A YOUNG mother who built a multi-million pound publishing company from a small bedroom in her Loughton home has decided to share the secrets of how she did it.

Judy Piatkus was the mother of three small children in Brook Road when she set up her business in 1979 and she never dreamt the company would grow into a huge success story that at one point had a turnover of £10 million a year.

Her company, also called Piatkus, was eventually snapped up by major publishing company Little Brown Books in 2007 and Mrs Piatkus has now turned her hand to motivational speaking.

She said: “It was not easy but I enjoyed myself so much it never felt like work.”

Piatkus quickly became a leading lifestyle publisher - printing books by top authors including Danielle Steel, Virginia Andrews, Harlan Coben and Dean Koontz.

She was responsible publishing for the iconic 1980’s beauty book “Colour Me Beautiful” by Carole Jackson, and by 1984 had opened her first office in London with a small but dedicated team of employees.

She said: ”It was so exciting, it was a one woman operation to begin with but it had grown and I had a wonderful team around me. ”

The company moved to bigger headquarters in 1986, where staff numbers swelled to 27.

In 2007 Mrs Piatkus decided she wanted a break and a career change and sold Piatkus Books to international publishers Little Brown Books.

A successful rags to riches story, Mrs Piatkus now works as a motivational speaker- something she says she loves doing.

She said: “I do give advice about coping with the credit crunch. Piatkus Books survived two recessions - in fact the last book I published in 2007 was called “the Great Crash” although that was about the American recession in 1929. I also discuss how I grew the company.”

Mrs Piatkus will be telling her success story at The George, located on the Strand in London on March 11 from 6:30pm.

For more information visit judypiatkus.com with Sub