Entering Lana Flood’s new shop in St. George’s is like walking into an Aladdin’s cave filled with a wonderfully diverse selection of odds and ends that range from bathroom products to general household nic-nacs, second-hand books, and her own home-made jewellery.

Measuring a mere13-foot by eight-foot Creative Designs may not be a big shopping experience but don’t let the small dimensions deceive, because the variety of items for sale and the unexpected bargains that can be picked up is surprising.

And Mrs. Flood’s new shop shows that anyone with enough ambition and drive can succeed in getting a foothold in Bermuda’s retail sector and open their own small, start-up enterprise.

The shop is tucked away in a small arcade of businesses in York Street, directly opposite the Ebenezer Methodist Church, and is accessed via a short pedestrian sky bridge.

Mrs. Flood has previously worked for Butterfield Bank, Bank of Bermuda, Dockside Glass and in shops, but it was always been her dream to run a shop of her own.

The route that led her to opening Creative Designs started four years ago. A young woman who made and sold jewellery and beading in St. George’s was leaving the Island to live in Canada and Mrs Flood agreed to buy her remaining stock. She sold those pieces and started making her own jewellery.

“A few years ago I said that I wanted a different job and that I was going to open a shop,” she said. With hard work she has put herself in a position where she could risk making a go of running her own business and survive the inevitable quiet early months as she establishes a customer base and presence in the town.

Jewellery continues to form an important part of her inventory but she realised that to be a success her shop needed to sell a wider range of products.

The grand opening flyer advertised the new business as offering “anything from shampoo to wool” and that is exactly what you’ll find. There are even Alka-Seltzer tablets, which Mrs. Flood is willing to sell individually if required. It is all part of her philosophy of being a useful service as much as a business.

Selling bargain items, such as bars of soap for less than $1 and the same price for seven-night light candles, does not appear the direct route to establishing a retail empire.

But as Mrs. Flood explains: “I may not get rich but I enjoy it. I love dealing with the tourists. For them I’ll have postcards, key chains and other things, but I’ll also be open throughout the year for local people to buy household items at honest prices.”

She does not import items from abroad. Everything is already on the Island, and many of the items she picks up at estate sales and other places where unwanted goods are sold off well below there retail price — even when the items are unused and still boxed up brand new.

They go up on the shelves at Creative Designs at prices that Mrs. Flood believes can not be matched anywhere else.

From soap and shampoo to brand new needlework items, the jewellery and beading that she makes herself, books that can be bought, rented or exchanged, there is plenty to discover. And for customers who can’t get out to the various estate sales, the shop provides an easier way to bargain hunt.

“I make bracelets, anklets and necklaces, and key chains on my computer. I go out and search yard sales, and pick up things from The Barn, the Salvation Army or wherever people are selling things. Everyone needs a bargain.”

And as if to prove the point, Mrs. Flood points to an unopened box containing wooden venetian window blinds that she has put on sale well below the going-rate to be found in a hardware store.

The chance to pick up such bargains is what Mrs Flood is banking on keeping a regular flow of happy customers making their way to Creative Designs.