COSMOPOLITAN · 83³ Believe your customer exists
When we started out in the ’90s, women’s
activewear was relegated to the back of men’s
sports shops. People thought we were mad,
but I knew our customer was out there and
that, if I stuck to my guns, it would work.
You can’t entertain thoughts of failure.
A lot of older men were insistent that
the name Sweaty Betty wouldn’t work.
They just couldn’t understand it. Women...
sweating? It wasn’t cool to admit you went
to the gym then either. We now have 50
shops, so we’re doing something right.
³ Perfect your building blocks
I spent about six months writing a business
plan (with the help of my now-husband,
who went to business school), but it was
only when I was made redundant from my
buying job at Knickerbox that I was pushed
into action. Coming up with core values
was easier than figuring out the finances:
Sweaty Betty is about not taking yourself
too seriously, our products are beautiful
and technical, and we’re proud to be British.
Those are the three brand points we’ve had
from the beginning, and when we recently
started selling in America, having these
pillars so rigidly in place helped us stand
out. You need to spend time perfecting the
bricks before you start to build the house.TAMARA’S CV
Hearst Empowering Women
is an initiative to support
women’s careers in business,
fashion and beyond. Find more
at Empowering.hearst.co.uk1994 Graduated from
university with a French
and German degree
1995 Started working as
an underwear buyer
at Knickerbox
1997 After being made
redundant, teamed up with
now-husband Simon to
action their business plan
1998 First Sweaty Betty shop
opened in Notting Hill, London
2000 The website,
Sweatybetty.com, launched
2009 Made the decision to
stop selling other labels
and solely stock Sweaty
Betty-brand merchandise
2013 First US shop opened
2016 Sweaty Betty opened
its 50th store on Madison
Avenue, New YorkTAMARA HILL-NORTON, 46,
founder and creative director
of highly desirable activewear
label Sweaty Betty, on how to
get people hot and bothered
about your brand³ Make time for what matters
We have an in-house shrink who advises
our board of directors. A lesson he taught
me is that in order to feel stress-free and
balanced, you need to be in control of your
time. Initially, I put off seeing him, saying,
“I’m too busy”, and he’d tell me, “Nobody
is ever going to give you more time, Tamara,
so you have to carve out space for the things
that matter the most.” I now hate the excuse
‘I don’t have time’ – we all have the same
amount of hours in a day, so if you can’t fit
it in, it just means it isn’t your priority.
³ Stay fearful
My husband’s family motto is ‘Try harder’,
which is tapestried into an antique chair
that our kids sit on during piano practice.
We laugh at it, but it’s a typical trait among
entrepreneurs in that you never feel totally
satisfied. So many people ask me, “Are you
proud of your achievements?” and, of course,
I am, but I always have a feeling that we can
do better. Is it insecurity? I don’t know. But
whatever it is, it’s healthy and it helps. You
WORDS JENNIFER SAVIN need a bit of fear to drive a business forward.
SELF
MADE
“You need a
bit of fear
to drive a
business”