The beginning of our Antiques, Art and Furniture shop evolved from having a large house to fill with things we loved to collect spanning the last forty years. The choices of items have been described over these years as weird, wonderful, exotic, magnificent, beautful, odd (along with the collectors). The house is large but not large enough, the knowledge gained researching the purchases grew and grew. Then came the seedling of an idea - "we like doing this so much, perhaps it could be a business" . Other factors going on in our lives made it a stronger and more obvious choice. It is a lifestyle business that could fit with physical health problems - a seriously bad back. It can be operated not just from a commercial premises but there are online platforms to use like www.facebook.com/Duganfinds and Instagram www.instagram.com/duganfinds marketplace www.facebook.com/marketplace/profile/100085852413625/?ref=permalink
Then whilst our walking we noticed a shop to let sign, in an area which is close to the beach at Southbourne, on a parade where most of the shops have closed. The summers would be good for footfall, winters would be hard, money would need to be spent on marketing to draw customers to the shop. We went for it and on September 5th 2o22 signed the lease and collected the keys!
Picture a scenario, paintbrushes - what colours are best to display art and artefacts?
What about a name - so many choices in the hat???? A decision had to be made for the shopfront sign.
UN-COVERED it was
October 5th - a mad one month later was the official opening date. What a hectic month, painting, stocking, creating social media accounts. How could we attract visitors? Our local community on Facebook is amazing, a post on www.facebook.com/groups/southbourne had in excess of 500 likes and many supportive good luck messages. This post also attracted the attention of the local newspaper and a whole feature page article as Trader of the Month www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/2300433709.un-covered-trader-week/
A business was born
