B spoke to Iza Minkiewicz about her children’s clothing, furniture and accessories store, Blue Almonds
“I got business degrees from universities in Poland and Germany and started my career at a management consultancy company working in Munich and Warsaw. Like many Polish people, I then decided to move to London to look for new opportunities.
“I started out in the financial industry and spent a couple of years at one of London’s larger hedge funds.
“Whilst I don’t come from a family of entrepreneurs, doing my own thing has always been my vision of life. After trying some office work, I found it too structured and limiting and decided that my own business would be a much better expression of my talents and personality! With your own business, only sky is the limit and this is what makes it exciting and challenging.
“I wanted to make a transition from the financial world into my own business world which coincided with my husband and I starting to consider the wonderful but challenging realities of having our own child.
“My friends started having babies and there was a constant need for gifts, so I became quite familiar with all the baby shops around. My inspiration must have come there, even though – that that point – I was still considering various other business opportunities. Although my final business choice felt a bit random, given that I no prior experience in this field, it instantly felt a very natural fit for me and I love the fact that I could so easily relate to my pregnant customers as a mum-to-be myself.
“By the time I had my first child, I had a pretty good idea about the baby industry and where to go for certain things. Having said that, I remember needing something cosy and easy to wrap my baby in for early Autumn days and that’s is how our idea for the cashmere sleeping bag came about.
“I created this product in collaboration with British cashmere designer Madeleine Thompson (whose women’s range sells at Net A Porter and Harvey Nichols) and it is still one of our best sellers at Blue Almonds. It is a beautiful cashmere sleeping bag with a hood and a front fastening zip. It’s lined in silk and comes in grey, cream, pink and blue and is very luxurious.
“I felt strongly that my vision of Blue Almonds was to provide a service by a mother to a mother, rather than a purely focused commercial business perspective. I am delighted to say that over the years, this is what it has become. It so happened that my son Filip is only a year younger than Blue Almonds (which celebrates 10 years this year) and they are both, and always will be, my babies.
“My work gives me plenty of opportunity to be creative. I enjoy having the freedom to decide which direction I would like my business to go. The changing face of retail means that businesses have had to redefine themselves and I like the challenge of finding ways in which to keep driving customers into our shop and online.
“Collaborations are an exciting way to create something new and exclusive and are also a way for us to create our own products. I am particularly excited about our recently launched layette collection with Kissy Kissy to celebrate our tenth birthday. It’s a brand I have always loved and which my kids have worn, so I was delighted when the opportunity to collaborate with them came about. The collection comprises a babygro, hat, bib and blanket in white in Kissy Kissy’s signature Peruvian Pima cotton and features our iconic rocking horse logo in pink, blue and grey.
“The best way to find inspiration for new products is to travel. Wherever I go privately or on business, I always make a point to pop into baby shops, where I almost always find a new discovery. I also spend much of my time browsing magazines, You Tube and Instagram, which are all a constant source of ideas.
“New ideas can also come from anywhere! I remember being at the hairdresser’s and flicking through a copy of Tatler when I saw a funky chair with bunny ears inspired by Alice in Wonderland. And now the chair can be found taking pride of place at Blue Almonds behind by desk on the shop floor!
“Combining work and family life is always tricky. I think I have accepted the fact that I will never be 100% here or there at the same time but I can have my little successes and failures and still be happy and fulfilled as a mother and businesswoman at the same time.
“I am grateful for the fact that I can sometimes take time out to focus on my children and the family, especially during challenging times. For example, this September my son started boarding school at the same time as my daughter started nursery, both of which were emotionally challenging events for me and my husband.
“Sometimes I need to spend a lot of time at work – whether it’s long hours in the shop or travelling, but such is the nature of the job. The key is to love what you do and everything will fall into place.
“My greatest indulgence is doing something totally for myself. I love taking time to go somewhere on my own, with the focus on rebalancing my mind and sprit and on exercise too.
“If you want to try to get the best of both worlds – working and being a mummy -first of all, congratulate yourself on the fact that you are an ambitious woman and that you are living your life to its full by trying to doing both. Establish some boundaries so that you are clear what is family and what is work time. You want great results in both, so you need to be clear and firm once that you have defined your vision.
“However, don’t beat yourself up if things are not going according to plan; it’s normal to question your decisions, particularly when they have an impact on your life as a mother. Make sure you escape from both from time to time, so you can distance yourself from everything and take some precious time to focus on yourself. It’s OK to be selfish every now and then.
“The worst purchase I ever made was a designer nappy bag. It looked smart, but was over-complicated and didn’t work from a parent’s perspective. I could never remember which pocket I put things in and it drove me nuts. I gave it away and bought a much more user-friendly replacement!
“The most essential product for me was the aden+anais over-sized muslin. I bought it in a few different cool prints and I honestly couldn’t have lived without them! They were essential as light cover in Summer, as both of my kids are Summer kids and they always made me feel like a cool mama too!”
Bue Almonds celebrates its 10th Anniversary this year. To find out more, visit the website.