Kelly Hoppen: 'Dragons' Den can't save your business. Hard work can'

Over five years, Hoppen has been carefully tapping into the upper-middle classes in India, China and beyond. This affluent and fast-growing demographic has been a saving grace for Hoppen Interiors. In Mumbai, for example, many generations of the family would live together. But now they are splitting up and buying small apartments, and they can afford branded luxury, she says.

Hoppen is currently working on 40 projects around the world, which range from private homes to hotel developments. Diversification is the best way to protect the business from future economic shocks, she says. As an entrepreneur, you constantly have to look at where the next buck is coming from, and how you can make a difference elsewhere in the world.

Hoppen's success abroad prompted the Government to appoint her as an export ambassador for its Business is GREAT campaign. She has just returned from a two-week tour of Mumbai and Hong Kong as part of this role.

During the Mumbai leg of her trip, Hoppen launched the 55-storey Lodha Estrella luxury residential development built in collaboration with her Kelly Hoppen for YOO business. She is also hot on the trail of new strategic partners to help grow her new e-commerce firm in Asia. Ive been working on the dotcom business for a year and a half, and its been live for eight months, says Hoppen.

KellyHoppen.com is now selling homewares, linen and wallpaper direct to the consumer, and Hoppen is planning to turn this into a global enterprise. I have a massive following in Asia but its expensive to ship items over so Im looking for partners where I can have stock, says Hoppen. We brought all our manufacturing back to the UK to support our economy but Im also looking for international artisans to help fuse East and West.

On home turf, Hoppen is launching pop-up shops in Bluewater and Westfield this month. These pop-ups are going to test the waters so I can find out where we want to be.

Hoppen has also now launched Studio Hoppen, a team of designers trained by Hoppen, which now complements her established couture business. Its not me, its them doing the designing but I do look in on projects, she says. It takes the pressure off me.

Hoppen is also spending a lot of time on her investment companies. Last year, she joined the BBC show Dragons Den, and has notched up investments in fake tanning brand Skinny Tan; exercise start-up The Running Mat; Revivaphone, which saves water-damaged smartphones; Skribbies and Phom Teas.

Its much harder than you would think, she says. Some of these companies need a lot of babysitting.

The third series airs in January but the sheen has already worn off the show for Hoppen, who says that she was like a kid in a candy shop during filming for the first series.

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Kelly Hoppen: 'Dragons' Den can't save your business. Hard work can'