My weight inspired me to start my own business: Young woman’s inspiring entrepreneurial journey

It's not always the biggest, wildest ideas that are worth millions in the business world, in fact, sometimes it's the simplest ones, the items we've all noticed are missing, that can be the most wanted.

Take Brigitte Read for instance, a 37-year-old entrepreneur whose idea started during a shopping trip in Edinburgh - when she was left feeling humiliated after having to remove her tights because they kept falling down.

"I hadn't planned to start a business at all," Brigitte, often known as Brie, told Mirror Money.

The psychology graduate said she was inspired to set up her brand, Snag, by her own daily struggles to find comfortable tights.

It got her wondering about the thousands of other woman who may be overweight, underweight, too tall, and short or even disabled, and may also be having similar problems on their quest for the perfect size.

So she started her own market research buying every supermarket range and measuring them individually.

"I started asking around - and when I realized my friends had as many issues as I did with tights, I realized it was really something that needed to be fixed. I did a survey of 2,000 people and it turned out that 90% of women couldn't find the right size. Around 70% said they thought their life would be fundamentally better if they did. And I knew then it was a real problem."

Brie said she found out that tights traditionally sold by shops and retailers are all the same width – the only difference between the sizes is the length of the legs - which isn't always the solution.

So in April 2018, Snag was born - a virtual company that would sell affordable tights for every size and every shape.

"I had some start-up experience having worked as the chief executive at meal service Diet Chef," Brie explained.

She first started her career in data management before switching to marketing - a skill that would later save her thousands of pounds.

"About two years ago, after doing the survey, I did a seed around from friends and family for money to invest in the company. I raised Sh17 million to make the first website and do some first photo shoots.

"Developing and sourcing the product was complicated - and took about 12 month’s altogether. We started trading in spring 2018, which was very exciting and it's just grown from there."

Today, Snag tights is an independent brand which specializes in hosiery for those who can't find the right fit anywhere else.

It prides itself as 'all-inclusive' offering a wide variety of tights for sizes four to 28+.All tights sold are also eco-friendly. The dye house is carbon neutral and items are delivered using recycled paper.

"At Snag, our tights are designed by women for women, and cater to all different shapes and sizes - from very tiny to super curvy. We listen to our customers and create tights which will allow them to love their bodies and express their personalities by the way they dress," she explained.

The brand is advertised solely online - and picks up most of its traction on social media.

"We do all our advertising online. We just share things that are relevant and interesting to people. We try to make sure we aren't doing boring things just for the sake of doing them.

"The tights themselves are made in Italy. We have a team of 17 people who all work virtually. It’s a very different way of doing things but it works for us.

"We only sell via our website so we can build a relationship up with our customer. Our tights cost Sh917 a pair and if you buy lots of pairs we give you a discount. We don’t do any promotional email and we never do offers or promotions, because we keep our prices low every day instead."

In the 10 months that followed Snag's launch, the company sold 200,000 pairs of tights and gathered more than 50,000 loyal customers.

In the past year, the business, which started with a whip round from friends and family, has made Sh302 million.

Now Brie, who has taken on the role of chief executive, believes it's time to take the brand global.

"We are working on bringing Snag to international markets at the moment as women all over the world want tights that fit."

Speaking on making small businesses work, she said her top tip is be original.