DEALER SUCCESS
M A R P L E S TAT I O N E R Y S U P P L I E S
Independent thinking For most stationers lockdown was a time to try to maintain the business - but SARAH LAKER isn’t most stationers: she bought another shop and is now busy making it a success
[26] FEBRUARY 2022
www.dealersupport.co.uk
S
arah Laker describes
“I literally walked off the ward on Friday and
herself as a ‘stationery
into the shop on Monday,” she remembers.
addict’ – the kind of
“I hadn’t got a clue what I was doing. I had
child who wouldn’t
never worked in a shop, didn’t know how to do
spend their pocket
accounts, didn’t know how to buy or sell, I just
money on sweets, but on stationery and
knew I wanted to run this shop and I wanted it
notebooks. As an adult, nothing changed.
to be stationery because I loved stationery. The
So when she had the opportunity to take on
rest is history. I learnt everything on the job -
her own stationery shop in Marple, Greater
made a lot of mistakes - but got a few things
Manchester, she jumped at it.
right along the way.”
The only problem was that Sarah had no
Sarah actually got more than a few things
experience in retail, having worked as a nurse
right. Having been in business now for 16
since leaving school nearly 20 years previously.
years – no mean feat, given the tough times
