Growing the Readymoney Beach Shop Empire: My Journey from One to Two Shops

Hi! I'm Victoria, owner of Readymoney Beach Shop here in gorgeous Fowey on the South Cornish coast. You can read more about how my existing business started here.

I recently announced that I'm going to be taking over what used to be the Flapjackery shop on Fowey's main high street and opening a retail only shop dedicated to all things swimming and sea related. I thought I'd go back to what blogging used to be all about and document my journey from one shop to two in diary form. Please do follow along with me: I have as much idea of what's in store as you do!

In the beginning...

I opened a beach shop in an old council toilet in 2017. Zero previous knowledge of either retail or hospitality (unless you count my teenage Saturday jobs in River Island and waitressing in fancy Cambridge restaurants) but it seemed to work out ok.

Over recent years I've worked with various brilliant small business mentors, most notably Catherine Erdly who runs The Resilient Retail Club. I've been a member of the Club for over two years now and in the last 18 months have also participated in Catherine's Stock Doctor and Retail By Design programmes.

Having started both programmes with a business which fitted the swan metaphor perfectly (gliding elegantly on the surface but paddling furiously below...) I finished with a far stronger grasp of all the 'proper grown up' parts of running a business: knowing my figures, managing my stock & developing a clearer insight of the direction I wanted to take the business in.

Itchy feet...

Over that period of learning & developing, it became clear to me that as much as the hospitality side of the business is my bread & butter - we sell a LOT of ice cream, cakes, coffee and pasties - what I personally enjoy the most is the retail side of the business.

The retail side has expanded hugely, arguably more than my tiny beach shop has space for so building a thriving e-commerce side to the business has been my primary focus for a while, happily with great results.

I've also really enjoyed engaging with my brilliant customers via my regular weekly newsletters (you can sign up here) and on social media (find us on Instagram and Facebook) so I like to think that I've got quite a clear idea of what customers want & expect from Readymoney Beach Shop.

The downside: I just cannot fit everything in my head into that little, very sandy and rather open shop by the beach. So when I spotted an amazing Victorian fronted 'proper' shop coming up for rent right in the centre of Fowey, my brain cells started whirring ....

Bucket: the origin story

Yes, my new shop is going to be called Bucket! I first viewed the shop on 27th April and that started the process of taking over the Flapjackery tenancy. Once all the references etc were in place and the landlords had agreed in principle, it was time to sit down with my branding go-to, Fowey based designer & artist Sarah Davies. Sarah designed the beach shop logo for me but this time I didn't even know what my new shop was going to be called.

What I had worked out is what I wanted to sell: best described as everything for life by the water, I wanted to fill the gaps beach shop customers were regularly asking us for: swimwear, accessories such as beach shoes, swimming gloves & hats as well as expanding our existing range of swimming & sea related artwork, jewellery, gifts and homewares.

Sarah and I met for a chat on Fowey's Town Quay and after working through & rejecting various names based on the Cornish language, seabirds and much more, suddenly Bucket jumped into the equation. We both instantly knew it was The One and I'm absolutely in love with the hot pink logo Sarah came up with, inspired in part by my much loved Chambers & Beau lightning bolt necklace (which I never take off).

I announced the new shop on social media on 10th June and with numerous lists much longer than my arms at the ready, now we wait on a completion date, ready for the real "fun" to start!

Follow along for updates below

Saturday 27th June

I did it! Decided that rather than me pricing things up with the doors closed, I'd do a "soft" opening. Andrew helped for a couple of hours getting everything broadly shipshape and we opened! Now open every day so do come and visit. Keep on eye on my social media for the latest!

Friday 26th June

No wifi in the beach shop today plus a dodgy fridge so attention divided but another good session unpacking stocking, putting up shelves and building furniture.

Thursday 25th June

Too. Hot. To. Work. But I did: fabulous swimwear & robes delivered & unpacked, more rails built, vast piles of cardboard into the car (after dodging the thunderstorm).

Vaguely considering a "soft opening' on Saturday if I can, Fowey is busy so why not! Chasing perfection will do me no favours.

Wednesday 24th June

Starting to look more like a shop now! Stock unpacked and rails going up. Making progress on the changing cubicle too. Very very hot day mid heatwave, need to order a fan!

More gorgeous swimwear being delivered tomorrow. Barnaby set up the till, starting to think we could be ready to trade in a few days?

Monday 22nd June

Started today with a swim with the dog then finished all the painting. First carload of stock dropped off ready to start unpacking tomorrow. Lots of measuring up to do and hopefully a bit of wallpaper to jazz up the changing cubicle.

Fun job today was ordering lots of photo tiles of Readymoney to go on the back wall. It's important to connect Bucket with Readymoney & it's not as if I don't have enough pictures on hand... 😆

Sunday 21st June

Later start today due to a (unnecessary as it turned out) trip to the hedgehog hospital). Last bit of the bright pink painting done but still need to do the final coat of the pale pink.

Cannot wait for these lights to be replaced: inoffensive but just not the look I'm after. Grey cupboard doors staying for now but have ordered gold shell knobs to bring them to life.

 

Saturday 20th June

On an absolute mission today: exterior undercoat ✅ ,first coat pale pink interior walls & ceiling ✅, faded parts of wooden cladding (where Flapjackery had pictures up) filled in with furniture wax ✅ Yellow & black paint banished! ✅

One more day of messy painting to come tomorrow then ready for Sheila the signwriter to visit! 🥳

 

Friday 19th June

A few "short person problems" aside I got a base coat of white on all the yellow & black inside. The pale pink starts tomorrow.

Outside I got most of the undercoat done, much easier done in the evenings without hundreds of people & the Fowey Town Shuttle passing! Also made some FAQs...😆

 

Thursday 18th June

Cleaning, sanding, painting & repeat! This is just the (colour matched) undercoat but it's going on brilliantly.

Lots of chats with interested passersby too. And decisions made re replacement lighting!

 

Wednesday 17th June

New Shop Day! Keys were delivered, meters read, pink paint & various sundries purchased!

Family curry at Sunny Spice to celebrate & tomorrow it's time to start prepping to repaint the really quite ornate facade.

 

Tuesday 16th June:

Frustrating day trying to get final arrangements in place but fingers crossed, we complete in the morning. I was so fed up I made chocolate fudge cake so every cloud...

Made some temporary signage yesterday too. Itching to crack on!

 

Sunday 14th June:

Still no completion date so instead turned my hand to some upcycling. Two mannequins free from Facebook Marketplace now sprayed gold ready for displaying fabulous swimwear in the window.

Also planning a gallery wall of swimming photos of Readymoney (sooo many of those in my phone!) so upcycled some charity shop photo frames too - shiny!