order when I said to my partner, I am going to make something myself. There was a lot of trial and error, but eventually, I managed to find a perfect technique of preserving breastmilk so I could incorporate it into jewellery. Then my first proper piece, the purple heart, which is the inspiration for my logo, with an E in it for Elara.

She is the inspiration for my business and triggered a creativity in my I never knew I had. Stepping into Self-Employment, well more like jumping headfirst!
OK, so WOW 2020 what a year, looking back it feels surreal but most importantly we are here, we made it this far! I guess the start to this year did not go as everyone planned. You remember that date I was on about, well it happened and now I am self-employed, as planned, despite the global pandemic. What does it feel like I hear you ask, well, simply put, it is terrifying!

I guess it is normally a big leap of faith to go self-employed full stop, but to do it during a global pandemic may seem like utter madness, maybe it is, I guess mad people don’t really know they are mad, do they?
2020 taught me so much about myself and my business. It taught me that family is so important. I was too busy being caught up in the monotony of routine to really realise what I had been missing.

I went back to full-time employment when my daughter was 4 months old, I had just launched my business. My partner took 5 months shared parental leave. So, he had more time with her than I ever did, which at the time seemed amazing for him and I did what needed to be done.

When I launched my business, I joined a few business groups and was recommended a local Hampshire Women in Business Group. I joined as a bit of a lurker and made a few connections but stayed in the background a lot. Never really believing I was a businesswoman.

Then in 2020 I told myself that if I wanted to be serious about making significant changes to my life then I would need to be more visible, more present, and be more out there. This is not something that comes naturally to me, I am a confident person, but a natural introvert, so I like to sit back and observe. However, I can not do that if I want to move on, grow and develop, in my business and as a person.

I decided to try networking, which was ideal as due to the Pandemic it was all online, so I did not need to go anywhere and try and find time for that. I did not really know what it was all about to be honest. I developed relationships with people, got to know people on a personal level and even collaborated with another Hampshire based business, Silver Beats & Treats who I continue to work with now.

The community of Hampshire Women in Business supports me, helps me, and they are my biggest cheerleaders.
I achieved a lot in 2020, I was nominated for various awards, a finalist for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, a winner in the Women Who Achieve Awards but my biggest success was gaining clarity.

The clarity for what I want my life to be like. The clarity for how I want to live. This year, being self-employed, I have launched a new business, re-built my website, added new lines, collaborated with new businesses, and rested.

Most importantly to me, I have been able to collect my daughter from nursery. We have walked home together every day, regardless of the weather, we have played, we have cooked and eaten as a family, and it has been everything I wanted it to be. Long gone are the days where I would see her for a few minutes just to say goodnight, or the morning telephone calls. Therefore, I tell myself, I will be successful.

I have already lost so much time I will never get back; I will not lose anymore. What is it like jumping headfirst into self-employment? Terrifying, but worth everything.

What does it mean to have truly “made it”?

Some people get gratification from reaching the next promotion, the next rung of the ladder, the next pay bracket, but when have we finally made it? What does it mean to truly have made it?

I guess for a lot of us it is a comfortable retirement, or a directorship or a comfortable financial position. This is not the case for me. From a career point of view, I can keep going, keep climbing that ladder, keep achieving, but you know what, I do not want to!

I did not make that ladder, it is some one else’s, they made it, they created it, and they hold the power to who gets to the top or not. I want to wield my own power; I want to step off someone else’s ladder and just be free.
My business is three and a half years old. I have built it form scratch.

I have taught myself so much to be able to get it to a stage where I am being recognised on such levels as The Great British Entrepreneur Awards, The Family Business of the Year Awards and much more.

But what will it mean to have truly made it? When will enough be enough? When will I stop? For me, honestly, never as it just is not in my nature. I have taken all that ambition and drive and put it into my business. I am my own boss, I write my own hours, I make up my own rules.

Knowing that if my daughter asks, “Can we go for a walk in the woods today?” I do not have to even think about it, I will not need to worry about what I will be compromising in order to take that time out of my day for her. I will not need to worry about being too tired, although I am sure mum-tired never really goes away.

I think that is when I will have truly made it. When I can start saying yes, saying yes to opportunities, saying yes to friends and family and saying yes to life.

Taking a little step back, to assess and think about what this means to me gives me even more fire in my belly to achieve it. Am I there yet, hell no. Do I have financial stability, also, hell no! But is it worth it, hell f***ing yes it is!

