A SINGLE mum made £4,000 in one month through her side hustle.
Nicky Bentley set up her company Crown Connective during lockdown when she needed some extra cash to pay off her student debt.
Nicky is a single mum to her nine-year-old daughter
The 33-year-old started her business during lockdown
Nicky now sells books with supplier information in to clients
The part-time entrepreneur decided to help connect aspiring business owners with manufacturers and wholesalers.
Despite taking a risk, admitting it was a niche market in the UK, the 33-year-old’s gamble paid off.
She told The Sun Online: “When the pandemic came about there was a lot of people wanting to start businesses and I did my research behind that.
“A lot of people were either being made redundant or on furlough and wanted to start these businesses – but a lot of people didn’t know a lot of business knowledge.
“Especially ordering things from manufacturers and wholesalers to get products, and that was a struggle for some people so this is where the business came in.”
Since launching her website, Nicky has made £10,000 so far with her highest monthly turnover being £4k.
She said: “2020 is when everything was being birthed and created and I’d say 2021 is when it really launched and I really started to see a lot of interest from people needing our services and my help.
“I knew it was kind of a risk because I knew I was going to create this business that people wouldn’t have heard of and get the constant question ‘what is a vendalist’.”
Feeling like she had something to worry about when first launching, Nicky sought help from Virgin StartUp.
She took out a loan for nearly £5k which meant she could get help with exposure and advertising.
Having already made 167,000 sales so far, Nicky said she was lucky with launching her business when she did.
However, she said she would never give up her current job as an Administrator for a utility company to take it full-time.
“I want it to be on the side [only],” she added.
“If we focus on the cost of living crisis that we’re in, I don’t think having just one source of income is quite good at the moment.
“You can never have enough money.”
Risks when starting up a business
According to WorldFirst, the 10 risks to consider when starting up a business are:
Managing cash flow
Finding your niche and marketing your value
Ineffective sales funnel
Competition
Lack of scalability
Overcoming red tape
Operational challenges
Entrepreneurial burnout
Opting for quick sales tactics rather than long term development
Expansion into new market