Holly Tucker MBE is the British entrepreneur who, with her business partner Sophie Cornish, founded Not On The High Street, the online marketplace for small retailers. She went on to set up Holly & Co, a small business advice platform, and is the co-author of several best-selling business books. She lives in Twickenham, south-west London, with her husband and son.
What was your childhood attitude to money?
We spoke about money a lot. My father was financial director for General Electric and my mother was a market researcher. We lived in Wokingham in Berkshire.
It was definitely privileged, but there were always money worries. I went to a fee-paying school and there were always a lot of conversations about how we were going to afford the next term’s fees.
Money was respected and not plentiful. We didn’t go out to restaurants or fancy things like that, and pocket money was limited. I knew if I wanted extra money I had to work for it.
What was your first job?
My first job was at 14, cleaning a pub. My poor dad would get up at 6 o’clock on a Saturday morning and wait in the car park while I cleaned. It was probably illegal! I would always look out in case someone had dropped 50p down the back of the sofa. I really learnt to respect money at a young age.
Have you ever struggled to pay the bills?
Absolutely. When we started Not On The High Street I was 28, my son, Harry, was only three months old and Frank, now my husband, worked full time as a police officer.
I remember dividing up money for our weekly food allowance, for our nanny and for electricity, and I would put it in three separate envelopes. It was all really, really tight and incredibly stressful. It went on for three years.
How did you start your business?
My business partner and I pooled our savings, which were hardly anything, our parents gave us little loans, we had a bank loan and my husband had an out-of-court settlement with the police over some health issues – he gave all the money from that settlement to me.
In all it came to about £65,000 and that is how it started. We had to pay staff with our credit card cheque books.
