Hepsie Goddard and Jean Pryde among 2025’s 100 inspiring female business leaders
Strong women in business is a feature of the greeting card industry and Small Business Britain has again recognised this by picking four of this year’s 100 f:Entrepreneurs as those with connections to cards.
Martha And Hepsie co-founder Hepsie Goddard, Jean Pryde of Green Ribbons and Brilliantly Brave, The Goring Grocer’s Kate Kind, and Red Panda Trading’s Wendy Lane-Beale have all made the grade in the 2025 #iAlso100 campaign released yesterday, 7 January, highlighting inspiring female business leaders across the UK.
Small Business Britain, founded by Michelle Ovens CBE, champions the UK’s 5.5million small businesses and is also on a mission to increase the number of female entrepreneurs from its current 20% to 30% by 2030 through the f:Entrepreneur campaign, which is now in its eighth year.
“Jean is the very definition of #iAlso,” said her partner and Brilliantly Brave co-founder Stuart Cox. “She’s a mental health professional, community builder, digger driver, conservation champion, and the heart behind our mission to transform well-wishes into wellbeing.”
With over 30 years’ experience in the field, Moray-based Jean has been highlighted for her Green Ribbons business, founded almost two years ago to provide essential mental health services including coaching, group support, and professional training.
And just marking its first birthday is the innovative publishing side where the cards all have a purpose to encourage, support, amuse and positively impact while all profits go towards providing free-at-the-point-of-delivery mental wellbeing training, coaching and peer support – every 1,000 cards sold translates into a two-day mental health first aid course for 16 people.
Hepsie founded her illustration business with her sister Martha back in 2011 to reflect the core values of togetherness, authenticity, optimism, and creativity within its offer of vibrant, greeting cards, gifts, giftwrap and homeware,.
She also works as marketing and business strategy consultant from her Barnstaple home while designing and creating with Martha at the company’s Sheffield studio, and Hepsie said: “We’re all about supporting UK-made products and bringing British craftsmanship back into the homes of our stylish customers.
“With backgrounds in design, we’ve worked hard to build a successful business, all while juggling family life and its many demands.”
Red Panda Trading is a bricks-and-mortar shop in Sherborne where Wendy also has an online arm, specialising in ethically-sourced and Fair Trade gifts and homewares, supporting individual makers and cooperatives and stocking locally-made products.
Kate is the founder of The Goring Grocer store which offers a large range of deli items, groceries, food gifts, homewares and fresh flowers plus a carefully-curated selection of greeting cards and stationery by local and UK artists, and also organises events including wine tasting evenings, supplier talks and tastings and a monthly supper club.
These women now join greeting card community peers such as Little Boat Gifts’ Olivia Reilly, Jo Williams of Joco Interiors, and The Prior Shop’s founder Beck Prior part of the Small Business Britain and f:Entrepreneur community which has monthly events and opportunities to host, speak on panels and raise the profile of these business leaders including regular trips to the House Of Lords.
Launched in 2017, a year later the campaign launched the #iAlso100 showcasing 100 women from all over the UK who are living the #iAlso life – a new approach to the portfolio career, taking on many roles, achieving in many different spheres of life and demonstrating that women are paving a new path for what entrepreneurship means.
