SAVVY shopper Holly Watkins set up her now six-figure second-hand fashion business after being inspired by a 20p sheepskin coat.
The 43-year-old began her business as a side hustle in 2017, but it was becoming a mum that pushed her into going full-time.
2
After maternity leave she knew that inflexibility of traditional work environments for mums meant she needed to change jobs.
But it was back in 1995 after leaving school that Holly first discovered her passion.
She found a 20p sheepskin coat in a local jumble sale when she was 14-years-old and a woman who owned a thrifting shop asked if she could buy it off her for £25 as she had missed nabbing it.
Holly says this kick started her idea to start selling for profit.
Holly, who lives in Hackney, worked in fashion for 15 years. She worked for Replay and later smaller Scandi and European brands and brought them into the UK.
Then in 2017, after her daughter was born, Holly started the One Scoop Store on Instagram and her pieces would sell out within minutes.
By 2018, she had launched her website and her first physical store in Crouch End in London in 2018.
Within a year, she hit six figures in revenue – and the business has gone from strength to strength.
She’s even had a pop-up in Selfridges and been featured in British Vogue’s list of the best vintage shops.
Holly says: “It is much more mainstream – it is much more accepted.
“People come into my shop and they don’t think it is secondhand – it looks more like a boutique.”
And she hopes in the future her daughter, Phoebe, now seven, Will follow in her footsteps.
“It will be interesting to see where it is in ten or twenty years when hopefully my daughter will take it over.”
“The sustainable space is something to be much more proud of than the regular fashion industry.
“It is a good place to be in in terms of setting a good role model for Phoebe.
“In the future I want her to be going to the charity shops.
5 tips for a starting a business
LOUISA shares her top five tips for starting a business:
- Start with an idea of doing something you are already good at, have some knowledge of, or that you at least enjoy – you’re much more likely to succeed!
- Do some research into similar businesses and see what they are doing well and not so well, so that you can try to do better.
- Check that there is either a gap in the market for what you want to do, or that you have a unique selling point. For us, being the most affordable place to shop second hand designer separated us from the competition.
- Do a soft launch by trialling out your business alongside your regular job – that way you have less financial stress and can check whether the idea is viable.
- Set out a rough plan and timeline of the goals you want to achieve, but don’t be too rigid. Things will change and evolve, you may even have to pivot – but that’s ok! Customers will be more likely to engage with you on a personal level if the journey you show is honest and real!
“I want her to extend the life cycle of clothes. It has made me feel so much part of the community – everybody is very supportive.
“It has changed my life for the better. I love it.”
Holly says she is dedicated to making secondhand fashion accessible to all, offering a range of curated vintage, luxury designer, and high street pieces to suit all budgets.
In October 2020, Holly worked with Selfridges to host a pop-up in their Oxford Street store as part of their Project Earth campaign.
She says: “I never thought Selfridges would be doing second hand.
“It is pretty incredible how things have changed.”
The brand’s reach then extended internationally with a six-month pop-up collaboration in Los Angeles and New York alongside Club Vintage.
A mum recently shared how she turned her job as an estate agent into a thriving business.
HMRC has launched a new tool to check if you need to pay extra tax if you’re making money from a side hustle.