A MUM-of-two from Stratford who turned her ‘kitchen table’ enterprise into a million pound business in just three years, is in the running for a national business award.
Charlotte Pitts, who owns The HR Consultants, is one of six finalists in the Business Growth category of the Woman Who Achieves Awards, being held next Friday (July 1).
The business, which was established just a few months before the pandemic hit, provides outsourced HR support to business owners and HR Managers and has now marked its third anniversary with expansion, including a move to larger premises, in Broadway.
Ms Pitts, who walked away from the corporate world at the age of 35, is proud of her journey, but it is one which has not been without its challenges.
She said: “After a career climbing the corporate ladder, and becoming Group HR Director, I realised I was sitting in a role that I’d been working hard to achieve all my adult life, but that actually I wasn’t doing something I was passionate about.
“The corporate world taught me so much, but from a people perspective, achieving any significant culture change is extremely difficult and I’d had enough of box-ticking and working with ‘leaders’ who just didn’t understand why people were so important to the business.
“After having my two daughters, now aged seven and five, I decided it was time to scratch the itch I’d been trying to ignore for the last five years and there and then, The HR Consultants was born. The next six months saw work building steadily – and then the pandemic hit – what a time that was.
“Home schooling two small children, whilst trying to continue to grow the business; meant working between 5am – 7am before they woke up and then juggling every hour and piece of sanity I had.
“That summer I realised I’d need to get some help and made the decision to hire my first team member – both terrifying and
liberating.”
It is the seventh year of The Woman Who Achieves Awards, run by Sandra Garlick MBE, recognising and celebrating the achievements of women in business. The winners from all 12 categories will be revealed at an awards lunch at Coombe Abbey Hotel in Coventry.
Ms Pitts added: “I am incredibly proud of all my achievements. Women often don’t strive to achieve big things – we’ve been brought up to think that we can’t. My journey is living proof that if we dream big, plan big, work hard and get good people around you, you can achieve everything you want to, and I want more than anything for my two daughters – and all the other young girls out there – to see that they can do that too.”
