When 3 Beat scooped the Music Week Awards' independent retailer of the year award a fortnight ago, it came as quite a surprise to founder Jon Barlow.

"It is not that we didn't think we deserved it, but we have always got plans to improve what we are doing," he says. "We are always trying to make changes. Not necessarily for good business reasons, but because I tend to get bored quite easily."

But such modesty is not borne out by the track record of 3 Beat, which has established itself as one of the UK's leading dance shops, 13 years on from when it was founded by three college friends. Barlow is the only man remaining of those three founders -- who also included Dave Nicoll and Phil Southall -- and has been sole trader for the past...