I want to thank all the inspirational women I am surrounded by who are my cheerleaders. Hearing their stories, hearing their setbacks and how they overcame them gives me so much motivation, I watch and learn in awe.
I hope one day I can inspire, even just one person, to live their dream like others have inspired me to live mine, and then maybe, just maybe, I will have made it.

Thank you for that insight. So can you tell us…What does your business do and where is your company based?

Eternally Cherished is a keepsake jewellery and gift company that is based in Hampshire. Eternally Cherished handcrafts peoples cherished memories into beautiful items of jewellery. Specialising in, but not limited to, breastmilk, umbilical, hair, placenta and more.

The business grew out of my own breastfeeding journey which meant so much to me and I wanted to share my love of all things pretty with others, so they too could have something special to cherish.

What’s the story behind your success? What led to your aha moment? how did you get to where you are now?

Grit and determination have helped me push myself outside my comfort zone. Lots of trial and error, gaining feedback, and the willingness to learn have helped me become an award-winning business that has increased revenues by 300% in 3 1/2 years.

I have had to learn about SEO, which I didn’t really know was a thing until now, and had to learn about marketing, advertising, social media. As a small start-up business, I am a one-woman band, I need to make sure I know about all of these things, I have done a tonne of free and paid courses so I can be self-sufficient. One day I will be able to hire people to do this for me, however for now I do it all myself.

Being self-employed can be a lonely place, but I have found some very good networking groups who have become some of my biggest cheerleaders.

Thank you for sharing that. What’s been your life’s biggest lesson so far?

The biggest lesson I have learnt is to persevere. To not get disgruntled when you fail, take the learnings from it to ensure it doesn’t happen again. You have to be pretty resilient as a founder, it really is a lot of ups and downs. Celebrate the wins and learn from the losses, but whatever you do just keep going. If you have a passion for something then others will believe it and buy into that.

I wish I had known there was a great community of like-minded women out there with the same dreams and aspirations whom I could have connected with sooner to help me realize my dream sooner.

If you were to go back in time, what piece of advice would you give to your younger self?

I would tell myself to do it sooner! I have 100% faith in myself even when others don’t. I remember people’s faces when I told them I started a breastmilk jewellery business, as that was it was when I first launched, and people would think I was crazy.

When I told people I was going self-employed, they were critical and encouraged me not to do it. There will always be a reason not to do something, but there is always a now or never. If I don’t do it now then when?

I would tell myself, you can and will achieve a lot, do it sooner and don’t listen to the doubters. You know what you are capable of and you will do great things.

We’re nearly halfway through our interview so it’s a great time to ask how does your business run. What three tools make your business run better?

Getting a professional accountant to do my books is a saving grace I never knew I needed. You see all sorts of adverts where you can do it yourself, but I am so thankful it is the one thing I outsource. I am much better off spending my time doing the things I love, enjoy, and know and leaving that up to the professionals. My first year I got so stressed trying to do my accounts that it took over my life for a short time, then I found my accountant and she’s awesome. Now I spend a few minutes each month answering the odd query and the rest is done for me.

What do you know now that you wished you had known before?

I wish I had known there was a great community of like-minded women out there with the same dreams and aspirations whom I could have connected with sooner to help me realize my dream sooner.

Credits@ https://www.capturedbycrissi.co.uk/

What has been your greatest or proudest achievement or moment?

I believe that my proudest moment is being recognized by fellow women in business for an award. These amazing women awarded me with an award for women who achieve and that meant the world to me. 2020 was such a touch year and to be recognized by my peers made all the hard work, blood sweat and tears worth it.

What future life goals do you want to achieve and why?

I would like to globally franchise my business so that people around the world can benefit from these beautiful keepsakes. I do ship internationlly but feel that I can help other women start their own business using my model so they can have the freedom to have a wonderful family life balance and financial freedom doing something they love.

To finish our inspire questions…”We believe that sharing inspiring words can inspire others.” If there was one positive thing you would say to someone to inspire and empower them what would it be and why?

Take the leap, do it, when you fall down pick yourself up. Find your tribe, your cheerleaders, and ignore the doubters. If you have a passion others will see it and buy into it. Do the things you love and outsource the rest!

“Thank you it has been great learning more about your founder story and Eternally Cherished UK Ltd”

To learn more about Eternally Cherished UK Ltd Visit www.eternallycherished.co.uk

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