Paige Alexander, 27, owns Lacy’s Boutique in Basildon where trade can be unpredictable.
“Some days are good; some days are bad,” she says.
“We do a lot of online selling, so that’s where most of our clientele is based… the footfall, that’s quite bad, but other than that it’s going OK.”
In the run up to the election, she found local councillors were “more about point scoring than actually focusing on the problems at hand”.
Although she did not vote in the Basildon election because she lives outside the area, she said she was “glad” Reform performed well and hopes it leads to change.
She explains: “It’s just because it’s something different — what can they offer us in terms of what we haven’t had before?
“Labour as it stands wasn’t going to do much for us as businesses. We are hopeful that Reform will change that.
“Britain is in dire need of change and I don’t think Keir Starmer is the person for the job… I don’t think that a small town like Basildon is the top of his priorities.
“I feel like he’s got other priorities that are more important than family-run businesses.”