A woman has turned her bedroom business into a super successful business, turning over £500,000 a year.
Niki Mahon, 30, was unsure about what she wanted to do after graduating from university, and started gaining experience working in London at a small tech firm. She started selling unwanted clothes and jewellery on Depop and eBay in her spare time, and a business grew from there.
Today, Niki, from Kent, is the proud owner of a thriving jewellery and homeware business selling her products on Amazon, Etsy, and an independent website. Niki learned to create a logo and brand with resources on YouTube, and her business 'Nikita' started to grow.
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Niki said: "In my spare time on evenings and weekends, I started selling unwanted clothes and jewellery on Depop and eBay. I noticed I felt a spark when I was packaging items and sending them to customers and wondered if there was a way I could do this and make a profit.
"I created my first website, Nikita By Niki, after designing a logo on Photoshop. I used a third-party e-commerce website provider Shopify - I still use it to this day. Then I continued to liaise with suppliers and invest in stock. After I had the branding, website and products together, it was time to photograph everything. I did the product photography myself and organised a more editorial photo shoot with the jewellery styled to use on Instagram and the website.
"At this point, I was ready to announce it to my small audience. I would say one of the biggest obstacles when I first started was other businesses copying and pasting my website text and using my images, with me in them. I didn’t expect it early in my business, and I found it deflating after spending so much time branding myself. It was being taken by others so easily.
"It has also been challenging dealing with customers who are not always very polite. It’s hard not to let your ego get in the way as you are so emotionally attached to your business, but I have found that kindness always helps.
"People often approach companies differently because they are not used to respectful, helpful and efficient customer service. However, as soon as I show I care and am keen to help, it often disarms the customer, and the conversation is far more pleasant.
"If in doubt, just be kind and speak to your customers in the same way you would like to be spoken to if you were in the same situation."
Niki overcame her fears of leaving full-time employment to focus on her business. She said: “I left my full-time job in 2016. I went part-time first to test the waters and then decided it was all or nothing. I worked in a small business and loved my job. Often the narrative is that people are unhappy in their jobs or hate their bosses, and then they leave to start their businesses. However, it wasn’t that way for me at all.
“It wasn’t that I was unfulfilled or needed more, I just needed something that was mine. I needed to prove to myself that I could build something from the ground up despite feeling lost after leaving university.
“I felt I wanted to prove certain people in my life wrong. However, I did so gradually. I worked to a point where I had enough savings to start the brand, and when the sales were consistent, I dropped my hours to part-time first at my old job before leaving completely a year later.”
No business owner will experience linear growth, and Niki has had her fair share of financial obstacles. She added: “As I mentioned, 2020-2022 have been the most challenging financial periods. With so much of our capital going into the Brexit and Covid-related shipping crises, as well as the work which has gone into our new rebrand and sustainability focus, there was a lot of pressure to ensure we have a great Christmas this year to ensure all of the effort this past year has been worth it! I am confident about our new branding and can’t wait to see how 2023 unfolds.”
Niki has expanded the business a great deal since the early days and now has three full-time staff members. which she says “feels crazy” since she “started this all on my own in my bedroom at my parent's house.”
She added: “We share an office and warehouse with another company in Kent, England, and we have an office space upstairs, our dispatch area, and a section in the warehouse dedicated to our homeware products.”
At first, Niki’s company profit was modest, but now she’s making six figures. She said: “In the first year, I made between £15k and £20k. Now, the business is turning over half a million pounds a year, and I’m proud to say that it is organic growth without any outside investment.
I worked hard to make the business the success it is now. I don't believe there is any such thing as overnight success. This took me nearly 7 years of steady growth.”
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