Entrepreneur schoolboy who's made £1,000 from selling sweets

A schoolboy has made £1,000 after setting up his own sweets business.

Luke Scotney, from Peterborough, was sick of his severe nut allergy preventing him from having pick and mix - so he decided to do something about it.

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The 11-year-old has apparently had an interest in business for a long time, and would often pitch ideas to his mum Michelle. But in October, he shared a 'genius' idea that stood out from the rest, so she decided to back it.

"I have a severe nut allergy, and it's been impossible to find pick n mix sweets that are safe to eat," Luke said.

"I pitched the idea to mum and we looked and couldn't find anyone doing something similar - so we launched the idea ourselves.

"We're currently on our third restock of sweets having sold out twice before.

"We've made about £1,000 - but we are on track to make more."

Nothing like the sweet taste of success, eh Luke?

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After some investment and a bit of trial and error, Luke and Michelle got Sweets4mysweet.com up and running, and the site now provides sweets free from nuts as well as other allergens.

"Luke's ideas up to this point had always been great - just a bit out there," Michelle explained.

"But the nut free pick and mix business was genius and, more importantly, very feasible.

"He's allergic to peanuts and tree nuts so he knows what it's like not to be able to have pick and mix. So I lent him the money and together we launched Sweets4mysweet.com.

"The expense of using a website builder was huge, so we did some research and built our own. It took about a month of trial and error - but when we found the format we wanted, we got it up and running in a day."

The mother and son duo are 50/50 partners, and the majority of the profit is currently being pumped back into the business and repaying Michelle for the start-up loan.

In the future though, Luke already has plans to buy warehouse space so he's able to order more stock, grow his business, and eventually open his own store.

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He said: "Mum's in charge of the finances and I'm the creative one - although I'm learning all the time.

"75 percent of all profit goes back into the business, 12.5 percent goes in my savings and 12.5 percent goes to repaying my mum and dad for the loan.

"Obviously the money is great, but it's just as much about providing people with sweets which they can trust and enjoy.

"Me and Mum work great as a team and so far there's been no hiccups - but we're always prepared for the future.

"It doesn't matter I'm young now, I plan to expand this business right through to adulthood - I can't wait."