Laura Rudoe is an alumna of the Innovating for Growth: Scale-ups programme and the founder of Good Ventures Ltd., the ethical development company behind natural and eco-friendly beauty brands: Evolve Organic Beauty and S5 Skincare. Each product is lovingly handcrafted in her eco studio in Hertfordshire by a team of artisans, and is cruelty free, vegan-friendly and blended with organic ingredients.

A Harvard Business School graduate, Laura balances growing her sustainable business whilst nurturing her family, where she is a proud mother of three. With a qualification in nutrition, Laura has always been an advocate for organic living and wellness and is passionate about making a difference in people’s lives.

Monday I begin the week with an early start and a cup of herbal tea whilst I tackle some emails and make a plan for the working week. I find that as a business owner, I always need to be planning ahead, yet maintain flexibility as you can’t always predict what might be just around the corner!

My inbox fills up very quickly, so I make myself some avocado on sourdough toast for an energy boost! I review some reports from my team and squeeze in a leftovers-based lunch between calls with each of my team leaders. Mondays tend to be a bit of an admin and planning day for me, so I unwind with a Peloton class and by cooking dinner for my family in the evening.

Tuesday As I managed to have such a productive day yesterday, I enjoy a more relaxed and slower start to the day today with an awakening yoga flow in the garden. Mid-morning I host our weekly trade meeting, where we review wholesale sales reports, online sales, and any key upcoming activities across our marketing, new product development and operations teams. It’s a meeting to ensure everyone is aligned and we can share updates which affect other teams in the business. We have always held this meeting, but it feels even more important since the start of lockdown, as my team is now working from different locations. Previously, we were all under one roof: our artisans making products and our office team, but since lockdown started, the office team (sales, marketing and customer service) have been working from home. Our artisans have continued to create products in our eco studio, but have had to change their ways of working to ensure everyone stays safe.

I enjoy a large salad for lunch before heading back to my computer and replying to a few emails. This afternoon includes attending an interesting webinar about new sustainable ingredients and packaging options for the beauty industry, which is something I am hugely passionate about. I scribble down some notes throughout the webinar and add some tasks for tomorrow to my Asana list. Asana is a programme I use all the time - it’s a great planning tool! Quick dinner with my family and then I attend virtual book club, followed by virtual choir, both on Zoom. Book club works fairly well, but choir takes a little more getting used to. There tends to be a slight delay on the video call, so the mute button comes in handy!

Wednesday Today I have blocked out my calendar for a session of product blending and formulation designing, which is my favourite thing to do. I have a quick green smoothie to keep me going, and then start blending in our in-house lab at the eco studio. Formulating products is both a science and an art, and involves a fair bit of trial and error before I produce some samples I am happy with. All samples go through ‘stability’ and ‘challenge’ testing to ensure they do not separate over time and to confirm their ‘best before’ dates. After I have tested the samples on my own skin, I then offer samples to my team before we carry out further trials on larger numbers of people. Creating new products is one of my favourite parts of my job!

I spend the afternoon conducting further ingredient research and a little more formulation in the lab and then head home with lots of little pots and bottles of product samples. I’m tired after a busy day, so I enjoy a short evening walk with my three children after dinner, then enjoy a good book in the bath before bed.

Thursday My day starts with a virtual pilates class - I used to attend a reformer pilates class once or twice a week, which I miss, but this is still fun. I spend the rest of the morning focusing on finances, knee-deep in spreadsheets and ensuring everything is as it should be. I make a vegetable soup for lunch and then spend the afternoon sharing feedback on various projects with my team. People describe me as a very hands-on founder as I love to be involved in as much as I can and share my input where possible - whether it is writing nutritional advice as part of a campaign with my marketing team or planning new product launches with my NPD (new product development) team.

I spend most of the evening juggling taking my children to various clubs and activities with my husband, which isn’t easy! Somehow I manage to squeeze in an hour-long mentoring session with a budding entrepreneur I am currently working with.

Friday As yesterday ended up being a little more hectic than planned, I start the day with a 10 minute meditation session before breakfast. I split up my spreadsheet-filled morning with a 15 minute virtual coffee break with my team (as everyone who is desk-based is working from home at the moment). I then film some content for our social media platforms, which involves me talking to the camera about our latest product launch and explaining how and why I designed it.

I like to make sure I have read and replied to as many emails as possible before I turn my computer off for the weekend - a clear inbox equals a clear mind for me!

My evening is spent enjoying a nice glass of wine at my local pub with my husband and a couple of friends.

Weekend I try to avoid working on the weekend as I prefer to spend time with family. The kids have various clubs, piano lessons, sport matches etc. so weekends tend to revolve around them!