Candycopia

On our route into town we pass a row of new business units, one of which is still up for rent.  Back in January when we were driving past we started talking about what kind of business could rent the final unit and do well considering what was already there.  It was just a conversation for the sake of it.

A couple of weeks later on Valentines day I was sitting at home messing around on my laptop and waiting for Robert, when he burst into the living room, knelt down in front of me and said "you know that unit that's up for rent?  Well I rang the letting agent about it, and it's too expensive, but there is another shop for rent in Clitheroe that's not too expensive.  What do you think?"  My initial reaction was "Are you totally insane, don't be ridiculous, going into business is far too risky, you know I like the stability of a regular wage at the end of the month and what on earth kind of business would it be" I should hasten to add that this was all in my head, and a very watered down version actually came out of my mouth a few seconds later. In fact, what I just typed is probably also a watered down version of what really went through my mind in those moments before I spoke.

We didn't have any plans for a romantic Valentines day, and after getting a take away meal, we spent the evening going through possible business ideas.  By the end of the night we had decided on an old fashioned sweet shop.  Let's face it, neither of us are strangers to sweets so we felt we had some expertise in this area.

Robert has always wanted to work for himself and with the voluntary redundancy package BT were offering, it finally seemed to be the right time to take that leap, so the next few weeks were spent researching and planning and making decisions.  We went to take a look at the empty shop four days later on our wedding anniversary.  It was located right opposite the sixth form centre in Clitheroe and was a decent size, but would need quite a bit of work to make it into what we wanted.  Robert met the owner and told him we wanted the lease.  The owner decided that he didn't want to rent to us as we were a new business, so within a day Robert had found another shop for rent, and it turned out that this one was in an even better location and would need much less work doing to it.  We applied for the lease and it was agreed, which is when things really took off.

Naming the business led to a few differences of opinion as to what did or did not sound right, and I even resorted to an on-line random business name generator.  Eventually Robert came out with Candycopia while driving to Manchester one afternoon, and this one stuck.  The sweet shop was named.  Most people seem to like the name, but I've had to explain it to a few people.  Choosing our colour scheme was fun, but didn't really take too long as aesthetics is something we usually agree on quite quickly.  The logo was also easy as last year we had a graphic designer work on a logo for another business idea that didn't get off the ground, but we were able to use elements of that one for the new business.

Because of Robert's job with BT selling advertising and eCommerce to businesses, he had a lot of contacts and knew just who to call on for help with everything we needed for the shop from the nuts and bolts like shelving to helium balloons for opening day, and if there was anything else we needed, we just searched on-line. The internet is an amazing tool.

It's fair to say the last few weeks have been hectic and stressful and at some points it felt like we were going to run out of time as we had decided on an opening day of 30th March, Easter Saturday.  There have been some long days and hard work.  We have been helped along the way by some friends and family which has been much appreciated.

My personal achievement was making the candy trees for the window display which I enjoyed and I have had some really nice comments about them.  People have even asked if I am going to make them to sell.

There was one day, I can't quite remember when, that it hit me that all this hard work and planning towards opening day was not the end, and that once that day was over with, we had to do it all again and again and the next day and the next.

The day before opening, I spent most of my time running around getting last minute things, while Robert and Katy and our wonderful helpers were at the shop loading stock onto the Epos system and putting it on the shelves.  It was 2am before we left that night, which was better than the 4am that someone had predicted, and we planned to be back by 7am to finish everything off before the big opening at 10.  I got three hours sleep, which quite frankly is an afternoon nap for me, not a full night's sleep, and I'm still trying to recover from the lack of sleep.

Robert's 92 year old nan was visiting from Southampton, and we had asked her to do the honours of cutting the ribbon.  Lots of family turned up for the big moment, and I would like to say right now how grateful I am that they were there to support us.  I really do appreciate it and I know it means so much to Robert too.

On the dot of 10am on Saturday 30th March, Candycopia opened for business.  In just six short weeks it had gone from an idea over dinner on Valentine's day, to reality.

There is still more to do, and ideas we have for expansion.  It's quite a journey we are on, and a new chapter in our lives, but hopefully it will have a very happy ending.