A man from Sheffield decided to put his time during lockdown to good use by starting a business selling car mats - and it's already exceeded expectations, having passed £1,000,000 in sales this January.
Thirty-seven-year-old Ash Young was the managing director at a web agency, but decided that he'd start a new venture during the first lockdown, starting up an e-commerce business.
He launched CarMats.co.uk and hasn't looked back.
Advert
That said, the success of his business has come as a surprise even to him. The company only launched in May 2020, but surpassed the magic million mark within nine months.
He told Yorkshire Live: "It was back at the start of lockdown, I had always wanted to start up a new E-commerce site but I just didn't really have the time along with running a busy web agency.
"But when lockdown hit it was a very strange time. I found that a lot of client work dried up and I didn't have anyone to go out and meet with or clients to talk to."
Advert
"Many businesses had decided to cut their marketing spend or hold off until things started to get better.
"So it was the perfect time for me to look at the site I wanted to set up. I had looked into the car mat industry before and knew that was what I wanted to do."
Ash set out to find a trusted supplier for his goods, built a website from scratch himself, and enlisted the help of his wife to assist with customer support.
He continued: "I thought that we would hit £1 million in sales, but not for a long time.
Advert
"It's absolutely bonkers that we have done this in nine months.
"We're doing an average of 250 orders a day, which is crazy. I had no idea that it would take off like this.
"I think the reliance on online shopping recently has really helped us as people now can't go into a shop to buy car mats like they might have before."
Ash even found the time to donate some of the money raised - £11,500, to be precise - to a local hospice in Chesterfield.
Advert
He's now looking to take on some staff and push on towards a projected £3,000,000 sales for 2021.
Ash added: "I still run a team of 30-ish people at [web agency] Evoluted in Sheffield so my time is seriously stretched at the moment and there's only so much time you can run the candle at both ends.
"During lockdown it was fine but now as things have got back to normal it is quite hard to keep on top of.
Advert
"Ideally we would like to hire someone to take on the customer service side of things as my wife is now home-schooling on top of that.
"We do have a good customer service offering now but I know that we could do a lot more.
"We also have big plans for the site for the future which I can't wait to make a start on."
Featured Image Credit: MEN MediaTopics: UK News, Business, Money, Inspirational, Interesting