‘We Risked Everything to Launch Our Own Business’
Updated: Jan. 11, 2016
Have you ever dreamed of starting your own business? These two women took the plunge and did just that
Source: Best Health magazine, January/February 2016
For the owners of Hopson Grace, fulfilling their work/life aspirations meant selling their homes and giving up lucrative corporate jobs for the flexibility and control of entrepreneurship.
‘The irony is that you’re supposed to do this when you are young and don’t have anything to lose, but we wouldn’t have had the confidence then,’ says 50-year-old Martha Grace McKimm, who left a successful career in PR to co-open the elegant Toronto shop that specializes in unique tableware. ‘We felt absolutely compelled to do this at this point in our lives.’
McKimm partnered with Andrea Hopson, a former executive at Tiffany & Co. and one of her former PR clients. ‘We already had a great working relationship and confidence when we partnered up because we were bringing our skill sets together,’ says Hopson. ‘Now, we’re developing ourselves in a way that we just couldn’t have in the environments we were in.’
Despite having risk-averse spouses and some initial funding challenges, the duo says the career change has been amazing. ‘We’re used to hard work, and that’s one of the benefits of starting a business later in life,’ says McKimm. ‘We’ve seen a lot, and we’re equipped for any situation.’
