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Taking the leap of starting your own business isn’t easy at the best of times, but then throw in a world Pandemic, and I think you have a Nightmare from every business owner's personal hell.

Nice to meet you. My name is Lexy-Chase and I am the Creator and Owner of Chase Designs UK.

I knew from just a teenager that I wanted to turn my creative art talents into my own business, and I think it was safe to say that I was a little ambitious in my dreams. I structured all of my GCSE’s and A-Level subjects around that dream, with taking Fine Art, Photography, Media Studies and Business Studies. Safe to say my father had to bring my head from up in the clouds and back down to reality by telling the truth of what it was like to run your own business, knowing full well what it was like as he owned his own web design business for years.

So, a few years passed by, I completed my GCSE’s and A-Levels with B-A* grades, and I decided to study hair dressing for a couple of years. After getting that experience I went into retail work with a large, very popular UK business. Yet after just 5 months of working there, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the country and entire world went into lockdown. Plenty of time passed filled with movies, and jigsaws, but I needed to be working. Finally, we were asked to come back to work, but with a massive loss of 2/3 of our staff. We were all so gutted having to say goodbye to most of our colleagues. Running stupidly low on staff, with customers still rushing through the door despite the virus still going around, I no longer found joy in my work. Customers were harsh with all staff; we could no longer offer the personal services that we used to and the stress of everyone in the workplace could be sensed every day. Enough was enough, I needed out!

Enough was enough, I needed out! A job that I once loved and never complained about going to, in fact I LOVED going to work each day had now turned into what felt like a mental torturing each time I had to leave the house.

During lockdown I had decided to pick up some new hobbies to keep my mind occupied. Thus, I bought a sewing machine and picked up a needle and thread and started embroidery. This whole new world had been opened up to me. I always loved anything and everything creative, but the only time I had done embroidery was in my A-Level photography class in which I was exploring African cultures and incorporated embroidery into my portfolio of work. I had only had experience of sewing into photograph paper. Anything I could get my hands on in my wardrobe that was plain and boring (which safe to say wasn't much at all) I would draw a design on and just go to town on!

One day I decided to show a few of my colleagues what I had done recently and the response was over whelming! “OH, MY GOODNESS! Lexy! Thats amazing. You have such a talent; you need to do something with this!” And then it hit me! All those years ago as a young teenager I wanted to do something arty for my own business. A dream that I had buried and lay to rest. NO LONGER! It was time to resurrect it.

I was going to do something with this! This was my out, this was my small income on the side, which meant I could cut down my hours in the workplace and finally set my heart on what I loved doing.

Chase Designs UK was born.

As every small business owner knows, trying to get an investment, or trying to find the money to make things happen, can be difficult. I decided that I wasn’t going to get a bank loan, (I definitely didn’t need that monster hanging over me the entire time.) so my only other option was to dip into my savings.

Now when I say a blessing came my way, I mean it. A couple of months before, a dear family friend had kindly gifted me a very kind monetary gift. So, I used that to loan to myself. Now I did have enough in my savings to start up the business without that kind gift, but I wanted to be able to use it for something good rather than just blowing it on a holiday, or a nice expensive gift to myself, and now I can hold my head up high and say that I used it wisely and didn’t blow it all, in the way most fellow 21-year-olds would.

I had the money, I had the materials, and I had the passion, well what now? I googled a load of patterns, and then would work it out in my head when I would try the patterns out on scraps of old materials. I finally had product ideas which I could make with some real beautiful materials to sell, and one of my colleagues wanted something fabulous for her wedding. She purchased 2 adorable little boys bowties off me for her twin boys on her wedding day this coming May. She fell in love with them right away, and then more people in work started buying. I set up an Instagram, Facebook and TikTok to try and get my digital marketing off the ground.