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All about Eve
2:10pm Thursday 27th March 2008
Life has certainly moved fast for Tamsin Beard. Three years ago she was happy being a mother of two with additional responsibilities exercising a horse and two dogs and had not considered a career.
Now she is the owner of Eve, a jewellery, giftware and clothing outlet in Witney's busy Market Square and is working long hours to make it a success. The transformation started when she visited the Blenheim Horse Trials and she saw a craft stall selling jewellery.
Ms Beard explained: "When I saw it, I thought I can do that,' and I went out and ordered 50 necklaces which I dropped off at my daughter's school in the morning.
"When I came back to pick her up in the afternoon they had all gone!"
Realising she had hit on a possible winning business idea, Ms Beard then decided to start running jewellery parties in the homes of friends and family initially.
This went well and she then started a website for her burgeoning little business, Oceans Apart, which had a full e-commerce capability.
Then last October she had a telephone call saying that Eve, the retailer in Witney, was being sold and she had to make a snap decision on whether to move from running a virtual firm to full time high street business.
It did not take long to decide and then she had to move quickly to be in place in time for the vital Christmas trading period.
She said: "I got the call in October and four weeks and four days later I had bought the business, ready to start on December 1."
The experience was a steep learning curve.
"Basically, I did not have a clue and had barely even worked a till before. I had to register for VAT and enrolled a book-keeper. It was a real baptism of fire."
Fortunately, the shop was extremely busy over Christmas and soon she was able to top up the stock with her own ideas, helped by Donna Hester, who was an original member of staff.
"Previously, I had been paying between £50-£100 for stock. Now I was paying out thousands of pounds, which was a shock."
But the business has continued to thrive through the traditionally quiet January and February period and Ms Beard is looking forward to a busy summer season.
Despite working in the shop virtually every day, she is continuing to run jewellery and giftware parties and the next step is to develop the e-commerce side of the business.
She has also started to sell the self-explanatory Ugly Dolls and believes she is the only retailer in Oxfordshire.
Overall it has been a life-changing experience but she has no regrets.
"Sometimes I wish I was riding my horse but I am really enjoying it," she said.
o Contact: 01993 771273 or 07812 718611, www.eve-witney.co.uk
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