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Keeping up with Lauren Martin
Lauren Martin is the founder of Eliter, a collaborative, creative coaching agency, where she helps female founders and allows women the opportunity to grow their businesses. The agency specialises in upscaling creative female entrepreneurs and business owners and boasts a wealth of savvy freelancers. A BRIT school alum, Lauren studied visual arts and design, where she cultivated a love for fashion, interior and textiles.
Making her start in fashion working on the shop floor of the sought after luxury shopping destination Harrods, the novelty soon wore off as she discovered the other side of fashion, which came with strict rules and no room for her to be the creative she was at heart. Lauren then joined the corporate world and its bustling City streets where she tried her hand at several trades from oil to recruitment to law. “One thing I saw in the corporate world in London, is that there is still inequality for women, and especially women that have come from a typical working-class background. You’re still fighting for progression, you’re still fighting for a bonus. You’re not male and you haven’t come from an advantaged background,” she admits. Soon after, ‘Ask Lauren,’ her virtual assistant company was born, where she hired personal assistants to work from home - many of whom were single mothers with children.
In 2020, as the pandemic hit the world, and nation by nation, we began to enter into a global lockdown, Lauren rebranded to Eliter, where she then began taking on other services. She recalls being asked by a client to do their social media, and thinking it wouldn’t be difficult, accepted the task. “I remember thinking ‘ahhhh,’ she laughs. “It was a lot harder than it looked.”
About her team, she comments “Virtual assistants are self-employed ambitious women who may have freedom, they may not, they may just want the freedom to travel, but the beauty is that everyone is self-employed.” Lauren looks to create a collaborative community of women (and men), allowing them the freedom to work as they please.
She describes her 2021 as smart, creative and joyful! In 2022, she looks forward to growing the business. Having already become an international business with clients and staff in Manchester and Dubai.
Eliter fans can look forward to a podcast series and educational courses where they’ll be able to train themselves. “We’ve all been there, when you first start a business, not everyone has an investor or funding behind them so having to do things yourself is just part of growing your business. That’s the fun of it. It’s the fun of making mistakes and learning from them.”
Visit: www.eliter.co.uk
Instagram: eliterltd