‘I turned my aspect hustle right into a full-time enterprise incomes £15k a month’

On Oct 20, 2024

A young entrepreneur has revealed how she turned her thrifting hobby and love for western fashion into a retail brand earning over £15,000 a month.

Bethany Holland’s now six-figure turnover business started with an investment of just 50p when she bought a scarf from a charity shop which she later sold onto a friend, earning her first profit.

This unassuming scarf was the start of what would become a life changing journey for Beth. Her love for hunting out second-hand clothes quickly grew into a sizeable side hustle that she ran alongside her day job in the ambulance service.

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Beth continually reinvested her profits and eventually launched her online retail business, Bethany Rae.

After four years, Beth’s western side hustle was demanding more of her time and earning her enough cash to reduce her hours as a paramedic. Diversifying into handbags meant Beth was able to save up enough funds to open a physical store in her hometown of Poole, Dorset.

Beth said: “I really believe in the power of bricks and mortar. Having spent five years running Bethany Rae from a room on an industrial estate, I was overjoyed to open up my own shop, Lavender Moon, on the town centre high street.”

After just one year in her first shop, an unmissable opportunity knocked on Beth’s door.

Poole’s Kingland Crescent has gained an international reputation for itself following innovative, ambitious, and unique regeneration by Legal & General, funded in part by Nest pensions.

Beth was approached to relocate Lavender Moon to Poole’s independent retail heartland in early 2024 and was offered a lucrative support package by Legal & General to help her grow the business.

Beth describes the growth of her business since April as “explosive” – her monthly sales have jumped by 300%, from £4,000 to £15,000 in just six months.

The new premises in Kingland is three times the size of Beth’s original shop, which she says was a daunting prospect at first: “It was absolutely terrifying to begin with because we needed to fill the space. When I look back at the first few photos of opening day, the shop looked empty compared to now. Today, we have four times the amount of stock than we had in the old shop, which is amazing.”

Newly engaged Beth has been able to plan her dream wedding thanks to the uplift in sales and says that the business has changed her life.

Beth said: “I’m so proud of what I have achieved and to think it all started from a 50p scarf is mind-blowing. Moving to our new shop in Kingland was the accelerator we needed, and Lavender Moon is thriving like never before. Having a larger shop has opened so many doors for me. I’m proud to be Dorset’s first official stockist of Ariat Western, the leading manufacturer of cowboy boots and western clothing.

“I have been blown away by the response from the community. I’m hugely grateful for the support from my landlord, Legal & General, and its partners like Nest that have helped to make Kingland the vibrant and dynamic high street it is today.”

Beth now employs a small team to run the shop a few days a week, allowing her to have a good work-life balance: “Part of the motivation for wanting to grow my own business was to work flexible hours that are right for me. I spent a lot of my 20s with health problems and I needed something that gave me passion, as well as work around my life.”

Thanks to her hard work, dedication, and entrepreneurial spirit, and with the support of organisations such as Legal & General and Nest pensions, Beth has been able to grow a stable income greater than she could have ever achieved in the public sector.

Lavender Moon is set to turnover a whopping £200,000 this year, with online brand Bethany Rae adding an extra £20,000 to Beth’s pocket.

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