How did you get started in business?
I had an early interest in entrepreneurship. As a kid, I pretended to be a travel agent and sent fake tickets to my parents; I charged my mum’s friends for terrible manicures; I started a tuck shop in my school and eventually made a profit. It just was in my blood, always.
It was important to me to earn my own money; I couldn’t wait to get out there. I started my career in advertising very young – I celebrated my 18th birthday in the office, working full-time. By my early 20s I decided I wasn’t creatively fulfilled and decided to start my own company called Your Local Fair. I staged [craft] events [around London] where I pulled together the best of small businesses from the local area and put them all under one roof. That’s where the idea for Not on the High Street came from, I did exactly the same thing but put it under the internet’s roof.
Do you think having dyslexia has influenced your career?
I think so. I got two As and an E in my A-levels. The As were in creative design and technology and art and the E was in business studies, ironically. It [the dyslexia] wasn’t picked up until later on. But it explains a lot about why I had to work particularly hard to get to the same place as my peers. When you’re faced with challenges down to the basics of reading and writing, it teaches you to find another way around things. Working your creative muscle that way is great for an entrepreneur.
How did your interest in small businesses begin?
It came from my appreciation of creativity and my love of business. I stumbled across the talent of small companies at Your Local Fair and I kept on being bowled over by what they were creating. Your Local Fair progressed and was successful, and I saw that I could have a real effect on small businesses. Then being able to build an [e-commerce] platform that shone a light on this hidden army of people was a great feeling.
Did your career in advertising help?
Absolutely. You have to work your butt off in advertising. When I started I was the lowest of the low, and I was put through my paces. Then I became the youngest account manager in London. I was working every hour God sent for four years.
In advertising you’re dealing with both the client and the customer, which is a real learning curve. That experience was helpful for Not on the High Street where we have two customers, the shopper and the small business. Working in advertising also gave me the ability to read people and situations. I was already a people person, but it really helped to fine-tune those skills.
What’s been your proudest moment?
It’s been a 10-year epic journey, so there have been a lot. But I tend to rush through and not really ever take a second to appreciate things. My MBE for services to small businesses and enterprise [Tucker was named in the Queen’s birthday honours in 2013] was the only moment that I stopped.
My partner Frank was there; he had given up his job so that I could continue running Not on the High Street [this helped Tucker to run the company while her son was a baby]. My sister, Carrie, was there, she was employee number three after me and my business partner, Sophie. And my son was there who was just three months old when I started the business. It was definitely the second proudest moment of my life (after giving birth to my son), it really does stick with me.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a business?
Try and control who you are building the business for. Taking on investment, whatever type of investment that might be, ultimately creates tougher targets for your business that are normally hung on growth. And if you are growing fast, sometimes you are blinkered to what’s going on in your business. Growth is not always the answer and there are always going to be consequences to growth.
What have been the toughest moments of your career?
When we were seeking investment in 2006, it was such a different landscape. I think people now are much more savvy. When we did it, women were an absolute minority for raising money.
The VCs [venture capitalists] we saw didn’t even understand the concept of an online marketplace. The only people out there at the time were Amazon and eBay; [e-commerce business] Etsy started at the same time as us. We went around with our proverbial black suitcase full of personalised T-shirts and beautifully stitched cushions from small businesses, but the audience that we were addressing weren’t our customers. The number of times I heard from investors that their wives did the shopping, so why would they be interested, was astounding.
It was with a huge amount of luck that we stumbled across an investor who really understood the female shopper.
What’s your role in the business?
I now sit on the board and I’m a non-executive director. I’m in the office a lot and I work with Simon [Belsham, Not on the High Street’s CEO] a lot. There’s no dragging me away from this business as it’s the ultimate thing I’m proud of.
What are your plans for the future?
I’ll continue to be Not on the High Street’s biggest cheerleader – I am actually, officially, their number one shopper. I’ll continue working on the board and with the brand. My next priority is Holly and Co, which launches in January. It is going to continue my support for small businesses, but I’m not able to say what it is yet. That will be another decade of work that I want to put into the small business community.
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