For many, the idea of owning a business is just a dream – but one woman turned it into a reality after she borrowed £45 from her mum.

Alice Hall was struggling to make ends meet and was working several jobs to pay the bills. She was a cover teacher in a school by day, and would work in a bar by night – and it was becoming somewhat exhausting. She knew that she wanted to change her life, and when she spotted a gap in the market for “glam fashion online”, she ran with her idea and built a business empire.

She started the Pink Boutique business with just £90, borrowing £45 of the sum from her mum, and in 2019, seven years after setting up business in 2012, Alice was racking up a whopping £25 million per year. Alice says that the fashion websites around at the time were missing the mark, showing models who looked very natural wearing party dresses. “I am from Newcastle upon Tyne, the party city where the girls love tan and make-up”, she said, so she wanted to do something different.

She had an idea for doing things differently, but Alice admits that she endured a couple of failed starts as a result of poor-quality samples. So she set off hunting for a wholesaler she could rely on who could provide good quality stock, eventually locating one in the UK.

And her mum ended up lending her £45 so she could buy a six-pack of dresses, but she had to “beg” her mum for the cash. Recruiting a friend from the bar as a model, she listed them on eBay, and they all sold very quickly. She kept buying more and more, and thus the business was born.

Alice had been using her lunch breaks from her regular job to handle posting out her orders, but before long that break simply wasn’t long enough. So teaming up with her mum Jackie, she went full time with the business. Alice handled the creative side of buying, selling, and marketing, while Julie took on the admin and finances.

Alice had no business experience, so she had to teach herself from online resources, and timing helped with spreading the word too, as she set up a Facebook page for the business just as the feature was launched on the social media site, and it quickly built up interest.

“We managed to go viral without spending a penny! Our strategy was to create and share engaging content and we built a massive community of like-minded women”, she said.

PinkBoutique’s unapologetic love of all things glam has helped the business take off at some rate. That initial £90 spend led to a turnover of £500,000 by the end of year one.

Alice also became a mum as she was building her business, and she said that motherhood has actually helped the business, as it’s made her more single-minded at work, focusing on just one or two big things for Pink Boutique to achieve each year.

She said: “I completely take my hat off to anyone who has young children and starts their own business! Luckily we had scaled our business to the point where I was able to take maternity leave, but I know this isn’t always possible for people with small businesses.

“Having an online business that’s open 24 hours is like having a baby that doesn’t sleep. I joke that the business was my first baby as it needed so much attention and nurturing. Since becoming a mum I have become infinitely more organised and that’s what’s getting me through.”

Clearly not all start-ups will enjoy the sort of growth seen by Pink Boutique, yet Alice believes there are lessons others can learn from her experiences, as she encourages people to “Try to learn as much as you can in the beginning when you’re small, but then don’t be afraid to pay for experienced staff when you can. Our business really changed gears when we brought in a management team.”

Do you have a story to share? Email: danielle.wroe@mirror.co.uk