Tracy Ackroyd runs perfectlyperfectpresents.com, a retail site selling handpicked and often handmade gifts for women and children. As well as jewellery and accessories, the online store stocks home and garden gifts, wedding gifts, children’s books and toys. As someone who has already worked with a start-up mentor and is now on the lookout for a second mentor to help her focus on growth, Tracy appreciates the value of business mentoring.
Tracy, tell us a bit about yourself and your business.
“I’m 52 years old, and for the past 27 years I have been in pharmaceutical sales. It was my job to go round selling drugs to doctors, nurses, pharmacists and nursing homes. However, I’ve always wanted a gift shop. I have a love for beautifully made crafted items and I wanted to open a shop but simply didn’t have the finance for premises. A friend suggested taking the idea online. So I did the necessary market research and launched Perfectly Perfect Presents in November of 2013. It’s been live for just over 12 months now but up until the end of October 2014 I actually still worked full time.
That must have been stressful!
Yes, it was. Not something I’d recommend really!
Did it help that both your day job and your business were sales focussed?
Yes. Definitely. My sales and marketing background gave me very transferable skills. However, I did have a lot to learn in terms of website design and SEO. It’s been a huge, huge learning curve over the past 14 months.
Have you had any help or support from outside agencies?
Yes, I did a business course through the Prince’s Trust and they actually got me a mentor who I had with me until early this year. We felt that we had done as much as we could do together. He had helped me get the business set up and he felt that I needed a different mentor to actually build the business.
So you came along to Meet a Mentor looking for that new mentor?
Yes. I didn’t connect with anyone that day but I’m still looking!
How do you think having your first mentor helped you?
He was a reality check. I’m quite impatient and I want everything to happen yesterday. What he was very good at doing was getting my feet back on the ground and telling me that actually things were going well.
How did you arrange contact with your mentor?
We used Skype. I’ve never actually met my mentor because he was living in America. It was often once a week, sometimes twice a week, sometimes once a month. It really depended what was happening and how much support I needed. How often we spoke was really down to me and what I felt I needed.
Do you think you would like to be a mentor yourself?
I would yes, because it did make a huge difference to me. There were times when I thought ‘I can’t do this.’ My mentor was really good at saying ‘You’re doing really well Tracy.’ It’s great just to have that sounding board, you’re talking to someone who’s been there, done that. You’re meeting challenges and you don’t know whether it’s just you but actually I think everyone tends to go through the same things.