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BUSINESS<br />
Bags of benefits<br />
at The Business Village<br />
With an ever-changing business<br />
landscape over the last two years,<br />
there has been a surge in new<br />
start-ups launched by budding<br />
entrepreneurs.<br />
People who toyed with the idea of being their own<br />
boss for years have finally found the confidence to<br />
take that leap of faith and turn a hobby into a fully<br />
fledged business.<br />
“<br />
The Business Village has<br />
continued to be dynamic,<br />
offering innovative options<br />
for startups, scaleups or<br />
seasoned brands.<br />
”<br />
But while working from home has its benefits, it’s<br />
not for everyone. When you outgrow your dining table<br />
or spare bedroom, you might be looking for a flexible<br />
and inspiring workspace that has all the amenities to<br />
function at an affordable cost that helps keep your<br />
fledgling business stay afloat.<br />
Since starting 35 years ago, The Business Village<br />
has continued to be dynamic, offering innovative<br />
options for startups, scaleups or seasoned<br />
brands. They now have two sites which are over<br />
90 percent occupied by a variety of businesses,<br />
from couriers and contractors to a photographer<br />
and a women’s gym.<br />
As a not-for-profit organisation, The Business Village<br />
continually reinvests into the site’s infrastructure and<br />
facilities. At the beginning of last year, they opened a<br />
new £2.4million building with 9,000sqft of state-of-theart<br />
workspaces and hybrid units.<br />
We spoke to one of their tenants, Love Luxe<br />
A business centre isn’t the<br />
first place you’d expect to<br />
find designer bags, shoes<br />
and clothing.<br />
But when the woman behind luxury resale<br />
business Love Luxe was looking for premises<br />
to house her burgeoning stock, the flexibility<br />
of The Business Village proved the perfect fit.<br />
Charlotte Jones (33) launched Love Luxe<br />
in 2016 when a stroke of luck saw her cross<br />
paths with a pair of pre-loved Louboutin boots<br />
that were cheap but in excellent condition.<br />
Although tempted to keep them for herself,<br />
Charlotte knew there was money to be made<br />
if she sold them on.<br />
She listed them online and they sold the<br />
following day making her a three-figure profit.<br />
As the demand for pre-owned designer<br />
goods snowballed, she ploughed any spare<br />
money she had into snapping up bargains<br />
and was soon earning enough to quit her<br />
full-time job.<br />
But the more her stock and client-base<br />
grew, the more Charlotte realised it was time<br />
to give working from home the boot.<br />
“With young children at home it wasn’t<br />
convenient having customers come to the<br />
house. I popped into the Business Village<br />
on the off chance as I only live ten minutes<br />
away. The main building wasn’t quite right for<br />
me, but I was shown around the new building<br />
which wasn’t quite ready then.<br />
“As soon as I saw the double doors, I knew<br />
it would be perfect. Having its own access<br />
meant I could operate like a retail outlet for<br />
in-person appointments, but I also had the<br />
option of having the adjoining office to use for<br />
storage and admin.”<br />
Hot on the heels of its completion,<br />
Charlotte got the keys to her new workshop<br />
and office space on 1st January 2021<br />
and she has transformed the space into a<br />
luxurious and welcoming retail unit with eyecatching<br />
flower wall and high quality product<br />
displays. Due to demand, Charlotte has<br />
taken on an employee and now sells globally<br />
to customers as far away as South Africa<br />
and Japan.<br />
“The building is lovely and airy and a great<br />
place to work from. It wouldn’t have increased<br />
my productivity being in a unit on an industrial<br />
unit cooped up behind a roller door. I also<br />
wanted a place that would enable growth<br />
in the long-term, not somewhere I’d have to<br />
move from in a year or two. The Business<br />
Village is busy, but I know the space available<br />
will cover me in the future if I need to expand.”<br />
Charlotte has become renowned for her<br />
personalised service both buying and selling<br />
pre-loved designer goods. She has invested<br />
in a website to cut out the high commission<br />
rates of auction or selling sites, but the<br />
Barnsley premises with good motorway<br />
links enables clients to easily travel from<br />
around the country to see and try products<br />
before purchasing.<br />
www.loveluxe.co.uk<br />
aroundtownmagazine.co.uk 41
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