Wally Charles Interview

Wally Charles, founder of Childs Camping, shares the story behind his successful camping equipment business. He recognized a gap in the market for camping stores in Ireland and took a risk to start his own business. Wally self-funded the business, took out a bank loan, and received help from friends. He focused on keeping prices competitive with a major competitor in Northern Ireland to attract customers. As the business grew, they invested in a website and utilized social media for advertising. Wally emphasizes the importance of customer loyalty by providing excellent service and always listening to their needs. Hi, my name's Emma Downs. Today I'll be interviewing Wally Charles, the founder of Childs Camping for my MN217 Entrepreneurship module. So Wally, would you be able to tell us a bit of background about yourself and also your business? Hi Emma. First of all, thanks for interviewing me. My name is Wally Charles and I started Childs Camping in the 1970s. Our business supplies caravan and camping equipment. I first came up with the business when I went camping with my friends and we needed to find new tools for camping and the house broke. This is when I realised that there was a gap in the market for camp stores in Ireland and there was no other business like it at the time as such. Childs Camping is in Blessingham County. It started out as a very small business with tents pitched on some grass but now it has grown to be one of the biggest camping businesses in Ireland. At the time Emma, there was nobody else really in Ireland supplying trailer, tents, caravans or camping equipment. So we took a bit of a risk and we went for it. There was no real strategy that we decided to stick with which was quite silly. There was demand for us and that was really something that we propelled from. So Wally, what were the primary sources of funding or investment that you explored when you started out? I self-funded the business along with a bank loan and some help from friends. This was another risk as we didn't know we would make money back if the business didn't take off. We never brought in a business partner as we were looking at everything equal. There were a few thoughts about it before the business took off but we took off and we got it going when we realised that a business partner wasn't necessary. So Wally, what strategies for assessing prices for your products worked effectively for your enterprise? Our biggest competitor in Northern Ireland, we tried to keep our prices near enough to the same as theirs which brought in a lot of customers as our shop was a lot more accessible for people in Southern Ireland. I think it actually stood as an advantage to both of our businesses because we could both push our companies to be the best they could be. Wally, what strategies for growing your profile worked the best for your enterprise? As the business grew, more ways of action started to come into play like the internet. We spent a lot of time and money developing a website which has grown and grown. Online shopping has gotten very popular and it helped expand our business alongside advertising on different social media platforms. I'm curious to know, how much previous knowledge of camping and caravan equipment did you actually need prior to starting your enterprise? We always camped ourselves so we had a good knowledge of the products and the more you work in the industry, the more knowledge you gain from the different reps from companies that we buy our stock from. Wally, was there a point in your venture that you struggled to generate new ideas and how did you overcome it? We always had a stand at the Holiday World show in the RDF. At the beginning, it was easy enough to come up with new ideas but I suppose as the years went on, more businesses started to pop into the same market. It was only then that we started to struggle with new ideas as we were trying to compete with other businesses. Luckily now, we don't have to worry about the trade shows as much because of the website. In fairness, I have to promote the internet for helping us with new ideas and to broaden the business. Wally, was there any specific technique that was used to ensure customer loyalty? Luckily, as I said, we didn't have many competitors and the only real way you can ensure customer loyalty is to always look after them, listen to them, make sure the staff are customer focused and help them out as much as possible. This has worked for us. We pride ourselves on giving good service. We always have since the company started and this has always worked for us. A lot of our customers have stood by us for over 50 years.