About

Luxury Business Emporium

I certainly wasn’t born into luxury however I grew up having an appreciation for it. Prior to pursuing my passion as a cake maker in the luxury market, I had two other successful careers which seemed diametrically opposed. The short version is that first, I became a Scientist working for many years saving lives in the NHS. Then after doing an MBA, I went on to become a Headhunter recruiting CEOs, Chairpersons and board level executives in the private and public sectors.

Life, I’ve found, is a lot like cake – the more delicious and complementary layers there are to it, the more exciting it becomes. In a good way my track record of transitioning from one completely different career path to another gave me the skills to succeed in the luxury market but I did not know it at the time.

Luxury business emporium coaching and business strategies that work

The early years...

The early years of my cake business were really rough. I started my business in the middle of a recession, so not many people were taking my calls or my requests for meetings. I had no money or contacts. I said yes to everything, afraid to turn business down. I was eager to please, desperate for the smallest morsel of approval. In turn I became overworked and frustrated with very little to show for my efforts.

Then I had a light bulb moment. In trying to be everything to everyone, I became nothing to no one. I reviewed my contacts, branding, marketing, systems, processes, designs, and a whole lot more. Yes, my face may not match my cakes but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I noticed that I got the best responses and appreciation from the very few high end luxury clients who recognised great craftsmanship and they were always happy to pay for the delivery of great value.

Leap of faith...

Taking the leap into the luxury market was by no means the easiest or smoothest of transitions. Self doubt, what my competitors seemed to be doing, new shiny object syndrome etc got in the way. But I persisted as I had to put food on my table. I simply had to make it work. I loved the process of learning and discovery as my focus shifted to my ideal luxury clients and how to best serve their needs. The who, what, where and why. Discovering the different types of luxury clients and their buyer behaviour.

Discovering what makes them tick and what they value. It must have worked because I came to the attention of Her Majesty the Queen’s cousin who is a world renowned party planner. This led to a number of other mind blowing opportunities with other royal families.

Swim together or sink alone...

As a former Scientist it’s not enough to have a theory or hypothesis. It’s got to be tested and replicated again and again to be proven. While building up my business, I coached and mentored many of my colleagues in the luxury wedding industry including event planners, hoteliers, couture dress designers, photographers, caterers, and fellow cake makers. It gave me joy to see them climb up the ladder as they built up their luxury brands. Zig zigler once said “You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.”

This was quite true for me. It turns out that I also had a knack for spotting and developing up and coming talent, a transferable skill from my Headhunting days. Little did I know that what I was doing was performance coaching and transformational coaching, watching people blossom as they applied my strategies and methodologies.

When one teaches, many learn...

I started thinking about the possibility of teaching people what I knew about building a successful luxury business when you have little resources at your disposal. However, I was worried about being seen as just ‘a cake maker’ so I expanded my horizons. I also started consulting and gave business talks at corporate banks and organisations like JP Morgan and GTBank and also at major conferences abroad in countries including France, Germany, Vienna, Italy, Morocco, Switzerland and Lagos. My work has also taken me to Number 10 Downing Street.

In order to extend my reach and create luxury content with authenticity that resonates, I also planned and created beautiful luxury editorial shoots which got featured in a ton of blogs and magazines like Japanese Vogue and Tatler, and a few of them even went viral.

Live your dreams...

It would be an honour to help you luxcelerate your business and awaken your worth. What I teach is practical and most importantly it works, because it is authentic, verifiable and it promises no quick fixes. No fudging, no smoke and mirrors! I know you are ready to do the work or else you would not have bothered to read all this.

Just know that I will be with you every step of the way, the way I wish someone was there for me when I started out. So I want you to go ahead and download my free resource on 5 Ways to Find and Sell to High End Clients to get you started.

OUR

Clients

CLIENT

Love

I have been in the luxury sector for over 25 years, and have dealt with these same clients around the world, but have never had their personalities sorted so perfectly with the relevant actions to take for each spelt out so succinctly. Brilliant.

Colin Carling

I contacted Elizabeth Solaru a few years ago and I asked her to be a judge for the Italian Wedding Awards, the “Oscar” night for the wedding suppliers in Italy. Elizabeth was for me more than a judge. Over the years she has helped me, added value by making the event more prestigious, giving me advice, advertised the event, introduced me to her network and last but not least she accepted the invitation to be Keynote speaker to my WEDx Italia event, giving value and coaching the suppliers. I am very grateful for everything she has done for me and I’ll never stop thanking her for her professionalism, availability and generosity!

- Camelia Lambru, Italian Wedding Awards and WEDx Italia

Elizabeth has given me the tools and confidence to start my journey in promoting weddings at our venue to the right market segment.

Elizabeth’s understanding and experience from creating and positioning her own extremely successful business shines through. Along with her positive attitude and healthy wish to see your business succeed, she is the perfect person to help you flourish. I highly recommend spending some time with Elizabeth – I am excited to start and also intend to be back for more!

- Nikki Harris, One Great George Street

Thank you for your significant part in the success of yesterday’s event, BOLD Talks: Entrepreneurial Event. Your contribution was extremely inspiring, insightful and the audience was engaged throughout. Your entrepreneurial experience, your passion for research and engagement with the topic was clearly evidenced by the quality of delivery on the day. For that, we’re very grateful.

- Aliya White, JP Morgan

With a background in Science and having worked in the Luxury Events Industry for many years, Elizabeth is astute at finding solutions to problems in a strategic and methodical manner. She is adept at reading between the lines to get right to the root of a task and what is utterly wonderful, and quite rare, is that she truly understands luxury craftsmanship. Having worked at the highest level within her industry Elizabeth interprets these skills in an inspiring and creative fashion. After many years honing her craft she has acquired a fountain of knowledge and experience and imparts that knowledge in an enthusiastic, fun, interesting and supportive fashion.

- Rula Komodromos Co-Founder - The London Finishing Academy

I invited Elizabeth to Singapore as a trainer and business coach. Elizabeth has a vast knowledge of the luxury market and is very generous with her sharing. She is super experienced, we can see that! She generated clear and practical luxury business ideas for moving my business forward based on her research of our geographical location and we were amazed. She has inspired every one of us.Nanatang is definitely very proud to be able to host her in Singapore. Thank you, Elizabeth, we look forward to having you back with us soon.

- Serena Nanatang, Singapore

I came over from Vienna for a 2 day one to one business consultation with Elizabeth and it was one of the best business decisions I ever made. Despite stiff opposition in my industry, she showed me how to build and grow my luxury brand and now I am one of the top cake makers in Vienna.

- Christina Krug, Schnabulerie

Many years ago we made Elizabeth our only brand ambassador for the UK due to her innate understanding of our luxury products. She has been an excellent representative for our brand, helping us to grow our market share considerably. She has gone over and beyond for us, facilitating introductions and travelling overseas to do demos, training and judging. Her consulting services are exemplary and very practical.

- Fabian Riesen, Massa Ticino, Switzerland