Two Limpsfield mums, sisters, Kerry Cook and Nicky Spikesman are the creative duo behind Two Queen Bees, a thriving bag label that specialises in practical, colourful, robust and incredibly useful bags. Kerry and Nicky talk about what its like to work with your sibling and how they conceived and developed their successful business idea.
What inspired you to start Two Queen Bees?
We had been talking for sometime about starting a business together. We both love the flexibility of not having a full time job. Being able to do school runs and to make the most of time with our children before they start school is really important to us and we feel really grateful that we’ve been able to have this time. However, it is important to us to have something for ourselves, besides running family life.
The Big Bag idea simply came to us following a long hot day on the beach with 4 toddlers and a million bags in tow. We couldn’t find a great big bag that could do everything we wanted.
How long have you been going for now?
We sold our first bag halfway through 2015, after 6 months of product design and production.
What’s it like working together – sisters often squabble, right?!
Working together is brilliant – being sisters means we can be honest with each other and ‘agree to disagree’ without any implications on our relationship!
What have been your main business challenges?
Time! As for any working parent there is a whole lot of juggling!
Where can we buy them?
We only sell online at the moment www.twoqueenbees.co.uk
How long have you lived in Limpsfield?
We have lived in the Parish for 10 years and we love it. There is a great sense of community, we have the countryside on our doorstep but the access to London is great.
What are your plans for 2017 and beyond?
We are looking to add to our product portfolio and may look at other selling channels. It is important to us that the balance between work and family life remains easily manageable, so while we have grand plans we are taking everything slowly. The last two years have been brilliant and we hope to carry on for the foreseeable future.
Limpsfield, Surrey 