30/09/2026
THE LITTLE CARPET SHOP IS TWO! đ
Today as we celebrate our second birthday, weâve been looking back at the last two years and, if weâre completely truthful, itâs difficult to believe just how far this little shop has come.
Last week, we served our 2,000th customer.
2,000 customers in less than two years.
When we first opened the doors, if youâd told us weâd hit that number before our second birthday, Iâm not sure weâd have believed you.
They say the first two years of any new business are usually the hardest and most turbulent.
Well, we can certainly confirm the turbulent bit. đ
When we took the shop on, it was basically a glorified shed. We had an empty unit, a handful of samples and an idea of what we wanted The Little Carpet Shop to become.
We signed the lease, had the shopfront fitted and, because we already had a little holiday booked, went away before we officially opened.
And that was when we got our first taste of how welcoming everybody in the local flooring trade was going to be. đ
While we were away, a local competitor â who we wonât name, although they know exactly who they are â apparently looked through our shop window, made a note of the suppliers whose sample books they could see and proceeded to contact them, threatening to stop buying from them if they supplied The Little Carpet Shop.
Fortunately, Iâd already spent more than 20 years in the flooring trade, and Iâd made a lot of friends and built some very good relationships during that time.
So, to their credit, virtually every supplier basically told them where to go.
One didnât.
Weâre still waiting for that to become a problem. đ
Then we actually opened the doors.
And this is probably one of my favourite memories now, although I can assure you it wasnât particularly funny at the time.
For the first three days of opening the shop, nobody came in.
We already had work coming through because Iâd been in the trade for a long time, but thereâs something very different about actually opening your own shop, sitting behind the counter and waiting for somebody to walk through that door.
By about four oâclock on the third day, I remember sitting there thinking:
âWhat on earth have we done here?â
Have we made a massive mistake? Have we actually opened a shop that nobody is going to come into?
Weâd signed a lease. Weâd put the shopfront up. Weâd bought samples. Weâd opened a carpet shop.
And after three days of trading weâd taken preciselyâŚ
ÂŁ0. đ
Then the door opened.
Our very first customer walked into The Little Carpet Shop.
And they bought a roll end.
For ÂŁ5.
So after three days in business, our grand total turnover was officially a fiver. đ
And do you know what?
Weâve still got that ÂŁ5 framed.
We even still have the text message we sent that customer afterwards, thanking them for being The Little Carpet Shopâs very first customer.
At the time, I was probably looking at that fiver wondering whether weâd made the right decision.
Looking at it now, with more than 2,000 customers having walked through our doors, it means something completely different.
It reminds us where all of this started.
We stuck at it.
We believed in what we were trying to build. We believed that if we treated people properly, offered good products at fair prices and gave people the sort of service weâd want ourselves, eventually people would find us.
And fortunately, you did.
That first ÂŁ5 customer became two customers.
Two became ten.
Ten became a hundred.
And somehow, less than two years later, that little carpet shop that took ÂŁ5 in its first three days has now served more than 2,000 customers.
Then came the signs.
Our signs would mysteriously disappear while every other sign around them remained perfectly untouched.
Weâd put another one up.
That would disappear too.
Eventually, we started tracking them.
Suddenly, we knew exactly where some of our missing signs were ending up. So weâd retrieve them and put them straight back out. đ
When taking them down didnât work, somebody apparently decided it was time to call in the authorities. Complaints went into the council and even the local MP.
After contacting the council ourselves, we were told that the complaint specifically concerned The Little Carpet Shopâs signs â despite there sometimes being ten other signs surrounding ours.
So we contacted our local MP and asked a fairly simple question:
Why was one small local business apparently being singled out when numerous other businesses had signs in exactly the same places?
We thought that was a reasonable question.
Apparently, answering it wasnât quite as straightforward. đ
Six emails later, having received just about everything except an actual answer to the question weâd asked, we eventually accepted that trying to stop politicians behaving like politicians was probably beyond even us.
So we gave up asking.
We didnât give up advertising.
We simply found other ways and other places to put our signs and carried on doing what we were doing.
(Weâve also had another 15 made. Theyâre ready to go. đ)
And strangely enough, the disappearing act still happens today.
We know the difference when the council removes signage because the other signs around ours disappear too.
On other occasions, somehow only ours vanishes â and lately a sign belonging to a direct competitor has developed the remarkable ability to appear suspiciously close to where ours used to be.
Weâll leave everyone to draw their own conclusions on that one. đ
And signs and suppliers havenât been the only hurdles.
We even had a fitter who came recommended to us, who we trusted, collect outstanding balances from customers and fail to hand the money over. Weâd also supplied flooring to help him with his own jobs.
By the time everything was added together, we were left around ÂŁ5,000 out of pocket.
For a huge national company, ÂŁ5,000 might be an inconvenience.
For a small family business finding its feet, ÂŁ5,000 hurts.
But weâre still here.
And probably one of the things weâre most proud of is that none of this has changed the way we choose to run our business.
Weâve had competitorsâ flooring accidentally delivered to people we know. Instead of thinking âserves them rightâ, weâve contacted the competitor, told them exactly where their flooring was and helped them get it back.
