COVID has sparked a surge in kitchen-table entrepreneurs – including one selling cakes that arrive through your letterbox.
One in five adults has launched a money-making enterprise since the start of March — and even more plan to do so, according to a study by online marketplace Not On The High Street.
Choosing your hours and not having a boss are the main attractions. Most are happy to earn less than £25,000 a year — under the average salary of £30,000 — to get started.
Success stories include librarian Abigail Amankwa, who ditched bookery for cookery to start her “cakes by post” baking business.
Abigail, 23, worked from home in lockdown but was baking in her spare time and began selling birthday brownies and cookies through the letterbox, plus cakes in a tub.
In June she gave up the day job in a school library when orders to her M&H Cake Co went through the roof after she started selling through Not On The High Street. Abigail, from Enfield, North London, said: “It’s amazing. I mean, I’m only 23 and I never imagined I’d be my own boss until I was at least 40! I still live with my parents so I’m lucky they don’t mind that I’ve taken over their kitchen and dining room.”
Teacher Charlotte Taylor-Frape, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer at just 30, took up embroidery during her recovery. At the beginning of lockdown she started her business, Modern Floss, to sell her creations. She has had to work 70 hours a week in her spare room to keep up with demand.
Astrophysics graduate Lucy Raff previously dreamed of joining NASA. Instead she created her own jewellery business, Eclectic Eccentricity, and joined Not On The High Street.
At the start of the pandemic she had a ground-breaking idea of delivering rainbow necklaces through people’s letterboxes. Business increased by more than 600 per cent in lockdown, and she is now moving into bigger premises.
Not On The High Street executive director Ella D’Amato said: “It’s fantastic to see so many people following their passion and making it their business.”