How I started my own business in Camden Town- on a small table!

Hi guys,

my name is Ivana, I'm from Slovakia originally and I am a single mum to 11-year old son. I have written an e-book about how to run your own business in a market such as Camden Lock.

If I could start it while looking after a son, anybody can. Please e-mail me if you like to see some sample chapters of my e-book. The e-book is for sale at only £15. 

Everything you need to know, step by step, is in this e-book! Start a business today and watch it grow!

so here is my own story:

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Seven years ago, I worked in warm, luxury offices near Heathrow Airport, as a Personal Assistant to a Manager. I had a desk outside his office so that I was always on hand, and spent my days filling in reports, booking flights and doing research.

My ex-husband also worked for the same company as a computer programmer; at the end of the day, we’d meet up and go home together, first stopping off to collect our little boy, Danny, 18 months, from a luxury nursery around the corner. I thought my life was going perfectly.

But fast forward 1 year, I was heading for a divorce with nothing to fall back on. Suddenly I had no money, and couldn’t afford to continue my work at the company as my son’s nursery costs were too high. So I started researching running my own business from home.

I always loved crystal glasses and gifts made from glass; it was my dream to open a shop with stock of this kind. Therefore I contacted a few companies in Czech Republic- as I believe, like the rest of the world does, that Bohemian Crystal is the best- and asked for catalogues and price lists for their products.

So here I made my very first mistake, for which I’m still paying. Without having premises or even an idea where I should be selling my stock, apart from my website which was just taking form at that stage, I spent what little money I had on crystal glasses and glass sets.

These products were in my sitting room (and kitchen, and my bedroom, and wherever I could find a place for them) for four sad years, with no future or plans for them. I ended up giving them as gifts over the years.

Because in the meantime, one of the companies I worked with have sent me samples of Crystal Glass Nail Files- a new product that’s just been developed. I’ve tried the samples and was very impressed, so I ordered about four basic colours in three different sizes. They were stunning to look at, with vibrant colours, and had a classy feel to them- I knew they’d be a hit. So a new business took off, with my other glass gifts completely forgotten.

Once the nail files arrived, I had, again, no idea how or where to sell them. Very difficult period in my life had begun. I worked from morning till night, preparing all my items for the website, I hardly got to spend time with my little son. At the back of my mind, I knew it might lead nowhere.

Luckily, my (now ex) boyfriend worked at the time in Camden Town, and pointed out the local markets. Having never been to one before, even though I lived in London for 11 years, I was reluctant- I had the impression of it being a low-class. But I agreed to try it.

I will never forget my first day at Camden Lock Market.

You have to queue up each morning to be allocated a stall; and you’re not given a priority unless you make all your stock yourself. So that usually put me to the end of the queue. Once given my stall, I started unpacking my suitcase; first covering the stall with a cloth, and then displaying my few glass nail files on top; I didn’t even bring lights with me that first day.

I never spoke a word to anyone, and just watched people come, look at my stall, and walk away- these nail files were so new, people had no idea what they were. By the end of the day, I was in tears, and had a good cry when I got home.

I wasn’t going to give up, though; I knew I had to sell my stock and make living for me and my son.

I started a pattern of working weekends at the market; I didn’t own a car that time, so you could see me trudging a huge suitcase Saturday and Sunday morning to the station.

Those first few weekends were just pure hell; cold weather, wind, amount of people that pass your stall and you have to speak to each of them to sell anything. This usually meant repeating myself thousands of times a day. I had to stand up all day, plus I never knew where I’ll be allocated my stall. There are good and bad spots, and more than once I had been given a bad spot where I sold very little, completely wasting my time there. Mostly we had nice, polite customers, but then just like everywhere else, we did get a few exceptions. After a while, I just learned to deal with it in a positive way.

I was astonished when, talking to other traders, lots of them revealed they’ve been trading there for 10 years or more. I thought, that’s just madness!!

You see, I only saw this as a way to raise public awareness for this new product I was selling.

On the plus side, I could be at the market at weekends when my son was with his father, and all week I got to be with him. Also, as I got to know other market traders, I formed strong friendships with some of them. It was getting much harder to leave the market, even when we had very bad periods financially. There were people from all around the world, from South Americans to wonderful Sri Lanka jewellery traders. Each of them had an amazing story to tell, those were truly special and quality people working here.

The food was excellent, too; I got to try new cuisine, be it Chinese, South American, or Caribbean. People came in the morning, cooked their food from scratch, and the wonderful aroma was hanging in the air all day.

As time went on, I learned a lot about the market. It has good and bad seasons, and most importantly, the manager has given me my own permanent spot to be there all week. So I joined market’s co-operation, which meant my products were selling during the week, too, although I didn’t need to be there personally. I still continued to work weekends only.

Three years on, I developed great friendships with fellow market traders. My stock is now very varied, although I still trade with Glass Nail Files mainly; I have possibly every colour combination and decoration in stock. Other people copied my idea of selling and displaying my products, and opened similar stalls at other markets. I was annoyed at first, but learned to deal with it and take it as a compliment now. After all, if people copy you, then you must be a success.

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