Fourteen years after launching 14 Day Mani, Fiona continues to evolve the brand with the same entrepreneurial spirit that started it all. What began as a mission to make salon-quality nails accessible at home has grown into a business driven by innovation, customer insight and a clear focus on nail health. From embracing AI to empowering teams and staying relentlessly customer-focused, CEW UK caught up with Fiona to discuss the lessons learned from over a decade of building a successful beauty brand and what’s next for 14 Day Mani. 
CEW: Fourteen years after launching 14 Day Mani, what’s changed most about the way you lead the business?
When I started 14 Day Mani, my job was to build great products. Fourteen years later, I think my biggest job is building people and systems that make great decisions. Every few weeks, I’ll take a deep dive into one area of the business, whether that’s marketing, customer care or operations. I challenge assumptions, analyse the data and help the team improve how they think. If I can build a business where great decisions happen without me having to make every one, then I know I’m doing my job well.
CEW: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about building a beauty brand?
Listen to your customers. They’ll tell you exactly what they want if you know where to look. Recently, we discovered customers were actively searching for one of our product categories, even though we’d convinced ourselves demand had dropped. That completely changed our commercial priorities. It was a powerful reminder that customer behaviour will always be more valuable than our own assumptions.
CEW: AI is transforming every industry. How has it changed yours?
AI hasn’t replaced anyone in our business. It’s helped us become better at what we do. We use it to analyse customer behaviour, challenge our thinking and speed up planning, but the decisions still come from people. It gives a small team the ability to operate like a much bigger one, and that’s incredibly powerful.
CEW: What’s one piece of advice you’d give another founder?
Don’t confuse being busy with making progress. Some of the biggest opportunities in your business are already there – you just haven’t found them yet. Spend more time understanding your customers, questioning your assumptions and improving the way your team thinks. The quality of your questions often determines the quality of your business.
CEW: What’s next for 14 Day Mani?
Our mission has always been to make beautiful nails easy to achieve at home. Today, that mission has evolved into something bigger. We want to become the most trusted name in nail health, whether someone chooses gel, Nail Gloss or our preventative nail care range. If we can help people achieve healthier nails while making beauty feel simpler and more enjoyable, then I think we’ve done our job. As 14 Day Mani enters its next chapter, the focus remains firmly on innovation, customer insight and helping consumers feel confident in their beauty routines. It’s a vision that has guided the brand for the past 14 years – and one that continues to shape its future.
