A Sunderland entrepreneur says she’s already considering opening her second online store – just months after being named as a finalist in an internet trading competition.

Deborah Brown – from Houghton le Spring – was one of 10 budding entrepreneurs from across the region who each won £2,000 to start their own business via eBay, in a challenge run by regional development agency One NorthEast and e-business development agency The North East Regional Portal.

The idea of the ‘YouTrade’ competition was to encourage online entrepreneurship across the North East and now, only three months after launching her business debsrecordsuk selling vinyl records, Deborah says she is already looking at expanding her operation.

“Pitching my original idea to the ‘Dragon’s Den’ style YouTrade panel was extremely nerve-wracking,” she said. “I’m not the kind of person who has bags of confidence and having to convince a panel of strangers was extremely scary. But winning gave my confidence a huge boost.

“Since I’ve started trading it’s made me realise that I can only be as good as the stock I can obtain – so that’s turned my thoughts to selling another product and opening another shop. My original dream was to work from home, now I want to develop my business so that I can make a reasonable living out of it.”

The business is now Deborah’s main job and has seen around £3,000 worth of sales so far, excellent feedback and returning customers.

YouTrade was launched last November. Among the other successful pitches to the ‘Dragon’s Den’ style panel were business plans for jewelry and accessories, fitness equipment sales and antiques companies.

All the winners have now started trading via eBay, and are competing to be the most successful in their first year of trading. To help them, they are getting support through a series of boot camps about all aspects of running an internet business and entrepreneurship in general.

Andy Walton, eBusiness Manager at One NorthEast, said: “When we launched YouTrade, we wanted to inspire people to be enterprising and to turn their ideas into something real. 

 “If we’re going to achieve the region’s aim of starting 22,000 new businesses in the next decade to help us close the productivity gap between the North East and other English regions, we have to develop our entrepreneurial culture and make sure people have access to the skills they’ll need to succeed in running their own business.

“All our YouTraders are demonstrating that, with hard work, strong business advice and a quality idea, the opportunities are out there.” 

Regional Portal chief executive Norma Foster said: "We are delighted that Deborah’s venture has taken off so quickly, and it’s great news that she’s already planning to expand. She is proving to be an inspiration and an example to us all of how a great idea coupled with creativity and enterprising spirit can become something big.

"As e-business champions we want to encourage and support entrepreneurship in the region and the YouTrade competition has been a fantastic opportunity for 10 entrepreneurs to develop a business idea online.”

When it comes to the race for the YouTrade title, Deborah is pragmatic: “It has never been a thing I’ve contemplated! To get where I have has been more than enough. I’m more than happy to get to the stage I did, but winning is not a priority – but my idea has done better than I anticipated, so I’m just very pleased!”

In addition to One NorthEast and the North East Regional Portal, partners of the YouTrade competition are Sage (UK) Ltd, eBay, bgroup (UK) ltd, Platform One ltd, BT and Business Link North East.

Relevant links

More about the YouTrade project

eBay SME fast facts

More about the North East Regional Portal

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