Enterprise Nation

Lisa Swerling  doesn’t just run one home business, nor does she run two. She runs three successful businesses under one single roof. Two are joint ventures with her husband and one with her best friend. Lisa tells us how she goes about it.

Which of your companies came first?

• I founded Last Lemon (www.lastlemon.com), the cartoon licensing business, with my husband Ralph Lazar in 1999. That consumed our working lives, and still does. Once that business was on a secure footing (i.e. we had developed solid relationships with licensees and our cartoon properties had a proven track record of success) we could afford to relax somewhat and pursue more experimental projects. 
• The Glass Cathedrals (www.glasscathedrals.com) business (a range of art-boxes containing miniature scenes) started very slowly about 5 years ago. Ralph and I found that success in the cartoon-licensing business came at a creative cost - once we had learnt what worked commercially for greeting cards, that became our primary motivation when creating new work. We had strayed from our original artistic roots. So - we decided to hold an art exhibition. We hired a giant gallery in Shoreditch, invited everyone we knew, and then....had to make some art to fill the space! Under that self-imposed pressure, Ralph started creating his inside-out maps (www.ralphlazar.com) and I began to make Glass Cathedrals. From selling a dozen or two in the first year I now sell in the hundreds, just through word of mouth and small infrequent exhibitions. 
• Bread and Jam, (www.ilovebreadandjam.com) the children's clothing label, is the new kid on the block. I founded it last year with my best friend from university, Sofia Dyson, but it had been incubating for years, before we found the time and head space to actualize our dream of setting up a children's clothing label.

Do you apply the same talent and skills across each of your companies?

I would describe myself as talented rather than skilled! i.e. basically unemployable... 

I have built up a competence in graphic design over the years. This ability to transform an idea into something tangible and presentable very easily, is invaluable across all my companies.

I guess there is a talent in following your heart - none of my businesses feel like work. 

Drawing and colouring-in (Last Lemon), making up stories and playing with glitter (Glass Cathedrals) and cooing over beautiful fabrics (Bread and Jam) - I've loved doing these things since I was a child!

How do you most effectively manage your time?

I work roughly 4 days on Last Lemon, 1 day on Bread and Jam, and evenings/weekends on Glass Cathedrals. Saying that I do find myself switching between the three different jobs in a day. I do love that. 

For me personally the key to managing my time is to work in partnerships. I worked alone for a few years and was woefully unproductive. Ralph is the macro-man who makes sure Last Lemon keeps moving and growing - no time for endless micro-tweeking. 

Sofia and I designed the Bread and Jam business around the fact that it had to be manageable time-wise, as we both have young families and other work (she is an engineer). So we focussed on a ridiculously simple equation - one dress style - manufactured in limited edition production runs, created in dozens of beautiful different fabrics. This model, borne of necessity, has happily coincided with commercial success. Our customers love the simplicity of the Bread and Jam label, but share the excitement we feel in getting new fabrics.

My secret weapon is my List of Things to Do. I have been writing them since I was a teenager, nothing fancy, no timetabling or scheduling. One of life's pleasures is crossing things off that list, even if it's just posting a letter.

And of course if you love your work it doesn't feel like work and effectively replaces leisure time. 

The challenge has been managing the work - family balance. 

When I was just working on Last Lemon I learnt to keep business and family time completely separate or feel a complete failure in both. 

However with Glass Cathedrals the girls don't mind in the least, me rampaging around with pots of glitter and glue, whilst they do their art. It's parallel play! 

Then with Bread and Jam  - the universes converging -  the girls are my inspiration, models, and advisers.

What are your plans for 2010?

• Last Lemon  - my husband Ralph and I have just launched an extremely exciting web project www.smories.com, a free website for kids to watch little films of new stories being read by other kids.  It's also a place for unpublished children's story writers to get their work published free online (and without the need for illustrations), whilst retaining all rights. 

In order to attract great stories, we have created a £1000 prize for the most popular one submitted each month. They have already started flooding in. The best 50 stories will be filmed next month and the site will go live for visitors in May. 

We thought a website that had a continuous flow of new stories, read aloud by kids, would make a healthier destination than so much of the stuff out there. Imagine you're stuck in traffic and need to keep a miniature person entertained in the back. Download a playlist of smories stories on your i-phone and voila... 

• Glass Cathedrals - my latest innovation with Glass Cathedrals it to make a more bespoke artwork. The first such design was released in February.  In Evergreen, an elderly couple, partners for life, sit peacefully below a huge oak tree. Engraved on the trunk are their (customised) initials. I have had a fabulous response to Evergreen.
• Bread and Jam - Bread and Jam dresses are effectively 'Limited Editions' - we don't make too many of each dress - and people love this exclusivity, bought at a reasonable price.  We will be promoting this brand u.s.p. in 2010. We have already got a wonderfully loyal following online, and we will be building on that by giving subscribers exclusive first dibs on some very very limited edition dresses!  

Our distribution is going to grow considerably in 2010. The (visionary!!) girl's clothing buyer at John Lewis, Lindsay Dickson, loved the way that Bread and Jam dresses capture the innocence and colour of childhood. She spotted us when we were just a few weeks old last year! We have just launched Spring/Summer in a few of their big stores and are planning our collection for Autumn/Winter. 

Lisa Swerling talks to Enterprise Nation about her thriving ventures.

Lisa - we’ll watch your progress with interest!