Comment: Mountain Warehouse founder on being a retail entrepreneur

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I’m a former consultant, so of course I had a business plan 15 years ago. But plans can change - not least because sometimes they don’t work.

At Mountain Warehouse we like to try things and then see what happens. If they work we do them again, maybe on a larger scale, and if they don’t then we move on to something else. We push at doors that are half open and don’t bang our heads against ones that are firmly closed.

I opened my first shop when I was 26. Mountain Warehouse was my fourth attempt to establish a successful retail business, having previously experimented with inline skates, educational toys and greetings cards. One of the great things about retail is you don’t need that much money to get started and that’s why so many well-known retail entrepreneurs have built up their business from a single store.

Another great thing about retail is it’s easy to try things - and there are lots of things to try. You can experiment in a small group of stores with different prices, products and promotions. You’ll find out quickly if they work and roll them out if they do. And if they don’t, try something else.

I always wanted to start a business. For financial reasons of course, but also because I think starting a business is a useful contribution to society and we need more people to launch companies that create employment.

Mountain Warehouse employs more than 1,200 people and contributes more than £10m a year to the exchequer in taxes. It’s disappointing that so many of our bright young people gravitate to the financial sector or become politicians straight from university.

If I was 26 again and starting a business today, then it would almost inevitably be an online business where arguably you need even less money than opening a shop. And with the internet you can try things really quickly. You can have an idea this morning and test it this afternoon.

Mountain Warehouse was somewhat late to this game, but even I eventually realised that the internet seemed to be catching on. We brought our site in-house and now have a team of developers constantly improving it.

To say that sales are exceeding expectations would be something of an understatement.

But despite our online success we are still opening stores. We’ve added 12 branches so far this year in affluent market and tourist towns where there is certainly no sign of the “death of the high street” mentality we read so much about.

Take Harrogate for instance, where people have been visiting for hundreds of years and aren’t going to stop because of Amazon and eBay. We are paying a premium for the lease and will be opening right next door to Betty’s Cafe Tea Rooms later this summer. I hope to see you there.