FIVE female-owned micro-businesses in Camelsdale celebrated International Women’s Day on Tuesday.

The businesses are all owned by mothers of children who attend Camelsdale Primary School.

Friends Lisa Twidell and Rachel Philips co-founded Olive & Bloom Grazing in 2020 in the first lockdown.

The pair – who have backgrounds in marketing and advertising – create grazing boxes and platters for parties, celebrations, corporate events and date nights.

Supporting independent British food producers is important to them.

Benedicte Ross founded Bene Bikes, which offers mountain bike guiding in the beautiful countryside around Haslemere.

Bene comes from a keen cycling family and has always cycled. When her youngest child started school, Bene decided to carve out free time from her career in online marketing to focus on sharing her riding passion by becoming a qualified Mountain Bike Leader Award guide.

Bene knew she wanted her rides to be inclusive, supportive and fun. She also wanted to encourage more women to ride and feel welcome in cycling. Currently the rides run twice a week and some weekends, both as group rides and one-to-one.

Calligrapher and artist Hannah Mackie founded the Neon Nib in 2019. Hannah’s passion for lettering began after attending a calligraphy workshop at a friend’s hen-do. Having pursued this as a hobby, Hannah’s love of modern calligraphy and natural, artistic talent led her to start the business.

Hannah undertakes calligraphic commissions, both private and commercial, including wedding stationery, scribed poems, signage, greeting cards and illustrations, alongside commercial projects including company logos and branding commissions. All her designs are individually hand-painted in her studio in Camelsdale.

Caroline Pearce founded Venture Out in 2021.

Caroline has a background in organising global adventures and a passion for an active outdoors lifestyle.

She organises luxury adventure weekends in Surrey and the surrounding areas.

Krissy Roe started Sow Good Microgreens Farm with her children during lockdown, with the aim of bringing fresh, sustainable food to friends and family.

She now sells to pubs, restaurants and shops, as well as private chefs and local customers who collect fresh greens in reusable glass jars from the farm each week.

Krissy spent 15 years campaigning on sustainability issues in the travel sector.

She is passionate about nature and finding alternatives to conventional farming and food production.

Her farm gives a portion of profits to rewilding initiatives, delivers via electric vehicle, and uses organic, peat free compost, without pesticides or chemicals.

Olive & Bloom Grazing co-founder Lisa Twidell said: “We feel incredibly lucky to work alongside such a talented bunch of women, all successfully running their own small businesses, juggling parental responsibilities and the all-important work-life balance.

“We are all experiencing similar hurdles and challenges that running a small business can present, and it’s great we can not only share these with other women in the same position, but also benefit from their experience and the services and products they offer. We love supporting local, and you can’t get more local than this.”