Interviewer: Today I’m joining Helen here at Sakala, which is located in a wonderful, stunning High Street, to find out a little bit more about this wonderful woman, but also her story and how we’ve ended up sat here today. So Helen, to start, how old is Sakala and what inspired you to open the business?

Helen: Sakala started in 2018, but before that, its first incarnation was in Cobblestone Walk in Steyning in 2012. And it started because I needed to raise funds for the charitable organizations I was involved with in India. And when I moved from London, it’s like, “Ah, how am I going to do this then?” So we started selling jewelry by our lovely jeweler Amit, and it’s kind of grown from there.

Interviewer: That’s incredible. Yeah, because now you offer a range of products, not just jewelry, is that right?

Helen: No, now we go all the way through from clothes to homewares, to jewelry, to anything you want, really. And we can do bespoke for people as well, because we know all our lovely makers. We have personal relationships with them, and I go and visit them fairly regularly. I’ve known them all a long time. So yeah, it’s good fun.

Interviewer: It’s really rare to get a shop owner to have that relationship, like genuine relationship, with their providers.

Helen: Yeah, when I go traveling, which I do three, four times a year, maybe, we go hunting—or I go hunting—for people. Sometimes it’s not even hunting, sometimes I just find things and think, “That’s fabulous.” But they have to show me how it’s made, where it’s made, who makes it, are they paying their workers properly. A lot of the things in the shop are made by women’s organizations because I like to be a big advocate for women out there that are starting out or come from a background that’s awful, and it’s a way of earning money. So we really are fair trade, inclusive, community—all those kind of words really apply to us. Everything here is made with love.

Interviewer: Yeah, truly. And you can definitely feel that walking into the shop, for sure. So, what does a typical day look like for you?

Helen: Get up in the morning, walk my hooligan of a dog. Come into the shop. I usually go and pick up my friend Emma, who runs another store in the High Street, Milla Phoenix. And her store is immaculate and beautifully curated. I’m like an Indian bazaar, so we’re complete chalk and cheese. Then, some days I have staff in, some days not, so the shop’s open. Usually, dealing with the customers, clear the accounts—although I have a lovely bookkeeper that keeps me sane, and I feel very sorry for her because she has to deal with multiple currencies. Then we’re open normally from 10:00 in the morning through till 4:00, 4:30 in the winter, but in the summer months, we’re here till 5:00, 5:30, for as long as there’s people around, really. And then I go home, collapse in a heap, and probably cook dinner!

Interviewer: Lovely! Lovely, sounds like a really successful day. What products do you think you’re best known for?

Helen: Definitely our block-print robes that are made in Jaipur. They’re all made by one family business. I deal with the nephew now, Himanshu, although when I go I meet uncle, dad, cousin—the whole family. They’ve just moved to a slightly bigger factory. Now, when I say “factory,” their factory now is probably the size of our shop, the fish shop that’s next to us, and the pet shop. So it’s tiny! It might be four stories high, but it’s tiny. And they do everything from cutting, block printing, stitching, finishing, packing, and then it goes off to be sent to wherever their customers are in the world. And yeah, so that’s… probably the block print is what we’re known for. Absolutely all our cloth is natural, so whether it’s the linen, the cotton, the silk, just everything. We don’t have anything that’s man-made. We also sell hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of wash bags. At Christmas, I think we should just open a robe and wash bag shop!

Interviewer: Sounds like a good idea! Next venture potential! What has, would you say, changed the most about the shop since you opened?

Helen: Well, we’ve got bigger, and we’re now really a Sakala family here, because I’m lucky enough to have a building that has rooms upstairs. And initially, we opened them up to be shop space, but in fact, it’s much nicer now that I’m able to champion generally young women who want to start something for themselves, and they need a high street premise. So, we have three or four counselors who use the room we’re sitting in as their counseling space. We have a room at the back which gets used for many things, but we have yoga, sound baths here. Yoga every week, sound bath at least once a month. And in our clinic space, we have reflexology and foot care. We’re quite a mixed group of people, but it’s giving everybody a starting block, really.

Interviewer: 100%. And I feel like it’s all very cohesive, though, you know? You all work really well together, and it’s one lovely energy when you walk into the space.

Helen: Yeah. We’ve grown organically. I think, you know, we’ve had some people go, some people leave, and that’s fine, but it’s kind of settled down. We also have Sharne from The Nature Space, who runs the Grief Café here, and that’s something that I just give the space for because I think it’s important for the community to have that kind of environment if you’ve gone through something hideous. Sharne and Wendy do a fantastic job. They actually come from all over the country—we have a gentleman who comes from Bath to come up and come to the Grief Café…

Interviewer: Wow, so specific!

Helen: Yeah, every month.

Interviewer: That’s amazing. That’s really incredible. What do you think is the most rewarding part of owning your own business?

Helen: I do what I want to do. I don’t answer to anybody, and it’s… you survive or fall by your own decisions. So you have to have a bit of self-confidence, but it’s fun! And going to work every morning should be fun. You know, the thought of having Monday morning blues? No, don’t get that.

Interviewer: Doesn’t exist. Why did you choose Steyning as your location?

