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Interviews with Working Mothers

Meet Gill Levett, mother of three and founder of 1click2cook.com

Gill Levett refers to herself as an ‘old bird’, but as soon as you speak to her you realize that while she may be 46, the energy and drive behind the bubbly personality gives a very different impression.

Gill has been a successful businesswoman several times over while bringing up two children (Nick, 19, currently on a gap year in Chamonix and Katie, just turned 16, who wants a career in fashion publishing) as well as step-daughter Emilia, aged 12.

And once you know about the three children, it makes her career path seem even more ambitious. But her ambition, coupled with innovation and determination, has led to several successful businesses.

“I am a ‘driven’ person, so the fact that I am a Mother too, has never presented a problem. I enjoyed bringing up the children when they were younger and did my best to spend time with them, do things with them and be at matches and concerts etc. After all, before you know it, they’re teenagers and then they really are ‘gone’, so you have to make every moment count on the way up.” She says.

In the 1980s Gill founded the first of her food related companies, the Sandwich Manufacturing Business. At its peak, turnover reached £1.5 million and 80 staff were employed. It was sold it in 1990 to a major Catering company for in excess of £500,000.

She then devoted her time to bringing-up her young family and in her free time pursued a love of Show jumping and Eventing, including training and selling ponies and horses. But as is often the case with working mothers, she eventually realised that she enjoyed business too much to stay at home and subsequent projects included mainly sales-based businesses.

Then, during 1998, together with her husband, she identified a need for an up-market children’s Indoor Playcentre, and they opened Arctic Jungle, in Crawley, in November 2002 (www.arcticjungle.co.uk). There are currently 25 staff and the business has a turnover of in excess of £500,000. However, this business has a full-time management team and Gill’s involvement is strategic, which is one thing she has learned over the years.

“I am a terrible manager but a great motivator! Luckily I am great at employing fantastic managers. You have to be very tough, decide each week how you are going to divide your time to combine husband, kids, work and you and get on with it. I’ve also learned not to be afraid to ask family and friends for support and to always offer lifts etc when you have time, so you aren’t embarrassed to ask for a favour another time!”

And now, Gill has launched her latest venture, 1click2cook.com, a website which gives you recipes and shopping lists (which you could then place online for home delivery) to take the stress out of planning food for the family for the week.

“I had the idea for 1click2cook, in November 2005, after watching a very well known celebrity chef in an advert. He was telling me ‘not to be boring next time I went shopping and buy something new’.

“What a thought, window shopping on a Saturday in the supermarket! As a busy Mum working full-time, I'd been cooking most evenings for 18 years and had grown to resent the time it took to find new recipes every week and then make them into a shopping list. On occasion, I'd also found myself in the supermarket on a Saturday, hoping I wouldn't see anyone I knew..because my trolley had so many packet meals in!! These were an easy option after a really busy week, when I had simply run out of time to plan in advance.

“After watching this advert, I found myself thinking what a great idea it would be to create a website, which would take all the effort out of the boring bits - choosing what to eat week after week and making the shopping list.”

So far, the site is doing well and was interesting enough for Gill to be asked to audition for the infamous business programme, Dragon’s Den. Shortlisted from 4000 to 200 is no mean feat but sadly, not down to the final 100 this time round.

As you might expect with Gill, there are already plans for the next phase of the site. For instance, she is launching ‘Student survival’ in September. This will be an add-on to the programme that a parent can buy for their child going to university, inspired by her own children about to face the perils of cooking for themselves on a student budget.

There will also be different menus, for instance ‘Bikini busters’, ‘Dinner Parties’ etc. and they are also looking to expand the number of partners they have providing good locally grown food.

So what advice does Gill have for any mothers out there thinking of starting thier own businesses?

"You have to do the research on your potential market and I mean really research it, because one thing’s for sure, the costs will be double and the sales will be half what you predict. Trust me, I’ve been there. When I was younger I would never have considered research to be important. I would have relied on ‘my gut feeling'.I suspect that is a way of saying I was too lazy to do it.

"Now, I would never contemplate a new project, without first undertaking some sensible ‘leg-work’ research, done by me."

But with all the work that Gill does, she also recognises that is is important to have proper family time as well and to make sure that work doesn't take over too much.

"I have always planned ‘family days’ and even now I take each child out individually each half term, to spend some special time with them alone. It makes them feel special and makes me feel good too!"

Vist 1click2cook.com at www.1click2cook.com where there is 50% off the first 3 months paid subscription to the site for mother@work readers! Simply quote MAW7 when subscribing. Valid until June 30th 2007.