Tidy hi! Jemma the label lady wins the day
The Label Lady Jemma Solomon has turned her passion for being organised into a successful business. She talks to Candice Krieger.
Jemma Solomon loves lists. And labels. So much so that she turned her passion into a successful business, building an online community of over 760,000 followers and securing investment from Lord Sugar. And now Jemma, aka The Label Lady, wants to help others achieve their goals in business or beyond, with the publication of her first book, Love Lists and Labels.
In Love, Lists and Labels, out today, Jemma shares her stories, how the business helps her manage her anxiety, plus tips and hacks to help readers organise their lives and achieve their dreams.
The Essex-based mum-of-three, and sister of TV personality Stacey Solomon, started The Label Lady in 2020, leaving her full-time role as an NHS paediatric nurse to do so.
She creates easy-to-apply bespoke labels to help people organise their belongings, be it in the office, home, school or pretty much anywhere. Customers can choose from a variety of pre-made labels or customise their own.
Jemma, 33, tells the Jewish News: “For me, being organised and running a business has really helped with my anxiety and to focus on getting where I want to be, and I really want to help others achieve what they want to. If you have ever dreamed of opening up a small business, there’s no reason that you can’t, and I hope this book inspires people to build a business that’s right for them.”
Jemma’s anxiety manifest after the traumatic birth of her first child, Darcy – something she is refreshingly open about in the book. “It wasn’t the baby that caused my anxiety – it was the trauma of the birth and not knowing how to deal with it. It was about having too much time to think about things.” She says: “People ask me if I have more anxiety now because of the business but actually, no, work is a distraction and keeping busy is what’s good for me.
“It doesn’t matter where your anxiety comes from, it’s about finding what triggers it and what helps.”
The Label Lady “sort of happened by accident,” explains Jemma. “I had stepped down from a full-time nursing role in 2019 to look for a new role within the NHS, which meant I had more time at home. I started using my label machine for things around the house to get organised. After doing that for a few months my family kept saying “Why don’t you try this as a job?” and I thought; “I suppose I could give it a go.”
Jemma was regularly doing 20-hour days to build the business and her dining table became her production table, until husband Lee built her first proper workspace during Lockdown – a den in the back garden.
It was in 2021 that Lord Sugar invested. “It all started with an email. I followed Lord Sugar on Twitter and had seen that sometimes he would put out tweets saying that if you were a small business and you were looking for investment then come forward. I’d seen it a couple of times but never thought anything of it, but then I thought ‘Why not?’ I remember talking to my sister and saying: “I don’t know if I should be doing this, he’s just going to laugh at me.’ But he didn’t!”
Lord Sugar is regularly involved in the company and at board meetings. “We discuss how the business is doing and he has a team that I can regularly tap into. I’m forever asking questions and I think that’s so important. I want to suck up as much as I can.”
Jemma is still putting in the late shifts but has since moved to HQ in Essex and grown to a team of ten. She credits a lot of her success to her family, particularly the support of husband Lee – they have three children together aged ten and under.
“The biggest thing for me is knowing that no matter what, I always have that family support behind me. And I don’t mean that financially, I mean in an emotional way. I want to try for things that I’ve never tried before, and it isn’t always going to work, but knowing I have my family there to pick me up and say ‘try again’ is what keeps me going.”
Jemma runs everything by her younger sister, Stacey, who is a regular presenter on Loose Women and also known for her crafty interior creations and DIY hacks. “Sometimes we even laugh about it and say: ‘Why are we even running this by each other?’ But I think it’s that fall back again of having the support of your family and knowing that they will tell you the truth– constructive criticism is so important. We are constantly talking and sharing new ideas.”
Being organised clearly runs in the family; Stacey is the presenter of BBC’s Sort Your Life Out, where she helps families declutter and transform their homes, and the author of Tap to Tidy: Organising, Crafting & Creating Happiness in a Messy World.
Jemma says it’s been embedded in them after growing up with tidy parents.
“It wasn’t until we started writing the books that we reflected and realised how many little things happened when we were younger that influence us now. Our mum would sort all the Lego out into the little people and flowers etc and organise our bedrooms. Don’t get me wrong, we could be messy – but we loved going in and seeing that organisation.”
Being organised is vital when it comes to running a small business, says Jemma, “especially if you are the business. You are your own tax person, your own buyer, your own customer service…There are so many different roles you take on, so without any form or order, it becomes overwhelming and you might give up.”
Such a strong work ethic was instilled in the Solomon sisters from a young age. “We come from a working family. I’ve never known anything different but to work.” Jemma started work aged 14, doing after school and holiday shifts in a nursery, working though her GCSEs and A-levels. “I don’t come from wealth, anything I want I need to work for.”
She acknowledges that small businesses are facing extremely challenging times. “The cost of living is very real. I’m trying to employ people and pay them a decent rate, plus their national insurances and pensions, but I can’t do that if I am fighting a government that is pushing more and more on to me.
“Small businesses should be the crux of our economy yet more and more are closing because they can’t compete with the taxes and increased charges, and it’s so sad. “You have people that genuinely want to work and be part of the economy but they can’t afford to. It would be nice to see more support and initiatives for small businesses for sure.”
In the meantime, Jemma will continue to juggle growing her business and being a hands-on mum – she spoke to me while she was on the way to the school pick up.
“I hope the book inspires people to follow their dreams. You only live once – go for it.”
Love, Lists and Labels by Jemma Solomon (Ebury Spotlight, £16.99) is published on 22nd June.
JEMMA’S TOP TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
- Knowing your worth is really important, charging for time is a really difficult thing for people to do and you have to really grow a backbone to be able to say; “I’m working this hard and need to be paid for it.”
- Be prepared to work the hardest that you’ve ever worked. When it’s your business, everything comes back to you, but the rewards are worth it
- Research – use your family and friends to test things out first
- Believe in yourself. You only live once – go for it.
- Follow The Label Lady on social media:
INSTAGRAM – @Label.lady.1
WEBSITE – www.thelabellady.shop
TWITTER – @the_labellady
FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/thelabellady.shop/
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