DROPPING out of school with just two GCSEs may not seem like the obvious choice for an ambitious teenager.
But that’s exactly what Kate Palmer-Irani did – and now she makes an eye-watering £75k running a social media business.
Kate, now 50, dropped out of school with just two GCSEs Credit: Becky Tranter Photography
She first launched a wedding business before starting a social media business three years ago Credit: Becky Tranter Photography
After moving house and whilst planning her wedding, her dad helped her to make some wedding cake stands and props – a small project which changed the course of Kate’s life.
She used social media to drum up her first business, BrambleSky, creating an array of wedding decorations. The trend-led business, which quickly racked up thousands of Instagram followers, was a success.
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Through that experience, Kate, now 50, developed a strong understanding of how business can use great imagery, engaging content and a consistent social media presence to get noticed. Naturally, this led Kate to helping other brands with their photography and social media.
Fast-forward to 2026 and Kate, from Ashbourne, Derbyshire, earns more than £70,000. But more than two decades ago, that wasn’t the case.
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Kate worked in several B&Q stores in the West Midlands for 17 years and in that time met her husband Neville who also worked for the brand Credit: Kate Palmer-Irani
Bossing it Kate Palmer-Irani Credit: Kate Palmer-Irani
Kate spoke exclusively to Fabulous for #BOSSINGIT, our series about ordinary women who have launched incredible businesses.
The mum said: “I hated school and wasn’t academic at all so no one was surprised when I dropped out at 16 and got just two GCSEs – in Art and Home Economics.
“After school I went travelling and even worked in bars and restaurants in Gran Canaria before coming home at 18 and getting a job on the checkouts at B&Q.
“It was meant to be just until I decided what to do with my life but I ended up staying and working on the kitchen and bathroom showrooms and went on lots of management programmes, working my way up to senior store manager.”
“I always had an obsession with the paint mixer machine too,’ Kate recalled. “I loved mixing up the different colours for customers and was fascinated with colour and what worked well together. Even now I could hang round the Valspar machine for hours when I have to buy paint.”
Kate worked in several B&Q stores in the West Midlands for 17 years and in that time met her husband Neville who also worked for the brand.
She continued: “I also enjoyed talking to customers about how they wanted something to look and how important the look of their home decoration was because it was a reflection of them.
“That’s probably the most defining thing I learnt because it’s still something that I rely on heavily today – how important it is for people to use the colour and design details of their wedding to reflect them as a couple.”
In 2012, Kate got a job as an operations manager for an IT company and started helping her father – who works as an artist – make furniture out of reclaimed vintage finds.
She continued: “When I got married, Dad suggested I learnt calligraphy and wrote my wedding vows on a piece of wood which we could then keep as a memento.
Kate pictured with her dad who helped with her first wedding business Credit: Kate Palmer-Irani
Kate’s father encouraged her to make her wedding vows into a piece of art for her home Credit: Kate Palmer Irani
“I followed his advice and had so many compliments about it that I began writing quotes and names and things on bits of wood and selling them as a hobby, mainly to people who wanted them for weddings.
“It was just a hobby and I didn’t make anything that first year. But I wanted to be able to have more flexibility with work to fit around being a mum so I pursued it – continually looking and creating ‘trends’ within the wedding industry and making something and posting pictures of it on social median.
“Until one day I saw an image of a wedding cake on a metal hoop stand. I was convinced I could make something similar with a reclaimed wooden base and set to work.”
After posting the image of her finished creation on Instagram Kate was inundated with orders. She began making more of the cake stands – which cost between £50-120 depending on the size – and suddenly the orders started flooded in.
“Within 12 months I had so many orders that Dad was helping and we were outsourcing some of the making to another man,” she said.
In 2017 Kate registered the company name BrambleSky and continued working full-time whilst making cake stands and other wedding props and selling them online.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing – in that first year she was down about £5,000 as she didn’t invest anything in the business except the materials she needed for each stand.
She said: “It’s trial and error and I spent a lot of money on trying new products trying to find what I was good at, what would sell and what was an investment for the future.
“I stuck at it and after about 18 months something just clicked and I began to make money – a turnover of about £35,000, although once I’d paid back the £5,000 I’d lost the previous year, plus all the equipment I needed like sanding machines, mitre saws and so on, I only made about £10,000.”
But Kate continued doing the work she loved and in 2018 she gave up her job at the IT company and threw herself into BrambleSky full time. But a few years later, Kate realised she had learnt a lot and started helping other businesses with their photography and social media.
Although she was running the two businesses – BrambleSky and BrambleSkySolutions – for a while, Kate couldn’t keep both of them going, and decided to shift her full focus on her newest business around two years ago.
“I’ve essentially taken everything I learned from growing my own trend-led business through social media and now use that knowledge to help other hospitality businesses grow theirs,” Kate told us.
“Today, that has grown into a business supporting over 15 businesses every month.
“I provide photography, social media management, content creation and practical advice to help businesses stay visible and relevant across their social media platforms.
“My clients range from start-ups that need help establishing their presence, to well-established businesses that simply need a few hours of expert support each month.”
Kate said: “I hated school so much that I hardly ever went, but I’ve always loved being creative so I suppose this is the perfect business for me. I love the creative side of it but hate the fact that my house is constantly a tip!
“In a world where people often get very caught up in the importance of academia and exam grades, I’m pleased to share my story to show that you can be creative and not academic, and still be happy and successful.”
Kate’s top tips for aspiring businesswomen
• The key to effective selling is not making it obvious you’re selling something – for example I would never post a picture of my cake stand on Instagram and tell people to buy it and how much it costs. But by reposting a picture from the happy couple’s big day with a backdrop or of a beautiful cake made by a client I can showcase my stand in the best setting and lets the product sell itself.
• If you’re starting a new business you must give it more than twelve months at the very least, especially if it’s seasonal. It takes this long for word to spread and you to begin to build a client base and social media network, as well as good quality seasonal photos -it took me two years to make a profit.
• Praise other businesses on social media. People are sometimes scared that by praising the competition it will take work away from them, but in fact it does quite the opposite. Don’t be afraid of competitors.
• And that leads me to my final point which is the importance of joining a community of like-minded people. For example, I sell various products but I am very-much involved in the cake-making community on social media. We support each other, I’ve made some amazing friends too and through doing that you’ll soon find that your social media following, and your sales, snowball.
I love hearing from some of my cake maker clients that they’re booking out my stands for loads of weddings – Success is great, but it’s even better when its shared!
