Alice Rowen Hall: All about business!

Alice Rowen Hall, born in Newcastle, became a successful entrepreneur after opening North East fashion house Pink Boutique, before leaving in 2019 to start her new luxurious interior brand Rowen Homes.

Initially investing just £90 into Pink Boutique, Alice soon grew the brand into the go-to for glitz and glamour in the North East, not to mention a company with a £25million turnover! Working as a teaching assistant at the time, Alice spoke of her business and fashion experience before launching Pink Boutique, she said: “Nothing at all- other than enjoying shopping online!”

Her passion for fashion though is what made her stand out and lead Pink Boutique to successful with a team of over 70 staff. “I loved that I could come up with beautiful creations and make them into real products and real photoshoots! It’s a dream as a creative to see what’s inside your mind come to life.”

With limited experience Alice was determined to succeed and overcome any problems.

“I found HR and ‘people management’ a real learning curve! Having never managed before, I had to get my head around the legal side of recruitment and management very quickly.

“Being the owner of the business, if anything went wrong, it was me personally that could be sued. After 10 years in business, I only now feel truly confident in people management. Seeing the success of the brand and engagement from loyal customers was what kept me going.

I didn’t have a network of businesspeople or even really know of famous entrepreneurs. So, I’m not sure if I had a big influence – I think I was just living in my dreams seeing what I could create!”

 

 

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A post shared by Alice Rowen Hall (@alicerowenhall)

Alice’s main inspiration for Pink Boutique was seeing a gap in the market and an opportunity to start her own business. “I really struggled to get what I loved on the market! I’m from Newcastle, a party city, and at the time of setting up (10 years ago) there were only catwalk or catalogue style brands online. I used to buy from America to get glam things and thought there would be a big opportunity in the UK.”

Offering everything from party dress to Christmas pjs, Alice closed this gap in the UK with the launch of Pink Boutique in 2012. Establishing it as the go to for girly glitz at sensible prices.

In October 2019 Alice left her Newcastle based business, leaving her mum and business partner Julie Blackie to run the company.

Now, after deciding to take a part time diploma in interior designs, Alice launched her passion project Rowen Homes in 2020, and within 18months her and her husband and co-owner Andrew Hall have seen sales of £6.5million. Alice said: “I would love for Rowen to be a widely know household name- something that outlies me!”

 

 

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A post shared by Alice Rowen Hall (@alicerowenhall)

She added: “It grew from us posting on social media what we were getting for our own home to people loving our style, so we thought let’s just make our own designs!”

Starting with seven staff members, Rowen Homes has expanded to a team of 28, with exciting announcements and opportunities announced constantly. Such as the opening of their first flagship Rowen Homes store in Spring 2023.

 

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A post shared by Rowen Homes (@rowenhomes)

Since Pink Boutique was created 10 years ago, Alice has seen many changes in the fashion industry, so when asked what she thought was the best way to promote products she explained: “A good rounded strategy of multi-channel ads, marketplaces, and organic promotion.”

Boasting 466,00 followers on Pink Boutique’s Instagram, and Rowen Homes not far behind with 451,000, it’s clear that social media is at the forefront of Alice’s expertise.

Helping boost her products online, social media sits at the heart of Alice’s success, achieving 80,000 likes on Rowen Homes Tik Tok account. Alice said: “We used social media very heavily. I think this is super important in driving brand awareness and excitement.”

Always one to encourage and help grow North East business, Alice offered advice on how to optimise the influence of social media on a brand.  She said: “Content has to flow and be consistent to keep customers attention.”

When asked what tips she’d give to a budding entrepreneur, Alice said: “Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the magnitude of projects and put them off. Instead, focus on ticking smaller bits off and you’ll naturally prioritise what is most important! And if you can, outsource the stuff you hate doing to someone who loves those things.”

Alice is an amazing example of if you put your mind to it, you’ll achieve it!

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