A TEENAGER who started a side hustle from his parents’ shed now makes £4,000 a week just two years later.
Callum Baker, now 17, began an online sweet shop The Sweet Shack a week before he turned 16 having seen sweet seller Greedy Gwin’s TikTok account.
The teen from Cardiff, Wales, quickly found success and has now taken on his first employee.
Callum said: “I was really bored and I watched a lot of TikTok and I was watching these sweet business videos.
“I bought some sweets online with £50 of my own money and set up a small website with just five products and then just started posting on Facebook pages and TikTok.”
He now ships between 220 and 250 orders a weeks and since January last year has turned over £74,000.
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Callum has significantly increased his stock from an initial five products and now carries more than 700 different sweets, crisps and drinks.
When he first started he used just a corner of his bedroom but now things are vastly different.
Callum said: “At first I had the corner of my bedroom, the one shelf, then two and then I took over the spare room as things got more popular.”
He now operates his business from a purpose-built shed in his parents’ back garden which has been nicknamed The Shack but he is already looking to expand further still into larger premises.
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A neighbour down the street where Callum lives is now an employee and helps pack the orders in the evenings.
Callum also credits the business with helping him deal with his mental health, having spent time in hospital with depression.
He said: “When I first started this business I was at rock bottom. I didn’t feel like I had much to live for but starting the business really gave me a drive in life.
“My confidence has shot up, going on TikTok live and speaking to hundreds of people every night is amazing.”
Callum is supported by his family and his mum Michele, a senior NHS manager, helps at the weekend with re-stocking the goods and packing up the parcels.
His customers jokingly refer to her as admin and she gets paid in sweets.
Michele said: “It’s just changed him and I often wonder, would he be here now if it weren’t for this business?
“I think it’s really saved him. He gets excited now and he talks about the business and has something to look forward to.”
The young businessman is currently studying public services at Cardiff and Vale College and hopes to join the police force later on.
Currently though he wants to carry on with his sweet shop and is thinking of expanding into the import export sweet market.
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