Starting your own business (From Watford Observer)

Out of the fire and into the frying pan.....or the other way round?

10:49am Monday 24th November 2008 in Wenta By Wenta

Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire………or was it the other way round?

I had always been interested in cooking but didn’t know what to do with this interest until my wife and I came up with the idea of starting up our own business. This was quite a change from my accounting career and my wife’s nursing background. Cooksparaphernalia is an internet-based company specialising in high-quality items for the kitchen and dining room, selling everything from pots and pans to crystal wine glasses.

It’s quite difficult when you start out as setting up and running a business means you need to acquire all sorts of new skills, especially in the legal, marketing and sales areas. I’d strongly advise anyone else to what we did and get some advice, especially as free advice is available through organisations such as Wenta.

Official stats reveal that over two-thirds of people who start a business don’t take advice. 75% of them don’t make it to the end of their first year. Of the 25% who do take advice, 80% are still trading beyond eighteen months. I was obviously one of the lucky ones and no doubt my accountancy background helped me along the way.

Until recently we operated from home in Northwood. As sales grew over the years so did the amount of space required for stock and crisis point was reached this summer, with the family’s living space becoming ever more cramped as the business took over room after room. After a lot of fruitless searching for warehouse space at an affordable rate and on acceptable terms, I came across the Wenta Business Centre in Watford. We soon decided that the facilities and support offered by Wenta ticked all the right boxes and after some serious negotiation we managed to work something out that suited us. We moved in on 1st September and are thoroughly enjoying all the space, both in the warehouse and back at home. As part of our rental package we also get free business advice, which during these turbulent times is really valuable to us.

The retail environment is challenging at the moment, to put it mildly, but we are confident that we have made the right move.

Cooksparaphernalia’s website can be found at www.cooksparaphernalia.co.uk . Anyone from the local area is welcome to pick up their orders from the warehouse and save on delivery costs. So why not try us…………