A STUDENT who has set up her own business while sitting her A-Levels is in the running for recognition of her entrepreneurial achievements.

Earlier this year Sophie Kingsley, who attends All Saints RC School, set up a vintage clothes business which trades at York’s Newgate Market while also completing A-levels in English language, theatre studies and art.

She has now been nominated for the new Fledgling Business Of The Year category in The Press Business Awards 2013, which recognises 11 to 19-year-olds who could be the next generation of successful business people.

Sophie runs the business, called Label S Vintage, with her boyfriend, Amos Jacob, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday mornings.

The 18-year-old from Copmanthorpe was dreaming up the project for a year, after success in buying shoes from charity shops, customising them and selling them to friends at school.

She found a warehouse in Hull from which she selects items she knows she can sell on. The business was eligible for the Enterprise Club Scheme through Future Prospects, which subsidised their market stall rents and insurance for the first three months of trading, so they actually paid only £2.50 a day.

Sophie said the company was nearing the end of its subsidised period, but was doing well and planned to continue. They have even bought their first van and are planning to have a stall at festivals this year.

Sophie plans to continue the business after sitting her exams and her dream is to have a double-decker bus, with a café instead of seats downstairs and selling vintage clothes upstairs.

“It’s stressful sometimes but gives me a lot of incentive to do well in my exams,” she said. “It is hard balancing them, but having Amos is really helpful and it’s going to be worth it,” she said.