Keeping up with Time: Moving from Retail to Online

Taking the leap from bricks-and-mortar to the online world..

Some days are great whilst other days are incredibly hard.

Running a business with the husband, with two young children to look after (and a dog) is extremely challenging…. But worth it nonetheless. Sleepless nights, talking business whilst we should be enjoying a romantic meal for two are common occurrences, yet when we receive wonderful feedback from our customers that all fades into insignificance.

Starting Repairs by Post a few years ago was extremely scary and was not the career path I had ever imagined. We have learned a lot about websites and website builders; who to trust and who can just see a naïve young business. We have spent a small fortune on various incarnations of the website, thousands on Google Ads as well as PPC. All terms I had only just heard of before we began the business.

Our business began as my husband had retail shops and realised that the decline in the local shopping areas meant that what was once a thriving business needed to change track and ‘keep up with the times’. I was happily working in education and raising our two children. Realising that there was more that I wanted to do, I took the leap and decided to join my husband running the new online business. We closed the shops and moved into lovely serviced offices with website number 1.

As well as voluntary educational work, being the chair of my children’s school’s PTA, trying to run the business I decided to send myself on an intense Search and Social Media course at the local university. Working all day, then going to university until sometimes 10 at night was brutal. Money going out and not coming in, the failure of website incarnation number 2 and the huge pressure I felt (as well as other contributing factors) lead to anxiety and depression. How could I possibly help in our fledgling business? I didn’t feel strong enough or astute enough.

After a small break to worth on myself, using various approaches to deal with my mentality such as hypnotherapy, mindfulness, and exercise, I slowly began to get myself back to work. Although working with my husband at times seems impossible and pillow talk is about Google Analytics, having him literally by my side, encouraging me when I was feeling low was vital to my recovery.

Due to everything we have been through I am constantly aware of my need to have ‘me time’. This is not selfish. I stopped trying to be ‘perfect’ as this is just a figment of everyone’s imagination. If I want to have it all; a successful business, a happy marriage, happy children (and dog!) then taking time out is vital. Not just time for myself, but time with the family doing typical family activities such as museum visits, picnics and caravan holidays!

About to launch the next version of the site is now exciting. I feel I know what I want from myself as well as the quality of the work I expect from companies we are paying. Finally, I can see my worth within the business, the marriage and within the family.

This article was contributed Hannah, the co-founder of Repairs By Post - Repairs By Post is an online watch and jewellery repair business owned by husband and wife team Hannah and Jonathan Goldstone. With experience within this industry, we decided to modernise the industry and created the website where people could send their items in and we would repair them and send them back to a convenient location. The concept is simple, getting it up and running was not!