Mandy Warren says that she’s always been a natural salesperson: “When I was a kid I’d help my dad on his fruit stall in Walthamstow, so I’ve always been into selling stuff,” she says. “Then he had an underwear stall on Ridley Road in Dalston [east London], which we’d work on together, and eventually he got into selling tools. We’d travel around auctions and markets and I’d try to keep him organised.”
But in 2001, her father’s Parkinson’s disease started affecting his work. “Some days he couldn’t move and I’d have to load and unload the van on my own,” she says. “Eventually he said: ‘I’ve got to give this up,’ and he asked my brother if he wanted to take over the business, but he wasn’t interested. I’d just gone through a divorce and was selling my house, so I offered to buy my dad’s tools and start up on my own.”
Over the next nine years, Warren built up her business, working 15-hour days travelling around the country. “A lot of people said: ‘She won’t be able to do it’ or ‘This won’t last,’ but I knew that as a single mum to my son Harry, and with my dad being ill, I had to be the strong one,” she says.
It was when she met her new partner, Sean, in 2010, that he suggested she have a go at selling her stock online. “I didn’t have any computer skills, but Sean showed me how – instead of going on dates he just taught me how to use eBay,” she laughs. When Warren’s first item (a pack of linchpins) didn’t sell for a week, she was ready to give up. “I thought: ‘This is no good, there’s too much competition,’” she says. “When those first linchpins sold I celebrated, listed a few more, and things really escalated.”
Mandy’s Tools took off, and within the year she had moved the business into a warehouse in Lincolnshire and employed five women to help her pack up and send orders. “I taught myself about postage, customer service and all the things that come with employing people, like payroll and rotas,” she says. “I’d occasionally make silly errors. But through your mistakes you learn the hard way and that’s the only way you can grow.”
Warren now sells her tools 24/7 on eBay and averages 400 orders a week. The Mandy’s Tools team is still all-female. “I’ve had a few men work for me, but they haven’t lasted,” she says. “It’s just the way it’s gone. I think women are so organised and we work well together as a team. Of course, I wouldn’t rule out hiring a man if the right one came along.”
Although she now has a turnover of £350,000, Warren says that the sense of solidarity has been the best thing about selling on eBay. “Going out in the van selling tools on my own was lonely and tough, but now I’ve got my ladies to lean on and share my passion with, it’s a joy. We’ve just had a team photo taken and it makes me feel so satisfied.”
Warren says that her dad feels similarly proud of what she’s accomplished. “He loves hearing about the business and how well it’s doing,” she says. “When I showed him our page with our logo and everything, he was in tears.”
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