The Cornish Highstreet was launched in November 2020, although it had been an idea in my head for a while. I'm Holly, and here's the story behind The Cornish Highstreet:
In the Summer of 2020 I was feeling rather rubbish (weren't we all!); I felt lucky to be on furlough but had recently come to accept that the career I thought had been my dream (teaching) was definitely not- I wanted a new project to work on. I've always been passionate about shopping local and eco, and with the detrimental affect of the pandemic on local businesses, I wanted to somehow help.
An idea started to form and that's when I saw the advert from Real Ideas Organisation. Real Ideas are an organisation with many hats, one of which is to support small businesses and independent creators through their membership offer. They were offering business support packages to incubate enterprises at the beginning of their development. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, I put together a business plan and video presentation and applied.
When they called me back saying they were interested in my idea I couldn't believe it. I'd never had myself down as a business owner but after meeting some great people on their team my surprise turned to excitement. The ideas I'd had swirling round my head, that I'd been rambling at my mum with for months, looked like they could finally become a reality. Real Ideas gave me the confidence and knowledge I needed to start The Cornish Highstreet. I'll put a link to their site at the bottom of the page- I highly recommend having a look round if you're after business/career support.
After months of research, making connections and building relationships I finally had a solid plan and was ready to launch. On November 17th 2020 I launched the website with over 100 products from 15 different small businesses, all available under one postage price. The Cornish Highstreet has been growing ever since, and with the help of my partner, Ryan, it's become a great little shop to support your local indie businesses. We've sent out cute self care packages, birthday presents, thank you gifts and been the go-to for local Christmas shopping, and we can't wait to do it all again next year!
It has been so fun creating this virtual high street and a joy to see so many people support Cornish businesses through our convenient platform. I can't believe it's been a whole year already- thank you to all our amazing customers and supporters, without you we wouldn't exist. Here's to many more years of shopping local and loving Cornwall!
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