More personal gifts for book-lovers can seem few and far-between…enter My Chronicle Book Box! With a little help from Launchpad, owner Louise Driffield was able to turn her idea into a reality, as unLTD’s Sasha Mossman found out
Tell us all about your company!
My Chronicle Book Box is a subscription service where people can buy bespoke reading-focused boxes. We do two different types of boxes – one goes out every three months and contains three books, and then we have a monthly crime box which we started recently.
These are newly released books we’ve chosen, that are then signed. We then include an interview with the author, and we put what we call ‘bookish goodies’ in along with them that complement the books. It’s something you can’t find on the High Street.
Our bookish goodies are often bespoke and exclusive to My Chronicle.
When did you first decide to start up on your own and what inspired you?
I’ve always wanted to run my own business – it’s been something in the back of my mind. What really changed for me to be able to make that step was having children. I had my first daughter and two years later I had twins – a lot of young children close together!
My work-life balance wasn’t working for the family, I wanted something more flexible. That was the tipping point that made me go, ‘yeah, I’m going to give this a go.’
How has Launchpad helped you?
I first went to Launchpad when I very started the business on a very small scale. By that point we were just seeing what would happen – testing the market, really.
You cover so much as a business owner and Launchpad were brilliant at helping to fill in the gaps. You just need to talk things through with someone with a bit more of an in-depth knowledge. They helped me to ask questions I didn’t know I needed to ask.
What do you think of the Sheffield City Region as a place to start a business?
My experience has been very positive! There are so many events and so much support.
The Launchpad Awards were especially great as I met a lot of fellow businesspeople who seemed to be in a similar position to me, doing very well.
I’m connected to a lot of local suppliers for the boxes as we didn’t want to import from abroad – we’re big on UK-sourced products.
What are your hope and aims for the business?
Definitely to get bigger and better! At the moment, it’s just me doing everything, and I’d love to be able to employ other people.
I just love providing these gifts to people and we get such lovely feedback – especially from those who’ve bought gifts for others. To be able to do that for more people, to spread the love of books and reading further would be fantastic.
Launchpad advisor Nicole Harte said:
“I love that Louise’s passion for books has been the driving force behind her creating such a fantastic ecommerce business. In a world full of kindles, My Chronicle Book Box brings the excitement back to into reading paperback and provides such a unique offer to book lovers. It has been a pleasure to work with Louise on developing her business and to see her go on to win Rising Star of the Year Award. I can’t wait to see where the business goes next and Launchpad will be here to support her every step of the way.
“Starting and growing a business is not easy and that’s why the Launchpad programme was created. Part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and our partners means there is no cost to the entrepreneur, so we can get straight to work on turning those dreams into reality.
