From watches to wedding rings who has never bought or owned jewellery?
With online retail on the increase in the UK and a buoyant second hand marketplace I became an accidental entrepreneur by clearing bits I no longer needed. Initially, as a keen amateur photographer I snaped a few shots of pieces I had around the house to sell online with the intention of raising money for a new PC for my disabled son.
With time spent on good snaps my items sold well and I started to buy bits to sell at a profit. Within a year I found myself having to VAT register. Ironically, being in a situation where conventional employment wasn’t an option drove me to succeed.
A couple of years on I’ve developed my product range plus my own slim packaging and gift bags that can go through the thinnest letter box so jewellery can be delivered quickly without anyone having to wait in. I’ve also launched my own range of branded silver. With such a big investment in my own range I’ve looked at the best way to sell my new items. So I’ve expanded to multiple online marketplaces.
This year, approaching my fourth year of trading, along with the rest of the world I’ve found myself in lockdown. My previously compartmentalised day of business owner, carer, mum, wife, house keeper became a juggling act to keep everything going. Suddenly I found myself with three children one in KS2, one in KS3 and one in KS4 (usually with full time special school support) to teach full time, whilst working on a business with customers needing extra support and supporting the house day to day needs, looking out for a few local people -a vulnerable neighbour and elderly parents.
Other than the exhaustion of supporting those around and working 7 days a week since late last year, we’ve survived physically, emotionally and financially. My eldest finished his education with 8’s and 9’s in his GCSE’s and is now working full time from home as a solutions architect. My younger two are back at school and my focus is now back on the business.
We’ve weathered the initial phase of the storm. I’ve had to step back and reprioritise, which whilst painful, when I’ve spent so much time building the business. This has meant I’m actually learning to spend more time on the business rather than just in it. I’m having to think about what can be outsourced, what can be streamlined and what actually isn’t essential right now.
I’ve outsourced my fulfilment so no more post office runs or waiting in for the postman, I’m researching getting some accountancy support onboard as I spend way to many hours fretting about this and I’m talking to a few companies about automation processes which will help with automating the management of the multiplatform nature of the business.
I think about 70% of my time is spent on tasks I really should be managing more efficiently by outsourcing. Its not that easy though, as this is my baby. I regularly forget to put adequate value on my own time and so when I look at outsourcing costs I’m not doing a fair comparison on savings.
The one task I’d love to never do again is my accounts. I loathe them and spend way too much time on them, but don’t know that I could outsource all the worry that I do.
I love a task list and break it down into fun to do and drudge tasks. If I have things like a VAT return to do I make sure I build a few hours creative tasks into the day to compensate for the stress I generate doing my accounts.
I’ve started from less than nothing, taken the family off the breadline, funded each stage of growth from profits, worked with every new challenge, with a lack of credit history (not debt but no access to credit to build up a record) I’ve not had access to loans and as a 46 year old women I wouldn’t even get my foot in the door with investors.
All that being said I’m in a phenomenally privileged position as having downsized our home and moved to an area with specialist schooling for my eldest, we worked things so that my husbands wage covers our essential basic living costs. My income is then the occasional steak rather than mince, presents on birthdays, running a car, buying tech for the children so they could all be online learning during lockdown. Its also in part reinvested in growing the business which has no where near reached its full potential.
I have projected growth figures in mind and those stretch targets that I'd love to achieve- planning financially has never been so challenging when even the experts can't give clear advise on what our outcomes will be with the Covid Brexit double whamy on the doorstep.
I’m very bad at asking for help but have recently made contact with the local council business support network and feel that there is potential to be helped progress to the next stage.
My biggest challenge was making the decision to push through the benefits trap of carers allowance. It’s a cliff edge benefit and you can earn a little over £100/week or loose it all. There is a cross over point where you are worse off working. The first year of the business I took the decision and contacted DWP, DS had a really bad spell and didn’t manage a full week of school between February and May. Something that many more parents will be able to relate to this year after lockdown. I was exhausted working evenings and weekends to balance lost daytime hours. I had more than one ‘what the * am I doing’ moments. Time passed, DS resettled into school, business fell into a more regular pattern and we were finally able to take a little money out. The remembering to enjoy the good times generated is the thing that sees me through the various and varied challenges that every business will hit.