Lady Chase Weblog

Steph and I have recently clearly defined our roles in the business so I’m delighted to share that Steph is our Managing Director - and focuses mainly on the ‘what’ part of our business (the strategy) and I’m the Chair and focus mainly on the ‘why’ part of our busiess (the future and our vision). Together we set up SK Chase back in 2003 and our company provides technology and services for swanky hotels, enabling them to sell gift vouchers through their own websites.

Here’s a bit of background to us both, which was written by Elaine Gunn, who recently left our team to set up her own business, Top Cat Copy.

Kaye Taylor:  

Kaye was brought up in Exeter and then Maidstone, and left school at 16 to become a Saturday girl at a clothing store, and in her own words “to do as little as possible”.  After being dragged by her (despairing) mum to a careers advisor, Kaye ended up in a London travel agency where she discovered that she actually loved working, and spent the next seven years learning on the job, moving through telesales, product development, web design, sales & marketing and grabbing any experience she could get her hands on. 

After travelling through Southern and Eastern Africa for a few months, Kaye came to Edinburgh and worked in Marketing for Haggis Backpackers (where she worked with Dav, who would later marry Steph - although neither knew it at the time) before moving to the Townhouse Company as their Marketing Manager.  

Kaye was introduced to Iain Taylor by his dad Peter (owner of the Townhouse Company), and married him in June 2005. She gave up smoking and drinking 7 years ago, followed by junk food a couple of years later, and now enjoys yoga, practicing meditation, a vegan diet and a glowing complexion! 

If Steph is the structured half of SK Chase, then Kaye is the creative (and sometimes chaotic) half. She’s the kind of person who has about 17 ideas a minute – ranging from pure genius to completely barking. The gift voucher concept was Kaye’s brainchild right back at the beginning, and she naturally gravitates towards the sales, marketing and development side of the business. 

Steph Wilson: 

Steph has been working since she was about 14, starting out as a fledgling entrepreneur by running paper rounds, egg rounds, and other money-making schemes that she pooled with her mates to maximise booze and fags income.  She grew up in Edinburgh (where we’re all based now), and left home at 17 to live in a “dodgy wee flat” (as she puts it) in Leith, and work in the Carlton Highland Hotel as a receptionist. This was instead of staying on for a 6^th year at high school and becoming a languages teacher which was the original plan, and what her Mum thought she was doing until the day that school went back after the holidays! 

At the Carlton, Steph met and started dating Dav Wilson until around 6 years ago when he proposed by accident and they decided to get married.  Meanwhile, she worked her way up the career ladder in various hotels across Edinburgh, and ended up at the Townhouse Company as their Reservations Supervisor before being promoted to their senior team as Revenue Manager, where she met Kaye Taylor.  

Steph is a fish-eating vegan and probably one of the fittest people I know. She genuinely loves exercising, and could beat most people I know at arm-wrestling - I went to a spinning class with her once and nearly fainted.  She’s the structured half of the SK Chase partnership, and is the reason the company has documented procedures, budgets, telephones and warm offices. 

SK Chase: 

After they met initially at the Townhouse Company, Kaye and Steph didn’t interact an awful lot, being work colleagues in different departments. However, following what I’m told was a passionate discussion during a management meeting - misinterpreted by their then boss as a proper cat-fight - they were sent on a training course in Belgium together “to bond”. By the end of the trip, the concept of SK Chase had been born and the pair had enlisted each other as business partners.

With phenomenal support from the Townhouse Company (Peter Taylor, the Chairman, gave up his own office so that the young SK Chase could have a home) Kaye and Steph incorporated the business in August 2003, spent the next year building their technology, and began trading in June 04.  

Kaye left the Townhouse Company in December 04 to focus full-time on SK Chase, and was followed by Steph in March 05. The pair worked by themselves in the attic of one of the Townhouse Company’s hotels until they were ready to start recruiting for extra help and moving to their own premises.  Since then, SK Chase has been growing at a rate of knots. We’ve now got about 200 hotel clients (12-15% UK 4/5 star market share) and employ 7 permanent staff in Edinburgh with another 10 lovely part-timers who fulfill all our vouchers.

In November ‘07 we launched a new arm to the business, where we sell our hotel clients’ gift vouchers on their behalf through our own website www.kisschasegifts.com. Kiss Chase gives us the chance to indulge our quirky, sexy side as a business, and we’re all really excited about it!