Pulborough small business owner finds success after setting up in lockdown

Leah Robinson, from Pulborough, set up her business, Scrunchin Scrunchies, in the second Covid lockdown in November 2020 when her hairdressing salon was closed.

Leah is the manager of DLG Hair Studios in Worthing and wanted to continue to make a living after the pandemic meant she could not work due to restrictions. 

She said: “I started Scrunchin because when we got shut down during the first lockdown I was really bored.

“So when it came to the second one in November 2020, I knew I needed something to keep me busy.”

Starting out in her mother’s bedroom, Leah ordered fabrics and watched YouTube tutorials to help her create scrunchie hair bands using an old sewing machine.

Like thousands of other business owners, she decided to take to TikTok to help her promote Scrunchin and quickly saw her follower count grow. 

She said: “It took a few attempts at first, but I thought ‘oh these are pretty good, I could sell these to my clients’ - obviously I wasn’t in the salon so I started an Etsy store and brought people to it through social media. 

“At first I didn’t have TikTok, because I thought it was for much younger people, but then it started doing well and I was selling quite a few. 

“I saw that all these other businesses were going on TikTok and I reluctantly gave in and set up a page. I'm so glad I did because it brought in so many more customers.”

After seeing initial success, Leah decided she needed to do something to set her business apart from other companies.

Leah added: “I made so many new scrunchies, I’ve done over two thousand orders. It really started building up.

“A lot of other companies were doing a similar thing so I thought ‘what can I do that’s niche’, so I designed my own fabric and started making custom scrunchies. 

“I can do people’s logos, people’s pictures, names - it’s really helped boost my business.”

Since then Leah has created more accessories and tools such as heatless curling kits, combs and clips, all available on her website.

Leah is still working at the salon and makes the scrunchies whenever she has any free time.

She says that her weekly order amounts vary, but that this year she has already received 288 amounting in over £3,000 in sales. Since opening, she estimates she has made £12,000.

Leah said: “In an ideal world I’d like it to become a bigger business, obviously hairdressing is my first love, so it would be nice to have a partner so I can do both. 

“It would be nice to have a big warehouse with a stock room and an office.

“It would be amazing to get my products on a big website like Beauty Bay.”

Leah’s products can be purchased on her website scrunchinscrunchies.co.uk/ and her TikTok can be found here www.tiktok.com/@scrunchin.c