Business
Shopkeeper opens for business, aged just 20
8th December 2011
Toy retailer raises start-up costs herself to open Hungerford High Street store
A YOUNG entrepreneur has started her own business in Hungerford – at the tender age of just 20.Lucinda Johnston’s shop Toys At No 10 opened for business at the end of November, in a prime location on the High Street. For Miss Johnston, having her own business is the fulfilment of a dream come true – following a lot of hard work.
However, her career nearly took a very different direction, after she spent three years at college studying travel, tourism and cabin crew. She explained: “I decided I wanted to fly the world – be all glamorous, Virgin, Richard Branson, that sort of thing. But it is very hard to get a job and everyone said ‘Come back when you’re 21 and have more experience’, which no one is going to give you.”
She took a job, instead, with a large company in Newbury, but became tired of constantly having to refer upwards for decisions. The opportunity to open the toy shop in Hungerford came when Creative Toy Den, where Miss Johnston had also worked, closed its doors. “I could not miss the opportunity,” she said.
Despite drawing on the considerable retail experience of her parents – Gentleman's Shop and Hungerford Barber Shop proprietors Robert and Charlotte Johnston – Miss Johnston is very proud to have raised the capital needed to start the business herself. “I put in double what I got from the bank. The bank did give me a loan but it took a few months – they kept coming back for further clarification - ‘Was I ready for this? Was I not too young? Did I have enough experience?’ But I think when most young people start, they don’t have experience.”
She was able to put together a two-year business plan and answer all the bank’s questions. However, her parents, she said, had been “fantastic” in helping her, drawing their own experiences of starting small businesses in the town in much a similar way.
The most daunting element, she said, was “hoping the customers come”. She added: “I’ve got all this beautiful stock, and I just hope that the customers would appreciate that I have tried to find something for everyone. If there is something that you want that I don’t have, I will happily try to find it for you. The thing about local retailers is that it may be hard times, but if you talk to us, we will try and do everything for you.”
As well as the support of her family in getting the business up and running, she said that other traders in the town had been helpful, particularly Ben Blake, of Sugar Mouse, who had helped her with shopfittings, and Martin & The Magpie florists.
At a time when youth unemployment is a hot topic nationally, she said that she would urge any young person to give running their own business ago. “I left John O'Gaunt School with three GCSEs but got into college. I couldn’t sit at home – I want to do better and better myself. Anyone should give it a go.”
Toys at No 10 will be selling a range of traditional and unusual toys rather than items “that make a noise and require batteries”.
The shop also has a website, www.toy-shop.me
More From: Business News Next Story: How would Downton Abbey be treated on divorce” Previous Story: MP inspects 3T RPD’s high-tech machinery