By Emma Clark BBC News Online business reporter

Last-minute client business has thrown off her afternoon schedule and she apologises for wearing no make-up.

And this is a woman who champions the fashionable mantra of work-life balance; evidently something is off-kilter.

Ms de Baer made her name through her �8.5m ($13.2m) corporate clothing design-and-manufacture business, which she set up in the 1980s.

She employs some 60 people in a converted warehouse in South London, catering to clients such as Odeon Cinemas, Thistle Hotels and Boots Opticians.

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Jacqueline de Baer Click here to read about the Godiva protest

In her spare time, she is a mother of four, a wife and an ad-hoc campaigner for the Work-Life Balance Trust, with a special interest in childcare.

Only last week she rode to Downing Street as Lady Godiva to protest about the cost of childcare for working parents.

Diffident though she appears, she certainly knows how to catch the media's attention.

Work-life crisis

The balance between her career and home life came into sharp focus after the birth of her fourth child, Gus.

"I would go away for the weekend, come back and my bags would still be packed by following weekend because there was not enough time to unpack them."

She had a work-life crisis after having Gus

In May, she made a critical decision to bring in a managing director to take over day-to-day control, leaving her free to think "big picture".

But time spent training the new boss means she has only just begun to reap the benefits.

"Now I recognise what's important in the business and at home, and I do those things exclusively."

Giving up work altogether was never an option - "My business is like one of my children," she says.

Godiva and a lady

The Godiva stunt is an apt introduction to a woman who is clearly a non-conformist.

She was schooled at Cheltenham Ladies College, but "hated it". She then did a degree at Exeter University in sociology, but felt "it was neither one thing or the other".

She campaigned for a tax credit for working parents

"I should have gone to art college or I should have done a business degree," she says.

"Business and design are the two things I am most passionate about."

At 23 she married her first husband and settled in Ibiza with the in-laws.

In the golden sunshine of Ibiza's pine-covered shores, Ms de Baer's entrepreneurial spirit found its wings.

"I had no career in mind but I really wanted to do something. It was a land of entrepreneurs."

From soft toys to beach boys

With the backing of her then brother-in-law, she decided to design and sell shorts for windsurfers - capitalising on the island's windsurfing craze in the 1980s.

Jacqueline de Baer

Aged 45 Educated at Exeter University & secretarial college Married to Oliver Laughton-Scott with four children 1980s: starts De Baer, corporate clothing business 1990s: sells 23% stake 2002: Brings in new managing director

As a child she had made soft toys - then later clothes for the soft toys. Beachwear for bronzed surfers provided a progression of sorts.

During the winter, she hung out at Val d'Isere with a knitting machine, making and selling pom-pom hats from wool bought in Lille.

Serious commissions followed, including a collection for the clothing chain Jigsaw and 4,000 beach shorts for Thomson Holiday reps.

But while her business found its feet, Ms de Baer's marriage faltered - "we got married too young" - and she headed back to the UK alone.

Corporate identity

By 1986, she decided to focus on corporate clothing. "I began working designs into the goods, building a corporate identity into the clothes.

"This hadn't been done before. With Dolcis, for instance, I used a shoes pattern."

De Baer moved from beachwear to corporate uniforms

In the 1990s, the business was expanding at about 30-40% and a shortage of funds forced Ms de Baer to concede 23% of the company to venture capitalists.

She is not certain she wants to float the company, but hints at a possible buyout or merger in the future.

"There are other ways to realise your investment."

She hasn't ruled out starting a new business either. "I've got it in me to do it again, but perhaps when the kids are older.

"Or unless I spot an irresistible opportunity."

Balanced?

Her zest for business, however, makes you wonder just how successful she will be at achieving that elusive work-life equilibrium.

She leaves work at six to see the children, but admits to "working suppers" with her husband, who also runs his own business.

But perhaps just striving for balance gets her half-way there.

Quoting a speaker from a conference she attended this week, she says: "You're probably not going to get it perfect, but you can settle for good enough."

Jacqueline de Baer will deliver the opening address at the "Starting your own business" conference in Birmingham on 11 October. Call 01280 707 465 for more information.