Profile: Louise Sampson

Louise Sampson - one to watch

It is probably an understatement to say that Louise Sampson is not a girl to let the grass grow under her feet! So when after a fortnight it was beginning to look like it wouldn’t all be over by Easter and her close contact business ‘Wink, Lash and Brow’ would be closed for the foreseeable future, Louise turned to the Deeping Business Support Group for help.

‘Being given the opportunity to talk to a business mentor and to look at things from a different perspective in a two way dialogue saw the birth of award winning bijou box uk!’

As is often the case when a new business evolves it feels as if life to that date has been a rehearsal to arrive at that point. This is certainly the case with Louise. Born in Scotland but bought up in the Deepings, Louise studied at the Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge where she took a degree in Youth and Community Work. As a qualified Youth Worker she embraced the challenge working for Peterborough City Council, leading projects and applying for funding and enjoying every minute of it! This led to a position at what was then the Voyager now Queen Katherine Academy in Peterborough, as Head of Community Arts in Extended Schools. As well as teaching, Louise would work with local primary schools and headed up pupil premium arts based subjects, based on government funding to help improve the attainment of disadvantaged students.

After five years in education it was time to move on and Louise took up a role at the Teenage Cancer Trust supporting young people with cancer. This involved working on a nationwide programme to work with young people in schools and dealing with the longterm affects of the disease and of the treatment which is often debilitating. It was during this time that Louise took up the offer of working alongside her friend Louise Garford at the Beauty Hub as a one evening a week antidote to a mentally demanding role at the Cancer Trust. So HD Brows was born; shaping, waxing, treating, threading a treatment for brows which has grown in popularity in recent years. But while the treatment is being carried out a close relationship grows between the client and the practitioner and so the listening, talking and problemsolving techniques, which had been endemic in the work that Louise had undertaken in her career to this point, were once again pressed into action. Soon the side hustle grew into a full-time opportunity and with son Teddy fast growing, Louise embraced the chance to plan her working day around her son , leaving the Cancer Trust to set up ‘Wink Lash and Brow’ in a purpose-built cabin at her home in Market Deeping.

Louise enjoyed two and a half years building her business before the pandemic hit and before her conversations with Emma Lanningan via the Deeping Business Support Group. To create an opportunity that would also future proof her business was the focus of their deliberations. To do this Louise drew on her career to date; as a close contact worker in the self-care and beauty industry which had been negatively affected by lockdown. As a qualified mental first-aider herself, Louise knew the signs and negative impacts of low mental health. And so the idea of a seasonal subscription box centring on beauty and lifestyle pampering products as a way to lift the spirits was born, sourcing six products from independent beauty and lifestyle businesses and then packaging them up into highly desirable sustainable package for an annual subscription of £140 (a single box is £40). And then came the 2020 Lloyds Business Award for Small Businesses. ‘Her go-getting collaborative attitude of supporting others has really appealed to consumers, making her a very worthy recipient of this award.’ said Gareth Oakley MD of Business Banking at Lloyds. The Deepings community has once again come up trumps, supporting Louise in the embryonic days of her new business. But with mentoring (with entrepreneur Sharmadean Reid MBE) and a marketing package as part of her prize, the plans for bijou box uk have been accelerated.

But the story does not end there! Louise has continued to teach the techniques of threading eyebrows in Milton Keynes when possible and as soon as she heard that the NHS were on the look-out for vaccinators – you guessed! Louise signed up and having training for the role is now part of the proud vaccination roll out in the UK!

The entrepreneurship in this amazing family continues. Having mastered the art of product photography for Louise’s box choices, husband Chris has now set up Little Light Photography while son Teddy has developed his own chocolate and origami business box!

Those Sampsons – they’re ones to watch!

www.emmalannigan.com www.bijoubox.uk www.littlelightphotography.uk/welcome