Business Boost: How a pair of pants turned a cleaner into an entrepreneur supporting women!

My Duvet Flip by Jack Parsons

Apply for a chance to win £25,000 via Simply Business' Business Boost:

https://bit.ly/4cUXQdl

Episode Guest

Meet Sarah Jordan, CEO at Y.O.U Underwear.

Sarah Jordan is a recognised industry leader with over 20 years’ digital and business experience across not for profit, commercial and publishing sectors. She originally trained in Geography (meteorology and IT) wanting to be a weather forecaster, but after building a website to teach kids about the weather she moved into technology and worked for many years in the ‘tech for good’ space.

Following several high-profile client-side roles, including as Head of Digital Strategy at Oxfam and Digital Director at the MS Society, Sarah set up her own strategic consultancy focusing on business transformation, strategy and organisational change. She remains an active speaker and judge at UK and international events and mentors on a number of industry programmes. Sarah never expected to end up running an underwear business! Everything changed on a trip to Uganda in 2016, where she took part in the Uganda Marathon. While volunteering in local villages she came face-to-face with the problems associated with not having underwear. In some communities 1 in 10 girls miss school on their periods due to a lack of underwear and sanitary products – up to 12 weeks a year! This inspired Sarah to found Y.O.U Underwear on a buy-one-give-two model with the charity Smalls for All.

In addition to her work with Y.O.U Underwear, Sarah is a trustee of the Beam Foundation, a charity and crowdfunding platform that supports homeless people by getting them into employment and training. For the past 7 years she has also run a positive change agency called BOLD which helps women achieve success in all areas of their lives.

Episode Timestamps

00:00 The Accidental Entrepreneur

03:05 Lessons from Early Jobs

05:54 The Journey of Self-Discovery

08:49 Embracing Failure and Regret

12:10 The Importance of Taking Action

15:01 Knowing When to Let Go

18:02 Building a Sustainable Business

20:58 The Role of Business Boost

24:14 Transformative Experiences in Entrepreneurship

27:03 Finding Your Purpose

29:47 Final Thoughts and Advice

Episode Partner

T&Cs apply. One entry per person and business. Business Boost is open to UK residents aged 18 or over. Entrants’ businesses’ annual turnover must not exceed £750k or have received over £50k in private funding in the past two years (not including Gov grants). For full eligibility terms visit Simply Business. The competition closes: on 15 Oct 2024. Simply Business will announce the winner on 13 Dec 2024.