My name is Greta and being an entrepreneur has always been a passion of mine, I was always into business from a very young age you could even say it runs in my veins!

I started my own company at the age of 16, but after trying many different industries I landed on my current company, Sweet Lounge, which has been growing year on year.

I always had a passion for business, there’s no doubt about that. When others at school were off to University, I made that all important decision to pursue my interest in starting my own company.

My first company was a florist shop which I opened in our local town. I encouraged my mother and aunt to leave their day jobs to come and make arrangements in the shop which quickly became a success. I was in charge of everything else.

I also got myself into a national and some local newspapers as well as winning some business awards too! My mum still runs this business to date, but as I was interested in discovering a different industry, I handed over the reins to her.

Fast forward a few years of experimenting to when I started Sweet Lounge back in 2014, all was well until I was hit with depression and anxiety, these were a few years of dark times that were hard to overcome, issues with my health, mental health, family relationship and money lead to me hitting complete rock bottom and it was somewhere I thought I would never get out off.

I found it so difficult to overcome this until my partner (now husband) gave me the utmost support. It took some time but I did see brighter days, I would never know how to thank him for getting me out and back on my feet again, he’s the one that deserves an award!

Anxiety still hits me sometimes but I always remind myself that I always have his support no matter what situation I find myself in.

Sweet Lounge’s journey carried on as I hoped it would, putting more effort into making this business grow.

I am now a mother of 2 small boys (a 2 and a 3 year old) although balancing life and growing a brand at the same time is tough and can sometimes be overwhelming, it’s incredibly rewarding and keeps me super motivated. My husband also has a local business that’s growing well in a completely different industry to mine (selling white goods) which we both run together, so my hands are always full, believe me!

A year after my 2nd child, I decided I really wanted to push the pedal on Sweet Lounge, so I decided to go into FMCG (fast moving consumer good/ Retail) with a line of my own packaged vegan gummy sweets. We are now stocked in around 140+ independents as well as BOOTHS, all 5 Daylesford store and recently Holland & Barrett and Gorillas App. I am currently in talks with Morrisons and Ocado to stock our products.

In 2021, I won ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year’ with Forward Ladies and secured Bronze in the Northamptonshire Food & Drink Awards under ‘Food & Beverage Achiever 2021’. Alongside this, I was also a finalist in Northamptonshire Business Excellence Awards under ‘Businesswoman of the Year’ and in the Great British Entrepreneur Awards 2021 under ‘Food & Drink Entrepreneur of the Year.

I am incredibly proud to have achieved what I have over the years and I will keep on climbing.