A man has turned £500 into a whopping £1.15m with a pick-and-mix sweets business – and has even sold to Ant and Dec.
William Hale was at home and trying to figure out his next move when he noticed a gap in the confectionery market.
The 26-year-old did some research and immediately started ordering sweets in bulk.
Now, he’s delivering to Dancing on Ice dressing rooms and the Saturday Night Takeaway production team.
And the orders are flooding in.
“I realised that there was practically no one selling sweets online,” William told AbsolutelyBusiness.
“I wanted to create a way for people to be able to build a bag of pick and mix virtually as if they are in a physical sweet shop.
“I started selling sweets locally and delivering them the same day which quickly became popular on local Facebook groups.
“I wasn’t sure if sending sweets in the post would work, but I thought I’d give it a try as I wanted to be able to allow people from anywhere in the UK to use my website and get their sweets in the post.
“It worked, and month after month it kept growing.”
William said he was initially over the moon if he made £1,000 per month.
After a few months, the target became £10,000.
Then it upped to £50,000, and now, it is closer to £100,000.
He even shelled out £50,000 for the domain name PickandMix.com
The 26-year-old, from Wilmslow, England, said: “It is a huge amount of money for a name, I know.
“Some can even get them for 99p.
“But this was one of the biggest accelerators for pushing the website higher on Google and reaching more people across the country.”
William started with £500 and says he has now made £1.15m through strawberry sweets, cola bottles, fizzy cables and many more.
The founder has even sold to Ant and Dec and starred on Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch.
He said: “We were already providing sweets for the Dancing on Ice star dressing rooms.
“Then we got recommended to the Saturday Night Takeaway production team to provide their stars with sweets for every show.
“Ant and Dec loved our sweets and kept coming back for more.
“Steph McGovern also loves my pint pots.
“They’re not everyone’s cup of tea but she loves ours.”
William’s family are also massive lovers of his treats.
And he has over 150 different types available.
He said: “My mum and dad love the traditional sweets such as liquorice all sorts or foam bananas.
“I’m quite partial to a bonbon.
“I know that makes me sound really old but you can’t beat the retro classics.
“And the most popular are the ridiculously fizzy and sour sweets, by far, followed by toxic waste and bubblegum bottles.”
William now has around two tonnes of sweets in his warehouse.
And his business is doing better than he ever could have imagined.
He added: ”It’s going really well.
“Every year has beaten the year before in terms of revenue and profit and I’m constantly watching out for the latest trends to make sure I can stock the most popular sweets.
“We have thousands of reviews online and I love hearing how much people enjoy using the website, and most importantly, the sweets.
“I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved with the business.
“I was in a very dark place when I set this business up and it has helped me out of that hole and given me so much purpose and happiness in my life.”
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