In spite of business liquidation and a divorce, award-winning f:Entrepreneur Beccy Dickson and now ex-husband Macey Mitchell decided to remain business partners, founding Branded Bio, which supplies sustainable walls and backdrops full of living green plants and flowers for events, to interior designers and even to cover electric vehicle chargers and furniture. In fact it was a living plant-covered bus touring round Westminster in London that sparked Beccy's appearance on the podcast.
Stuck on holiday on the island of Madeira during an enforced extended Covid lockdown, Beccy and Macey spent time talking about where and what next, and settling a future path. But if that makes being a female entrepreneur sound a bed of roses, Beccy is quick to point out the graft behind the spectacular living walls that now make up the mainstay of their business.
Beccy didn't have a clear route to becoming an award-winning small business owner. She left full-time education aged 15, with few formal qualifications. Through family connections, Macey helped her land a job with a small wine branding business, where a mentor believed in her potential and encouraged her further.
It wasn't until she was a mum that Beccy returned to college to study for her GCSEs, initially thinking she'd like to train as a teacher. Across the years she has worked variously in sales, marketing and as a creative director, but it was a chance commission that led Beccy to find her passion. The print production agency she and Macey were running was asked to quote to brand a living wall and suddenly her interest was sparked and her outlook on life changed.
Beccy is candid that her cousin, a long-time champion of sustainability, now teases her about being green and the awards she has won for it. Beccy jokes she may be an accidental sustainability passionista.
Creating living green backdrops can use 1000 plants, all of which have to be looked after and watered to remain looking good. It's hard physical work that requires high energy levels on top of all the usual business worries. When she's not juggling family demands in a multi-generational house alongside the business office in the back garden, Beccy goes to the gym and swims to stay strong.
She wants to pass on sustainability lessons to the next gen, including her children. And Beccy urges everyone to try to make a difference to the planet's future.
"We all have to do our little bit," she says.
Links mentioned in the podcast
Branded Bio website
Branded Bio Instagram
f:Entrepreneur
Small Business Britain
SME business population (Table C)
You might also like to listen to:
Mark Sumner, Leeds School of Design at Leeds University S1 E6
Rachel Warren, professor of global change and environmental biology S1 E7
Content © Sandra Kessell
Original music © Lyze Kessell
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