John and Melissa have proven the mail-order business suits a family lifestyle

A London couple decamped to the countryside to run their own mail-order business and live a more fulfilling lifestyle.

Forty-two-year-old John Nicholson, who had previously ran a business, set up Kettlewell Colours with his wife, Melissa, a 41-year-old who previously worked in fashion industry, in 2004. Moving to rural Somerset, they escaped the intensity of London and hoped to give their children an idyllic childhood.

Krystena Petrakas: Have you always wanted to set up your own business?

John Nicholson: I was already running my own business in London, an audio visual installation company which installed cinemas in people’s homes. I’m probably relatively unemployable to be frank! [laughs]

KP: What encouraged you to start a mail-order business?

JN: We wanted to move out of London. Melissa and I were both brought up in the country and fancied doing the same for our children.

When trying to think of a business we could run from the country a mail-order business struck us as a good idea, particularly with internet sales beginning to boom. It felt like a reasonable punt.

When trying to think of a business we could run from the country a mail-order business struck us as a good idea, particularly with internet sales beginning to boom

KP: Tell us about the initial set-up…

JN: It was stressful. When you’re planning it’s great because there’s lots of blue-sky thinking, but the nuts and bolts of the first couple of years are hard.

KP: Including financially?

JN: Yes. We were fortunate in some ways, as we’d worked in London for 20 years and had a lot of money in our house, which we sold. We then moved into rented accommodation.

It was really worrying the amount of money were losing at the start.

KP: How did you cope?

JN: Personally, not very well [laughs]. But Melissa was brilliant at sticking through it, she’s really strong-hearted.

We learnt to dig deep and believe what we we’re doing was the right life choice.

KP: Does the business fit in with your lifestyle?

JN: Yes, everything is a bit of a compromise but you’ll find that with pretty much every business.

You have to make time for the right reasons. One of us can, for example, pop out on a Wednesday afternoon and watch the kids in a sports match, but generally one of us always has our nose to the grindstone.

My two older daughters have come here on their holidays, stuffing catalogues into envelopes to earn some pocket money, so our business is integrated with the whole family.

KP: What’s a typical day for you?

JN: We work at the office nine till five but office work often gets taken home, and website design gets done later on in the night.

You never stop thinking about work when it’s your own business. It’s like another child in many ways.

If you’re going to make it fly you’ve got to give it 100%, which is sometimes difficult. It’s what we choose to do, but it does take up all your waking hours.

KP: Can that be frustrating?

JN: I wouldn’t choose to do anything differently. What’s frustrating is trying to make customers believe in you, having the perseverance to keep telling them that you’re worth it.

KP: Apart from that though, have you enjoyed it?

JN: Yes: when things are going well it’s a real buzz. It’s feels fantastic to come home after a good day – you feel the world is your oyster!

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