Helen: By accident, really, because I moved from London down to just outside here in Wiston, and I had the opportunity to go to Cobblestone Walk, which is a little kind of craft village in the High Street. Went there, and after a lot of hard work, the business grew and took off. And then we’ve come out on the High Street—we had to wait for the right building to come out on the High Street. But I feel very lucky. I think Steyning’s very similar in feel to where I grew up in Marlow in Buckinghamshire. It’s got that same kind of community feel, family feel, and it’s a nice, beautiful, historic village, so what’s not to love? And you know, we get a lot of visitors as well as our core customers that probably come up from Brighton, Shoreham, Worthing, Horsham, you know, the towns around, but we do get a lot of visitors that come through as well. So it’s a nice place to be.

Interviewer: I think you’ve kind of just answered it, but what do you love most about being in Steyning?

Helen: Well, the feel of being in a community, and the amount of events that go on in this town—and we are a town now, we have a town council and a mayor! Indeed, it’s quite incredible. We have the largest festival that happens every other year that’s run by volunteers, which is quite amazing. People are very generous and give their time for nothing.

Interviewer: Indeed. No, they do, they do. We’ve just had it, haven’t we? Huge success! How important is local support to independent businesses like yours?

Helen: Completely. If you don’t use your local high street—of which we obviously are one local high street, but it could be anywhere in the country—we will end up with a high street full of vape shops or empty buildings. We all shop online. I’m probably one of the strange people that doesn’t very often! But I mean, everybody shops online, and that’s fine, but if I look at the number of the dreaded Amazon vans that come up and down this High Street… And fine, there are things you can’t get here. You can’t buy, I don’t know, you can’t buy children’s shoes here, for instance, or would struggle to buy fresh fish in the village. But, you know, we have independent bookshops, independent furniture stores, we have butchers, bakers… we probably have a candlestick maker somewhere! But yeah, I mean, we are lucky enough… you could easily live in this village and not leave for a week, and you would probably be able to get everything you need.

Interviewer: I agree. I like that. What have been some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a shop owner?

Helen: COVID. And in fact, the bounce-back loans we were offered, my one finally got paid off this month! So I’m not in debt to the government anymore!

Interviewer: That’s what we like to hear!

Helen: Yeah! So, yeah, COVID was hard. And also, that in itself has changed people’s behavior. We used to be very busy in the morning and it would get quieter in the afternoon; now we’re quiet in the morning, the whole place doesn’t really wake up until 12:00, 1:00. I think a lot of grandparents end up doing childcare now because the cost of childcare is so expensive, and the parents have to go back out to work. And you see that, because you see the grandparents coming out about half past two, 3 o’clock to do their shopping after they’ve handed said child back to parent. So there is a big change in the way people behave and the way they shop.

Interviewer: Interesting. What’s been your proudest achievement since opening Sakala?

Helen: Got nothing to do with the shop. Probably being asked to be patron of the local domestic abuse charity, Safe in Sussex, which I’ve supported since I had the business, since it started here, really. So, a little bit before 2018, but probably from about 2015. That was quite an honor to be asked to be their patron and be an advocate for all the work they do. But again, as a small charity, we get no funding publicly, but everybody who needs our services, we try and make space for them, and there’s no money coming in from anywhere else. So, yeah, we’ve lost a refuge, and it’s a very, very tough place out there for small charities, and we’re not the only one—you know, many of them, yeah.

Interviewer: But since you’ve been with them, you’ve done loads for Safe in Sussex, haven’t you?

Helen: Yeah, done lots of silly things!

Interviewer: Fashion show is my favorite!

Helen: Stood on an aircraft…

Interviewer: Stood on an aircraft?!

Helen: Stood on an aircraft. Jumped out of an aircraft!

Interviewer: Have you?! Well, I didn’t know that!

Helen: Did a bit of skydiving! A team of equally mad friends joined me, and we drove auto rickshaws from Goa to Bombay.

Interviewer: Wow!

Helen: So that was interesting. And last year we had an even bigger team that… we did a car rally, and we drove from Chennai round to Goa via the tip of India.

Interviewer: Incredible.

Helen: So, yeah, we’ve… I suppose I’ve raised, I don’t know, £75,000 for them over the years, something like that. And we go again, not next year, but the year after, so 2028, we’re going to do another car rally from Delhi up to the Pakistan border and round. So, motorbikes and cars!

Interviewer: Wow, branching out!

Helen: Of course! Of course!

Interviewer: Brilliant. What advice would you give to someone thinking about opening a shop?

Helen: Do your research, but also follow your dreams. And if you do your research and you really think there’s a place for it, then go, you know, go and get some advice. Go and get your tax advice, write a business plan, look around, see who your competition is. Go and talk to the other business owners in whatever place you are—high street, town, shopping center, wherever you are. But if you really want to do it, find a way to do it, because otherwise, you’ll get further on in your life and go, “I really wish I’d done that.” And I don’t have those regrets, so yeah. It’s been tough sometimes, but go and do it.

Interviewer: That’s really inspirational, I like that. What keeps customers coming back?

