We were lucky to catch up with Nikki Simmons recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Nikki thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

I was raised by a single mom who worked very hard to ensure my sister and I never went without. She was and is now a massive inspiration for me. Whenever I’m feeling burnt out or tired from work between the two small businesses I own, I think of how difficult it must have been to care for 2 daughters alone. It was survival for her, and often times taking a break or relaxing after coming home from her jobs wasn’t an option. The most incredible part of my childhood was her. Even when she was exhausted and burnt out, she always encouraged us to pursue our dreams and work hard. I can say without a doubt in my mind, I had the confidence and work ethic to pursue and succeed in an unconventional career because of her unending love and support.

Nikki, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hello reader, my name is Nikki Simmons and I’m a full time session vocalist, songwriter, candlemaker, and most recently, art gallery owner. In May 2022, when I was volunteering for Womens’ Aid, I met fellow creative Constance Prince and we immediately hit it off. Like out-of-the park hit it off. She’s an incredible artist of many disciplines and superwoman mother of 4. When we met, I was in a really bad place mentally—I was going through a divorce, living on my friend’s couch and spending a lot of time reflecting on what I should be doing with my life. Over the summer, my friendship with Constance flourished and I began to blossom in my own right. I started looking for places to rent so I could move out and have my own life again. I found a small apartment to rent above a storefront in Draycott, England. As soon as I walked into the shop, I felt like I was at home. On a whim, I decided to apply for it and concocted a hair-brained idea to open a creative hub in a small English village. I’d always had an appreciation for art, but I had zero clue about the business or artistic community, so I looked to Constance as my guide. She gave me invaluable advice and helped me filled the shop walls so we would have a bright and colorful opening day!
Two months on, we’re now featuring the work of 6 local artists and stock a variety of one-of-a-kind pieces. In our shop we currently display and sell framed paintings, sketches, handmade scented soy candles, pyrography pieces, hand drawn greeting cards, needle felt hoops, resin charms, wax melts, jewelry, magnets and more. We are taking interviews for new artists on a rolling basis.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

In addition to owning the shop, I am also an avid candlemaker, which was a dream of mine that’s only recently come to fruition. Back in 2019, I was fed up with the Christmas crush and decided to only gift items that I had made myself. After researching a few different craft ideas, I fell in love with the idea of making candles. It seemed so easy! Spoiler alert: It was not. My first attempts were unusable gloopy disasters, but I quite enjoy a challenge, so I kept at it. I failed a lot, but it was an experiment I became obsessed with. I was going to bed at night thinking about different scent combinations and what kind of wax I wanted to try next. I wasn’t thinking of it as a business, I was just having fun and exploring a new side of my creativity. After I moved into my own place in summer 2022, I started to take it more seriously and adopted a more scientific approach to candlemaking that included small batch tests, experimentation, cost calculations and hours of research. It was around this time that I was unknowingly developing a profitable business in my tiny apartment kitchen. Within 3 weeks of opening my shop I completely sold out of the initial 200 candles I made and this inspired me to dive in even further. I’m now 4 months into this venture and continuing to learn so much about the business and joy of candle making. I still make a lot of mistakes–the other day I accidently spilled £80 of essential oils on my floor and had a little cry about it–but I think the most important lesson I’ve learned in starting this business is to have patience with myself. I’m imperfect and even if I were perfect, things don’t always go to plan and being kind to myself in the chaos is what’s kept my passion healthy and thriving.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I really enjoy having one-on-one conversations with people, and I think across the board in all my endeavors my friendliness has always been my most valuable selling point. I opened a shop in a very small, very community-driven village, and the first thing I did when I got here was become a patron of every other small business in town. I met so many people during my first week that I started a note in my phone with all their names and little bits of information I could remember about them from our conversations. I wanted to start a business here, so I made a huge effort to learn about the community I had moved to. I think small things can make a big difference in how you assimilate into a community and market. Most of the personal connections I made have rippled out through the community through word of mouth and I get new visitors to my shop about every other day. One person drove over 100 miles to visit the shop after being told about it by a family member! We plan to hit the pavement running in 2023 with our website and social media pages. That’s a new frontier for me and I’m looking forward to seeing how those increase foot traffic to our shop!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alovelyplacetobe.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alovelyplacetobe.draycott/?hl=en-gb
• Other: 12 Market Street Draycott, Derby DE72 3NB

Image Credits
I own the rights to the images