GIFT SHOP: Jill Stones

Inexperienced in running a business, Jill Stones was nevertheless well schooled in two fundamental pillars of running a business when she decided to buy a gift card shop with her husband.

“My current job is in accounts and I have worked in accountants before – so I can look after the money side of it,” she says. “I can organise paying extra staff if I need to. 0 “I have also sold before: I worked in telephone sales for a plastic company many years ago.” Jill supplemented her existing skills before embarking on the venture. “I have been on courses so I know about health and safety, as well as risk assessment.”

Experience

Initially Jill, who is also trained in hair and beauty, had been looking for a hairdresser or beauty salon, but eventually opted for a gift card shop. Being quite chatty, she says, was a good trait to have in retail, just as it is in the hair and beauty sector.

Jill and her husband had been looking for a business for “a while” and conducted a private sale, without the involvement of agents. “We got an email through www.BusinessesForSale.com about it and it was a case of purchase the stock or just take over the lease. So it was easy in, easy out.

“They reduced it as they were going into partnership, so they were quite keen. We bought it for a decent price.”

Stock only

Deciding to just purchase the stock from the seller, they organised the purchase of premises separately. The building being offered by the seller had not been in her local area and she didn’t want to do too much travelling each day.

“There was also no parking space with the original premises,” she adds, “whereas the building we bought did – and that’s critical to us. It’s more important in town centres nowadays.”

And what lessons had she learnt from the purchase? “If anything we’d be a bit more critical of what we were buying, because if you’re buying an up and running one, it’s not necessarily true. We thought we had, but we’ve ended up buying our own stuff as we realised how limited the stock was.

Making adjustments

“We had plenty of stock but I think the previous owner had gone over the top buying certain things. She had quite a lot of deadwood I would say, so we updated and bought some more modern stuff.

“If I bought a similar business again I would buy my own stock, not anyone else’s.

“Overall I think we got value for money. But it would have been better to get one in the local area to start with because it took a lot of time and effort.”

The purchase and first few months of running the business were made more difficult by the fact that Jill had been in employment until recently. “My husband was running the shop until I took over at the beginning of September.”

Control

So why go into business at all? “We wanted to earn our own crust rather than work for someone else,” she explains. “That way it’s up to me what happens – I can control my own destiny. You can work really hard for someone else, and not get the full benefit.

“And I’m sure I can get a similar amount of money for less hassle – or as much hassle as I want to give myself.

“I thought if I didn’t do it now then I would never do it.”

Jill does concede that running her own business is very time-consuming – especially when she was also in full-time employment – but no more so than anticipated, and it certainly hasn’t diminished her appetite for being her own boss. “I have had to do a lot of stuff out of hours,” she says. “But that was our choice. I had assumed I would have to do a bit more anyway. It’s different because I feel I want to work the hours, rather than having to.”

Bad points

The hours have sometimes been unsocial as well as long, despite working in retail. “Often the wholesalers open shop hours when you’re tied up, so we have to go on weekends. And sometimes they don’t open on Sundays.

“I think wholesalers are a pain to small businesses in other ways. They’re not encouraging people with the minimum orders they impose. We are a small shop and we don’t have that kind of turnover.”

Research is key

Jill also bemoans that “people aren’t always necessarily honest with you – landlords for example.” But overall, insists Jill, they “have not had too many problems”.

Jill wishes she “had maybe done more courses leading up to the purchase,” as she is hamstrung in the same way as she is by the wholesalers. “I can’t necessarily do it because if it is just you in the shop then you can’t shut it.”

Does she have any more regrets? Only that she’d done it earlier. “I wouldn’t want to work for anyone again.

“You tend to put off going into business because you have your comfort zone. In some respects I wish I’d done it when I was younger – but when you’re younger you have other priorities.”

So Jill’s message is: there’s no time like the present – what are you waiting for?