The Devon schoolboy who makes £15,000-a-year selling toys on eBay

A Devon schoolboy has built an online business empire out of his family’s milking parlour - and now turns over £15,000 a year.

Tommy Howard founded his online toy shop two years ago, after his little brother asked for a nerf gun for his birthday - and he realised just how cheap he could buy second-hand models for.

The 14-year-old sold eggs from the family farm to buy his first batch of the toy weapons, and then reinvested the money - with his pocket money - to buy new stock.

Fast forward two years and Tommy now stocks more than 1,000 products and ships to customers all over the world.

He said: “When I was in Year 8, I started off because I saw a YouTube video about people who had a business and I just thought, ‘wow, I’d just love to have a business like that!’

“My little brother had a nerf gun as a birthday list and I thought I could do a business like that.

“So, I did some second-hand and brought in a couple, started cleaning them up."

The young entrepreneur, who dreams of one day expanding into warehouses across the UK, also revealed how the business had helped with his mental health.

“I struggled a lot with separation anxiety, had a lot of mental health issues and I found this was really helping me on my confidence and stuff.

“So now, after two years with a bit of counselling and doing this as well, I feel it’s helped me a lot.”