Helen: Well, hopefully they like the stock! But we have a lot of loyal customers. I always say to people, if you come in the shop, you’re welcome to come for a chat, you can have a cup of tea. The worst thing that’ll happen to you is that we might tell you a story about where something came from! Yeah, we have a lot of loyal customer base. I think they really like the fact that whatever you pick up, I can tell you where it came from. I can tell you how it’s made. We can show you a picture of the people doing whatever they’re doing. So, it connects you directly, and once you’ve put that in somebody’s hand, they feel the connection with it.

Interviewer: Definitely. I know I’ve experienced it myself—it gives it meaning, doesn’t it? What’s the strangest or funniest thing that’s happened in this shop?

Helen: I did have somebody come in and want to buy the dress I was wearing!

Interviewer: Aha! Well, it wouldn’t be the first time you sold the dress off your back!

Helen: No! We do the odd fashion show, and that happens there, too! So, yeah, probably that’s the weirdest. But luckily, owning a clothes shop, you can—yeah, okay, you can have the dress, I’ll find something else to wear!

Interviewer: Was it a Sakala dress?

Helen: It was a Sakala dress. I might have struggled if it had been somebody else’s dress!

Interviewer: I was going to say! I mean, hey, businesswoman to businesswoman, I respect it! What are your hopes for the future of your business?

Helen: It would be nice if eventually the legacy, that somebody would take this on. I don’t know whether that is even possible. I mean, I don’t have children, so at the end of my days, it either gets wound up, or maybe somebody with a passion for travel and… well, not even travel, because it’s set up in a way now you wouldn’t have to travel to continue it.

Interviewer: You’ve got the connections already.

Helen: Yeah, so you wouldn’t have to do it. But it would be nice if there was a legacy and it didn’t just fall away into nothing. But who knows? I mean, well, I don’t know, I’ve got a few more years left in me yet, so hopefully I’ll continue to do that.

Interviewer: Oh gosh, yeah! You’re not going anywhere soon! Are there any new ideas or projects you’re excited about?

Helen: Well, apart from setting up the next car rally for Safe in Sussex, I do spend a lot of time now sharing my travel knowledge, so I take people traveling, which is fun. I have a trip coming up later in the autumn with some clients coming in from the States, and we’re going to do Jodhpur, Jaipur, Udaipur in North India. And then one of the ladies who works from this room and a couple of other people, we’re taking through Kerala to spend some time. So there’s always things on the back burner, usually based around travel. And now I’m lucky enough to be able to go and travel with people, and the shop runs, so it’s great.

Interviewer: What changes would you like to see in the High Street over the next five years?

Helen: That’s a difficult one. I think the biggest thing, it’s not really about the shopkeepers, because like I’ve said, we’ve got such a vibrant, independent community here…

Interviewer: Got something for everyone, haven’t we?

Helen: Yeah. I think it has to come almost from the customers. I mean, most shops, whatever they sell or whatever they do, it gets dictated to by the people who walk through their door. Like, we had a young lady who came in; she couldn’t find tablecloths for her wedding. So I said, “Right, fine, okay, well, we’ll have them made for you.” So that’s a bit of an extreme example that I’m able to do. But I watch other people on the High Street, you know, like our lovely furniture shop down the way. They’ve always sold sofas and kind of other all the other rooms in your house—tables, dining room tables, chairs, lamps—and they’ve diversified into bedrooms, probably because they’ve been asked for them. So you have to follow your customer base, and I would say that’s true of probably just about every store in the High Street.

Interviewer: No, it makes sense, it does. It really does. We’ve got some fun questions now! What’s your favorite thing in the shop right now?

Helen: Right now? Well, it would have to be something of Amit’s jewelry—a bit of a magpie! So yes, what would I take out of the cupboard? Probably one of his beautiful necklaces.

Interviewer: Yeah? Perfect. Tea or coffee during a busy day?

Helen: Coffee. Gallons. Gallons of it! Buckets full, yeah!

Interviewer: What’s something customers would be surprised to learn about you?

Helen: I don’t… well, I don’t know, really, because they all know that I’m completely barmy! I always say my goal in life is to be eccentric, and I’m told by a number of people that I’m already there! So I don’t know. I mean, I’ve lived in and around the world, but I think people, if they don’t know it, probably do know it, because I wouldn’t be doing what I do.

Interviewer: That’s true. Yeah, that’s so true. Which local business do you admire most?

Helen: I admire the bookshop. I think it’s a wonderful… and I’m an avid reader, so, you know, I think that’s amazing. And when I look at, having spoken to Sara who started it, and obviously with longevity, her daughter will be taking it on, and the people love the bookshop, and we’re lucky enough to have a new Dame in the village! So Julia Donaldson obviously being a massive supporter there, we’re really lucky to have this vibrant book community. I also think that we are so lucky, again, thanks mainly to Julia and her late husband Malcolm, to have the post office, because without the post office, the village or the town would struggle, because we have all the banking facilities, and Nikki does an amazing job keeping it going. So, yes, I think… I don’t know whether I’d use the word… well, I suppose I would use the word admire, because they’re all so having tough times.

Interviewer: What keeps you motivated after all these years?

Helen: The fact that I can go…