company overview Welcome to the Business Owners Magazine quick interview – conducted in a very socially distanced fashion! Here we try and get an insight into a company leader and their industry to find out what makes them tick and how their challenges and lessons could help you in your business.
big red box pr
- Name
Louise Bruce
- Company
Big Red Box PR
- Position
Managing Director
- Industry
Public Relations
What was your first job or role after education? Having been politely asked to ‘leave’ boarding school at the age of 16, I moved to London and completed my studies at a crammer college. A few days after my final exam I realised I needed money to fund my chronic coloured tights and B&H habit, so I put on my best frock and went into every shop on Sloane Street, asking for a job in each until I got one. I started work at designer clothes retailer, Joseph Bis, a few days later. I learned so much from that job. a) Standing up all day is agony. b) Rich and famous people can be incredibly rude (Lauren Bacall was one of the worst). c) Never trust clothes in a sale; my uniform I’d been washing and wearing the entire season was marked down to half price and sold to the unsuspecting public. Could you describe your career path for the reader? I was married at 23 and spent 18yrs as the wife of a British Army Officer; a role I took very seriously and put my heart and soul into. Living all over the world and adapting
to many challenging circumstances (bombs in Belfast, Battalion deployment to Bosnia and the Gulf War etc), gave me an incredible training for the job I do today. Whilst stationed in Osnabruck, Germany, I secured a job writing for a British Army newspaper, Sixth Sense. The stories I wrote varied from reports on the latest Wives’ Club fundraiser to interviewing military personnel. I was paid by the word, so worked hard to find as many interesting stories on my patch as I could. As the Commanding Officer’s wife at the time, I was often interviewed by BFBS radio (British Forces Broadcasting Service) about upcoming events etc. I really enjoyed these interviews and, on return to the UK, marched into the now defunct Garrison Radio in Tidworth and asked for a job, which I duly got, giving me my first paid job on the radio, as a broadcast journalist. Another posting for my husband meant the search for another new job for me. A very talented presenter friend made me an outstanding demo tape to go with my application for a job at Star Radio, Cheltenham. Incredibly, and due I’m sure only to the quality of the demo tape, I got the job. When I asked which news-shift I’d be
