It has taken Lady Beckham 18 years to shift her business - where she is creative director - into the black.

The former popstar admitted in a Netflix documentary that the company had once been "tens of millions into the red", with "mind-blowing" waste including a flower budget of £70,000 a year.

Lady Beckham spoke of her "panic" as the debt piled-up.

"It's been a hell of a journey. I almost lost everything and that was a dark, dark time," she said. "I used to cry before I went to work every day, because I just felt like a firefighter."

David Belhassen, founder of private equity firm Neo Investment Partners, recalled having to deliver some hard truths when he decided in 2017 to get involved with the business.

"I said 'we have to change everything, restructure the business and that's going to be painful'."

Fashion brands can be notoriously slow to turn a profit. Stacia Bedford, a course leader at the London College of Fashion, said establishing a label can take between three and five years.

"Launching a 'typical' fashion brand is enormously expensive," she said.

"Brands that do make money follow the lean startup method and keep their collections minimal. You need a lot of traction to get the attention of an investor."

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Slide 1 of 6, Meghan walks in her dress under an umbrella held by Pince Harry wearing a blue suit, walking outdoors at night., Meghan, Duchess of Sussex wore a light blue fitted T-shirt dress to the Endeavour Fund awards in London in 2020

There is another, less tangible ingredient: Lady Beckham herself.

The woman who once seemed almost comically aloof has become increasingly willing to show the person behind the brand. She's been known to post videos demonstrating her beauty products – often with wet hair, seemingly filmed in her bathroom.

Lisa Maynard-Atem, a business strategy adviser, said this has been crucial.

"She hasn't abandoned the polish or aspiration that you expect from a luxury brand, but she has added personality," she said. "That creates connection and people buy into brands emotionally as well as commercially."

Maynard-Atem added that Lady Beckham's openness about the firm's struggles has also helped.

"By acknowledging the losses and some of the mistakes that were made, she makes the eventual turnaround more credible. The failure hasn't been edited out of the story. It has become part of the story," she said.

Luxury fashion remains a competitive business, and one profitable year is no guarantee of future success.

The key is to keep innovating, according to Bedford.

"Success changes with the trends and probably the biggest factor is the creative director," she said.

"Fashion is not an easy industry to enter and certainly not for the faint of heart. The founders who last are the ones who treat setbacks as information to learn and then build from, rather than something to hide."