Northamptonshire HR consultant who doubled her profit in second year says ‘take chances when they are presented’

A HR consultant, who set up her Daventry business two weeks before the first lockdown in March 2020, doubled her first year profit in her second year.

Natalie Ellis, 38, founder of the multi award-winning Rebox HR, wants to encourage others to take the plunge if they are thinking of setting up their own business.

Her company was 17 years in the making, after landing her first job in HR aged 22 and after suffering with mental health problems, she thought ‘if I do not do this now, I never will’.

Natalie, from Daventry, said: “Life is for living and taking chances when they are presented.

“I made the jump and resigned from my job, despite having no savings behind me.”

She began with three clients, and has now built that up to 16 - with more than 100 additional ad hoc clients across the UK.

Rebox HR won its first award in 2020, when it was crowned Best Virtual HR Consultancy by SME News.

The year after, Natalie was placed in the top 50 HR influencers in the country by HR Magazine.

As well as being named Best Outsourced HR Consultancy this year by SME News, the company has also been nominated for Best New Business at the SME National Awards.

Natalie will be attending the awards ceremony at Wembley in December, and is “very proud” to be representing Northamptonshire.

She said: “I got the letter through the post and it took five reads to come to terms with it.

“I didn’t think it could be true and had to phone them up just to make sure.”

Rebox HR is now being scaled up - Natalie was able to employ her first member of staff in February, HR advisor Faye Ramsey, and they are moving into a new office at the start of September.

Natalie’s family are “so proud” of her progress, especially after growing the business from her living room.

When the first lockdown was announced, Natalie feared she had made the wrong decision.

But after Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the furlough scheme, her phone was “constantly ringing” as no one knew what this meant and needed Natalie’s assistance.

She said: “A lot of people work towards milestones before setting up their own businesses - like saving a certain amount of money - but this can often hold them back.

“I was determined to succeed and thought ‘if other people can do it, why not me?’ and with that mentality, I was good to go.”

Despite not fulfilling her childhood ambitions of becoming cabin crew for British Airways, Natalie has always “stuck to her values” and “remained authentic”.

She released her first book, Launch Your HR Business, ahead of starting her company in 2020, and has not looked back since.

The 38-year-old says the research she did before making the jump included reading the stories of successful and well-known business owners, and it made her realise “they are just the same as us”.