Young entrepreneur opens Pitter Potter studio in Tenbury

Louise Preston, 19, is the founder of Pitter Potter, a paint-your-own pottery shop which has opened Teme Street.

She only finished her A-Levels at Lucton School last year but opened Pitter Potter on November 17.

Louise Preston and her mother Claire (Image: Rob Davies)

She took over the lease of the shop in May and since then has been working to get the studio up and running, with it finally launching to the public this month.

Miss Preston said: "Last year, I was doing A-Levels at Lucton. As a student, I had a lot of teachers very keen for me to go to Oxford University. University has many advantages, certainly, but I knew it would never suit me, and I wanted to stay where I belonged to set up a business. With guidance from the Princes' Trust, Worcestershire County Council business training and assorted local business owners, I wrote a plan, did some training and began looking for premises.

"In many respects, I was lucky - the perfect property came up for rent at the perfect time, and thanks to my late grandfather, I had finances. Less lucky in other respects, the building had no plumbing, and faulty electrics!"

She said the shop offers baby prints, group bookings, studio hire and commission pieces as well as the paint-your-own experience.

The inside of Pitter Potter (Image: Rob Davies)

The Princes' Trust, which helped Miss Preston to set up Pitter Potter, provides young people to build the skills to set up their own businesses. It has helped over a million young people aged 11 to 30 since it was founded in 1976 by King Charles III, then Prince Charles.

It is a national charity with a huge scale and impact, helping to combat mass unemployment and assisting those in the greatest need of support.

Worcestershire County Council also provide business training, enabling start-ups to develop and prosper with workshops, grants and funding available to those who need them.