About
Eight years.
No investment.
One sale.
Plus a miscarriage and a baby in between.
Timeline
May 2017
I needed to pay for my wedding.
So I asked whether any local businesses needed PR. Enough said yes to fund a no-expenses-spared hen do and a wedding day without compromise.
December 2017
BIG little LDN incorporated.
My purpose became more than financial. It was about making PR and marketing accessible to SMEs. So I started a real company, managing six clients alongside my full-time job as a PR and Marketing Manager. I worked evenings and weekends, and had very little social life.
2019
VAT registered.
And headhunted for another full-time job, as a global PR Manager. Still running BIG little LDN in the evenings and weekends. Still no social life.
2020
The COVID boom.
Nobody had a social life, and bigger agencies shrank under the weight of their liabilities. We'd always been lean and remote. Won our first six-figure client and our first twelve-month influencer retainer.
2021
First employee.
Made my first hire. Revenue up 52% year on year. Had a miscarriage 14 hours before a client shoot. Monitored emails from bed, back at my desk within two weeks.
2022
Award-winning.
Won our first gong at the Institute of Promotional Marketing Awards. Closed our first three-year contract, retained the influencer retainer for a third year, revenue up 16% year on year to £340k.
Dec 2022 – Feb 2023
We all got pregnant.
My employee in December. Me in February.
April 2023
Second hire.
To cover my employee's maternity leave. I couldn't afford cover for mine.
May 2023
First loss-making month.
All-day “morning sickness” finally subsided. Focussed on finalising company policies, processes and CRM “Sales” integration.
July 2023
Multi-award-winning.
Beat Ogilvy USA, Ogilvy Mexico, Coors Light, Heineken and nine others in the category at the Global Influencer Marketing Awards.
September 2023
Third hire.
Set up apprenticeship scheme. Hired our first Social Strategist under the L4 Marketing Executive programme.
October 2023
The cash cow retainer disappeared a month before I gave birth.
Sixth consecutive loss-making month.
November 2023
Gave birth.
Sent an email at midnight, four hours into contractions. Met payroll on time, three days after being discharged, and five days before being readmitted.
December 2023
Revenue down 74% year on year.
Eighth consecutive loss-making month.
January 2024
Back at my desk seven weeks postpartum.
Breastfeeding, not sleeping, working on a pitch that could save the business. We didn't win the pitch.
March 2024
The last opportunity in the pipeline fell through.
Eight months of freelance fees spent closing it. Solid client relationship, about to get sign-off. Then the board pulled influencer marketing.
April 2024
Three months from losing everything.
Found out the team were on three-month notice periods. Pound for pound what was left in the bank.
July 2024
Emergency restructure.
Half the team made redundant, Sophie back from maternity leave, service restructure and three clients won. All in the same month. Thirty days from losing everything: if those three hadn’t converted, there was no business.
August 2024
Back in profit.
One month after the restructure. Those three clients invoiced.
December 2024
Closed the year in the black.
Part-time, on broken sleep, during what should have been my maternity leave. No bail-out from investors, friends or family. Just pure graft.
2025
Acquired by Factotum Group.
On my daughter's second birthday. I still work as Senior Communications Advisor inside Factotum.
Now
Advisory, research, campaigner and a book.
I advise founder-led businesses on growth, commercial, PR and operations. I'm running the first global study into founder-motherhood, while writing the book I needed.
The rest of it
Things that aren't on the CV.
I grew up on the Watling Estate in Burnt Oak.
Mid-terrace, blue-collar family. No posh school, no connections, first in the family to go to university, no blueprint for a white-collar career.
Growing up in Burnt Oak fine-tunes your instincts. You learn about trust, survival and what it means to graft. I've been underestimated, overlooked and outright patronised in almost every job I've had. That's what makes me so bloody brilliant at what I do.
At eight and a half months pregnant, I took on a Premier League club. And won.
Bealonians FC were about to lose Oakfield, their home ground, to Redbridge Council and West Ham United. We had less than two weeks from the first conversation to the committee meeting.
Within four days we had 4,500 signatures. It now sits above 16,000. The BBC came to Oakfield to film a rare three-minute slot for the BBC London News.
The council awarded the lease to West Ham. I advised the club to make a Freedom of Information request. The request was denied. In January 2024, the council revoked its decision. Bealonians FC got to keep their playing fields.
I was part of the team that stopped concrete plants being built on the Olympic Park.
2016. The plan went to the London Legacy Development Corporation. It caused an uproar, and it didn't happen.
Before I was a mum I was an aerial silk performer.
And I was getting really good. It's still my dream to complete a BA in Circus Arts and perform for hundreds of people.
I worked for Red Bull.
Where very early in my career I was encouraged to ask for forgiveness, not permission, and celebrated for getting Red Bull into the most restricted, off-limits places.
I secured a Mirror exclusive on the day Prince Harry's book launched.
Our GAP insurance client had a story going out that collided with the publication of Spare. Being the publicist who never gives up, I landed an exclusive with the largest tabloid in the country that same day.
The short version
For programmes and press.
60 WORDS
Emma Critchley-Lloyd bootstrapped a PR and brand agency from a Facebook post, nearly lost it after giving birth, and sold it to Factotum Group on her daughter's second birthday. She now advises founder-led businesses on growth, commercial, PR and operations, and is running the first global study into the psychological experience of founder-motherhood.
25 WORDS
Emma Critchley-Lloyd built, nearly lost and sold a PR agency. She advises founder-led businesses and runs the first global study into founder-motherhood.
Founder-Mother
The first global study into founder-motherhood. Report out November 2026.
Find out more