CHILDHOOD friends Liam Hopkins and Steven Boyle have taken the plunge and set up a locksmiths business together.
As well as being the start of an exciting project for the 26-year-olds, it also means that Derby Road has ticked another unit off its list of vacant shops.
This time last year there were 16 vacant units in Derby Road and now there are 12, showing that some progress is being made.
One of the units has been taken up by Nottingham locksmiths. They have moved into a former legal services practice which had been empty for two years.
Steven's family run another locksmiths, 1st Access in Mapperley, and they wanted to expand.
Steven said: "We've had a shop in Mapperley for more than 20 years and we thought the only real option to expand was to open a shop in a slightly different area.
"The reason we picked Derby Road was that it's somewhere that's within walking distance to the city centre but it does have parking, although it's shame you have to pay for it."
In order to entice customers in, they offer to pay for their parking if they spend £20 or more in the shop.
They've rented the premises from the city council who did some work on the unit before the pair moved in.
"They replaced a smashed window, replaced some rotten steps, painted the shop and put an indoor toilet in. Things like that helped 100 per cent.
"Every penny that the council saved us was a huge help," said Steven.
For Liam, co-owning the shop means a change from working as a supervisor at Capital One, but he's enjoying learning the tricks of the trade from his best mate.
He said: "It's a complete change in career for me but a very positive one."
Derby Road was chosen as the pilot scheme to help areas of the city with a lot of vacant shops.
It was given £10,000 from the £100,000 high street innovation fund given to Nottingham City Council by the Government after retail guru Mary Portas did a study into Britain's ailing town centres.
The council also added £130,000 of their own budget to take the fund up to £230,000.
Geoff Williams, who owns Framework gallery on Derby Road and Tokenhouse in Bridlesmith Gate, is chair of the Derby Road steering group which has tried to spent their money wisely.
He said: "We've commissioned architects to draw out what it could look like in order to encourage the council to go for heritage funding. The buildings are beautiful but you just can't tell.
"The biggest landlord is the city council so we are trying to engage with them."
With more than 40 years' experience of owning his own retail business, Geoff believes that attracting new, interesting shops to the area is the key to making it prosper.
Mr Williams said he also agrees with the idea of letting shops on a short-term or 'pop-up' basis.
"I think the council are offering flexible term to anyone's who's got a good idea and wants to get it on the go without too much commitment," he said.
On Derby Road, a unit-by-unit approach was taken to provide an action plan for each vacant premises, whether that be making contact with an absentee landlord or making improvements to neglected properties.
Of the 12 vacant units today, one is under offer, two are being sold off by the city council, they are in discussions to lease an additional three, another two are being marketed and another is due to be let on a short-term basis. They are in discussions with the landlords to lease the remaining three.
The long-term plan is to tackle the 10 problem areas as well as the city centre as a whole, as councillor Nick McDonald explained: "With Derby Road, what we've done is give the money to the traders and have said 'you form your own committee and decide how you want that money to be spent'.
"We've allocated all of the money to different parts of the city.
"We're working street by street to focus on areas of greatest need."
