The 4th annual eBay for Business Awards are open for entries with the grand prize totalling a humongous £20,000 in cash. You have until 11:59:59 on the 4th of September to submit your entry. As we continue to revisit some of last year’s winners, today we look at Into Music:
Into Music One Year On
Jake Harris, 21, from Horncastle Lincolnshire runs his own business selling pre-loved musical instruments. Jake founded Into Music in 2017 after spotting a gap in the market for affordable music equipment, and within two years he had reached a turnover of £250,000.
The Into Music team source and collect equipment from all over the UK, repair it and put the items back up for sale at a profit, selling some of the highest quality drum kits, cymbals and accessories while still providing the affordable equipment that the business was founded on.
Jake was awarded the coveted Prince’s Trust Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2019 at last year’s Awards
How did you use the prize money from your award?
Shortly after receiving my award I used the prize money to help secure a lease on new premises for my business. This instantly allowed me to increase our storage space and, as a result, our online capacity also increased. Being able to open a physical bricks and mortar store was really exciting and it works well alongside our eBay store.
How has your business grown in the past year since the awards?
Since the awards, we have seen a massive increase in our online presence which has resulted in a lot more traffic on our eBay store. This has driven sales up by 120% in the first six months of this year compared to 2019. We are hoping to hit £350,000 turnover this year though eBay alone.
Did the pandemic impact your business?
The pandemic did impact the business – in both good and bad ways. The first thing we obviously had to do was close the store after only a month of being open. This was rather gutting, but it meant we could focus on getting orders packed and sent as fast as possible! We went completely online.
Our business revolves around travelling up and down the country, sourcing and collecting second-hand drum kits and equipment, but once lockdown rules and travel restrictions were imposed we had to find alternative ways of acquiring stock to meet the increasing demand. This also gave me some time to talk with our new suppliers and solidify the relationships, enabling us to start stocking some of the biggest names in drums.
Was eBay a helpful lifeline during the pandemic?
Absolutely! It allowed us to carry on reaching our customers and getting an income. During the lockdown, we also found that people were turning to drumming as a new hobby, so eBay has helped put our products out there for buyers to see! After the business had adapted slightly to these unusual times, we had the best 3 months that we have ever had trading on eBay in terms of revenue.
We really appreciate how supportive eBay has been to small businesses throughout the pandemic, highlighting to the nation how important small businesses truly are. Their kind gestures of support, like offering fee holidays, have really helped us. This also took away a lot of financial stress and worry so we could focus on selling the highest quality products for our customers!
What are your future plans for your business?
One of our biggest goals for the future is to continue to work with and maintain strong relationships with some of the biggest suppliers in the industry, in order to increase our product range and online inventory. To make this happen, we are currently in the process of expanding and opening a second showroom, so that we can stock and store a huge range of both brand new and pre-loved equipment to cater for every drummer’s needs.
In addition, we have plans for other facilities within our premises to create a ‘community hub’ for drummers and musicians in the local area.
We are also in the process of trying to scale up our sourcing opportunities by exploring the idea of both importing and travelling overseas to bring back quality preloved equipment, although for the time being this has been set back due to Covid-19.
Do you have any tips for this year’s contestants?
My key piece of advice would be to make the most of all the opportunities. I would also say to network with as many people as possible, as in my experience the success of your business has a lot to do with the people you have around you.
