The 30-year-old from Chester was named Young Businesswoman of the Year for 2011 and accepted the award from one of the UK’s top female entrepreneurs and Ultimo lingerie founder, Michelle Mone (pictured left).
The award win, from Network She, acknowledges Hannah’s drive and tenacity after she took plunge earlier this year to give up her successful career and move back into her parents’ home to commit full time to getting her fashion inspiration business off the ground.
Buckley managed to save £25,000 of her own money to inject into the business and raised a further £50,000 from external investors, in addition to investment of services to develop and market Miss High Street.
The site, www.misshighstreet.com has quickly established itself as a high street fashion destination, providing style inspiration for a community of more than 30,000.
For three years Hannah juggled a full time accountant job with evening and weekend work developing the website- sourcing content, recruiting contributors and forging relationships with high street retailers.
With the site still in its infancy Hannah now has her sights set on turning MissHighStreet.com one of the largest and most responsive fashion communities on the internet.
“We have one of the best high streets in the world” says Hannah. “It is very easy for women to buy affordable, on trend garments, yet the real value is in how the complete outfit is put together. We’ve already captured the attention of thousands of high street fashion fans and it’s fantastic to have won the Young Businesswoman award too.
“To get to where I am today has taken a lot of hard work and I’ve had to make lots of sacrifices, but it’s worth it when you get recognition from other businesses and peers. I’m fortunate to have found organisations that are experienced at working with start-ups and are willing to offer support to worthwhile and viable business ventures.”
The original idea for Miss High Street was born in 2008 after a frustrating search for outfit inspiration for a festival. Having found no website that hit the mark of offering a ‘go to’ for fashion ideas for complete outfit ideas for specific social occasions, Hannah decided to put her eye for style and head for statistics to good use, to develop her own.
Miss High Street.com allows visitors to search high street garments that have been put together in complete outfits by social occasion, the latest trends and also by seven different personal style preferences , such as ‘mainstream mover’ or ‘glam goddess’. New outfits are uploaded onto the website every day and these are rated by viewers, with a ‘Today I’m Wearing’ function for guests to share their own style, where users can also follow the personal style of the website founder, Hannah.
Rather than sating her fashion appetite, Hannah continues to spend up to £300 per month on the high street, as a result of her finds when researching new collections for shoots. She is also a self-confessed hoarder, with around 50 pairs of jeans in the wardrobe which she can’t bear to part with.
