This month sees International Women’s Day on the 8th March. To celebrate this year’s ‘Embrace Equity’ campaign, we spoke with Rita and Rachna of Lords at Home to find out about their business, what inspired them to be where they are today and what advice they’d give to women looking to follow in their footsteps. Take a look below to be inspired…

Tell us about your role and your business…

We are the founding sisters who started Lords at Home with our first store back in 2013. It’s been a steep learning curve from idea to reality and we’ve faced many challenges.

What inspired you to work in homeware?

As women, we have so much to juggle both at home and work, so we wanted to create a one stop local store for all those essential household needs to make our lives that bit easier. Time is precious so being able to walk into a store at the last minute to find those placemats for a dinner party, a housewarming gift we forgot to buy, stain remover for the oil that we spilt on our favourite top is a real bonus. Since opening in 2013, we have developed our stores to include so much more. 

We were very keen to know what our customers thought of what we do so we asked, we listened and we continue to do so. It’s so important to evolve to what our customers want on their doorstep and now you can find everything from kids dining, gifts for everyone and every occasion and even BBQs in the summer months.

What advice would you give to other women wanting to get into your industry, or start a business of their own?

Our goal was simple, to succeed you need to have a real passion for what you want to do as it takes a lot of time and sacrifice to get started and build a business. Do plenty of research, ask your potential customer for their feedback and take it on the chin even if it isn’t what you want to hear it’s probably very helpful. You have to keep evolving to stay relevant.

What’s your favourite thing about being located in St John’s Wood?

St Johns Wood is a unique area with so much to offer and we feel very lucky to have had a store here for the past 7 years. During our time here we have found that the community is loyal and we have a lot of lovely regular customers who rely on us for so much more than just their local housewares store and we take it upon ourselves to help them. We are often asked to repair items, source items we don’t necessarily stock, deliver within the hour and so on. We love the idea that we are flexible enough to be able to help and really be part of the St Johns Wood community.