TEN new independent shops will share £50,000 as part of the Mary Portas initiative to rejuvenate ailing high streets.
The businesses have been awarded £5,000 start-up grants after taking over empty retail units in Broxtowe borough.
Charity Young Potential took on the abandoned site of a former travel agent in Stoney Street, Beeston, in December. They are using it as a shop to help fund support for adults and young people with learning disabilities.
Chief executive Teresa Cullen, who lives in Beeston, said: "The shop wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the grant."
Young Potential needed a revamp, so the money was spent on fittings, repainting and new flooring.
Ms Cullen said: "Starting up a shop is expensive and we didn't want to spend money we could use to help people on fitting out a shop."
All of the businesses are being helped by consultancy Kerching Retail Ltd as part of the scheme.
The grants will be paid in two instalments by Broxtowe Borough Council, which successfully bid for cash from the £10m High Street Innovation Fund in March 2012.
Young Potential also spent money on a six-metre banner, as suggested by Kerching.
"It made perfect sense," added Ms Cullen. "A permanent sign was £650 more and we aren't sure if we are able to stay here after the lease expires."
Young Potential has two other shops, in Worksop and Lincoln, and will use the shop to give long-term unemployed teenagers the chance to get some work experience and increase their confidence to apply for jobs.
"We keep losing them because they all end up in jobs so soon," added Ms Cullen.
Eastwood Pineshop, in Nottingham Road, is owned by Dennis Bird, 71, who has been in the pine industry for over 20 years.
He owns two stores in Chesterfield, and used the grant to start a branch close to where he lives in Eastwood, which opened last month.
He said: "We wouldn't have taken the gamble if there wasn't some form of grant involved."
He used the money to refurbish the premises, install a broadband and telephone connection and set up a website.
Eastwood Pineshop sells furniture made in the UK at workshops in Retford and Nuthall.
Mary Portas was hired by the Government in 2011 to conduct an independent review of the nation's high streets, and the grants are one of her suggestions to stimulate growth.
But Ms Cullen said the grants aren't enough to really help a business get up and running.
She added: "It's great that we got the grant and I really appreciate it, but if we weren't a charity it wouldn't even get us off the ground."
UK charities are entitled to a 20% discount in business rates.
