Looking back, Rachael Laine thinks the signs pointed towards working with her husband. “We met at a lindy hop lesson,” says the woman who brought the US company Salt-Water sandals to the UK and Europe. “That’s partner dancing. You have to acquiesce or it doesn’t work.”
“But if I didn’t lead you into the moves you wanted to do, you’d get quite cross about it,” interjects her husband, Dave Bull, who recently quit a career in the construction industry to become the operations director at his wife’s distribution business, CraftyMothers.
Ms Laine is adamant he was the best person for a new position she needed to fill. She felt Mr Bull’s background in quantity surveying — dealing with finances, external contractors and delivering a project — made him a great fit for the company she created nine years ago.