From corporate life to pursuing his passion: David Duffy’s story on building Car Boot Soul Records

Like many other business owners, David Duffy began his business off the back of COVID-19; after realising it was time to leave the corporate world and take the plunge into his dream career. Having collected vinyl for over 20 years, David is an expert in his field and his passion for music and vinyl is certainly apparent with Car Boot Soul Records.

The birth of Car Boot Soul Records

Before Car Boot Soul Records, David explained: “I’d had a long career working mainly with technology start-ups. I got fed up with being in an office and fiddling around with spreadsheets.” Car Boot Soul Records is dedicated to buying and selling second-hand as well as new records. Sourcing niche and hard-to-find albums from around the world.

A catalogue like no other

What makes Car Boot Soul Records stand out is its distinctive catalogue. Car Boot Soul’s catalogue of around 20,000 records ranges from soul, jazz, reggae, classic rock, and electronic to hip hop. However, what makes the collection so special is that many of the records are unavailable on streaming platforms.

“I have these Jamaican pressings of old reggae and a lot of them you won’t even find on streaming services because the rights to that music have expired and in some cases, the master tapes were lost. The scarcity of these early Jamaican recordings makes them highly sought-after and valuable, appealing to serious collectors. It’s this unique offering that sets us apart.”

An exciting development is that David has recently bought the vinyl record collection of the late, great, lead singer from Faithless, Maxi Jazz: “We bought his collection of about 6,000 records. We plan on putting together a podcast around his record collection because it’s interesting, especially to see his music tastes and influences were – maybe even try and get people involved who knew him, who can speak about the collection.”

His beginning at Capital Space

For the first two years after starting his business, David worked from home as well as a “very unaccommodating warehouse.” However, as his business grew, he decided it was time to find his own space. At first, when he was looking at Capital Space, he thought he would need a small unit, however, after showing the centre manager Krystyna at Croydon business centre his stock, she recommended the unit size up and he explained, “This was great advice because she was right.”

David is in Capital Business Centre and has been extremely happy with his time so far: “It’s great, they do what they say they’re going to do when they say they’re going to do them. Also for me, it’s the perfect space because I could have gone for a high street or commercial property, but then I would have had the hassle of dealing with security, the rubbish collection and all those things that you have to do as a business – so I pay the rent and they do everything else – allowing me to focus on my business.”

He also explained that as his business is in a stage of growth, having the one-month rolling licence gives him the freedom to upscale whenever he is ready.

Business tips

When running a business, it’s sometimes hard to know what the best choice is when faced with a difficult decision. This is something David has experienced over the years and explained, “Running a business is a constant trade-off between instinct and what the numbers are telling you. I think, let instinct override everything else. If something feels bad, or I’ve got an uncertain feeling about something, I just won’t do it.”

It’s this same instinct that brought David to Capital Space: “When I met Krystyna, I had a good instinct about her. She runs a very organised business that is always clean and in order.”

Looking to the future

David hopes to grow his online community on TikTok and Facebook, as well as diversify into podcasting. He’s also looking to develop his blog, on his website where he writes about new music, interesting albums and catalogues he has found.