Nikki Hesford

Name: Nikki Hesford
Company: Miss Fit UK
Position: Owner

Brief CV:
A varied and colourful employment history, I started in catering and planned a career as a chef at 16, but then I had my son at 17 and gave up catering.

Other jobs since then have included glamour modelling for several years, working as a PA at large financial firm and many other dull and unfulfilling secretarial roles to support myself whilst studying for my BA Hons in English Literature.

I started working on Miss Fit UK in April 2008 as my degree was coming to an end and that has kept me busy ever since, although I do still get persuaded to take on occasional modelling project.

What’s keeping you busy at work at the moment?
At the moment I’m working on our new lingerie brand ‘2wenty8’ which is due for launch in May and will be a capsule collection of 28”DD-H lingerie. So at the moment I have to design, prototype and brand the collection and get the patterns to China for manufacturing.

And of course having been shortlisted as a finalist for two BIBAS awards, I have interviews in the coming weeks so I’ll be preparing for that and hoping to impress the judging panel.

Favourite music of the moment:
I love Alexandra Burke’s ‘Broken Heels’ which I have on replay and my new Rocky Horror compilation that I got for Christmas is getting a lot of use! I’m also a big Mika fan…. I think this says a lot about my taste in music!

Your must-watch TV:
I am a diehard Doctor Who fan, so I’m currently busy watching the whole four-series box set in anticipation of the new series with Matt Smith as the doctor in April.

Ideal way to wind down after work:
Unfortunately as a single mum I don’t really stop – receiving emails from me at 3am is not an unusual occurrence, although I do like to wind down at the weekend and I can always be found giving it plenty on a Lancaster dancefloor on a Saturday night with a Gin & Tonic at hand!

Best piece of business advice:
Keep costs low; make every penny spent earn two pennies back. If you spend £500 on that advert, will you get at least £500 of profit from it? How many do you need to sell on the back of that advert before it pays for itself?