Weâve even had competitorsâ stock accidentally delivered to our own premises, and weâve taken the time to drop it off with them ourselves, complete with their delivery note.
Because somebody elseâs behaviour doesnât dictate ours.
And we should make something very clear:
We donât consider every other flooring shop an enemy.
Far from it.
Weâve got plenty of friends throughout the flooring trade, including people who technically compete with us. Thereâs enough work out there for good businesses to get on with what theyâre doing, treat their customers properly and succeed on their own merits.
Unfortunately, one or two people seem to have struggled with that concept since the day we opened.
Thatâs their problem, not ours.
Because while all that nonsense has been going on in the background, weâve been concentrating on what actually matters:
Our customers. â¤ď¸
Those customers have taken us from an empty little unit with a few sample books to a proper showroom weâre genuinely proud of.
Weâre still The Little Carpet Shop, and the little part certainly isnât false advertising. đ
But weâve tried to make every inch count.
One of the comments we hear most often when somebody walks through our doors for the first time is that they simply cannot believe how much choice weâve managed to fit into such a small space.
Over the last two years, weâve gradually built the showroom up, invested back into the business, added more ranges, more displays and more choice, and tried to create somewhere that gives people the selection theyâd expect from a showroom many times our size.
And thatâs why weâre going to dig out some photographs of what this place looked like when we first got the keys, because sometimes even we forget just how much itâs changed.
But none of that happens without people choosing to spend their money with us.
So 2,000 customers isnât just a number on our invoice system.
Itâs 2,000 people and families who decided to trust a small, independent family business.
Itâs thousands of rooms weâve measured.
Thousands of floors weâve supplied and fitted.
Itâs somebody coming back after weâve done their living room and asking us to do the stairs.
Then the bedrooms.
Then recommending us to their mum.
Their neighbour.
Their mate.
Itâs every Facebook tag when somebody asks, âCan anyone recommend a carpet shop?â
Itâs every share of one of our posts.
Every recommendation.
Every Google review and Facebook review somebody has taken five minutes out of their day to leave.
Thatâs what has built The Little Carpet Shop.
And weâre not going to sit here on our second birthday and pretend weâve been perfect for two years.
We havenât.
Weâre human.
Weâve made mistakes. Fitters have made mistakes. Suppliers have let us down. Deliveries have been delayed. Jobs have overrun. Things occasionally havenât gone according to plan.
Thatâs real life and thatâs running a business.
What we can promise is that whenever something does go wrong, we will always endeavour to put it right as quickly and as fairly as we possibly can.
Weâve always believed that you donât judge a company solely on whether a problem ever occurs.
You judge them on what they do when one does.
We hope our Google and Facebook reviews over these first two years show that weâve tried to live by that.
And weâre proud of what weâve built.
Weâre incredibly proud of the business and reputation weâve built in just two years, and we genuinely believe the service we offer can stand alongside anybodyâs.
Not because weâre the biggest.
Weâre very obviously not. đ
Not because we never make mistakes.
And certainly not because weâve got millions of pounds behind us.
Weâre a small family business.
But we believe in the service weâve built, the prices we offer, the choice weâve squeezed into our little showroom and, most importantly, the way we try to treat people.
Ultimately, though, our customers are the people who have allowed us to become what we are.
Youâve helped a small family business survive everything thatâs been thrown at it.
Youâve helped us employ people.
Youâve helped keep local fitters working.
Youâve allowed us to invest in better ranges, better displays and more choice.
Youâve helped turn what was basically an empty shell two years ago into The Little Carpet Shop as it stands today.
And somehow, before weâve even blown the candles out on our second birthday cake, youâve helped us serve more than 2,000 customers.
So whether youâve spent ÂŁ50 with us or ÂŁ5,000âŚ
Whether weâve carpeted your entire house or youâve popped in for one little offcutâŚ
Whether youâve bought from us once or youâve been back five timesâŚ
Whether youâve recommended us, shared one of our posts, tagged us on Facebook, left us a review or simply told somebody down the pub where you got your flooringâŚ
Thank you. Genuinely.
There are too many customers, friends, family members, staff, fitters and suppliers whoâve helped us along the way to name everybody individually, but please know that every bit of support has mattered.
Itâs been a ridiculous first two years.
Weâve had plenty thrown at us.
Weâve learnt a lot.
Weâve made mistakes.
Weâve improved.
Weâve grown.
Weâve made a lot of new friends.
Weâve gone from ÂŁ5 in our first three days to more than 2,000 customers before our second birthday.
And most importantlyâŚ
weâre only getting started.
So hereâs to year three and, hopefully, many, many more after that. đĽđ
And finally, to the very small number of competitors whoâve spent the last two years removing signs, making complaints, ringing suppliers and generally doing everything they could to make life difficult for us and our familyâŚ
We did promise to make this birthday post a bit nicer, so weâll put this as politely as we possibly can:
You probably should have saved yourselves the effort.
Because after everything thatâs happenedâŚ
Weâre still here. â¤ď¸
And unfortunately for youâŚ
Youâre stuck with us. đ
đ HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY TO THE LITTLE CARPET SHOP! đ
From our family to every single person whoâs supported us over these first two years:
THANK YOU. â¤ď¸
