Selling like hotcakes…

With over 30,000 customers, I often stumble across a business idea  that I adore.  And October’s Business of the Month is one of them.  Vintage Patisserie is a web based sales and events company specialising in tea-parties with a difference.  The first-stop is the dress-up trunk where your guests can revel in the decadence of vintage glamour, adorning themselves in feather, pearls and fascinators.  1920’s style hostesses serve a variety of tea and home-made cakes in the finest vintage china whilst you listen to 1940’s jazz on an old fashioned radio.  Every party is completely bespoke so you can even include dance lessons to complete the bygone era experience. 

Slightly reminiscent of the Mad Hatter’s tea-party but with an eloquent spin, this is a tea-party you won’t forget.

Having been featured on Dragons Den and The Sunday Times, Angel Adoree founder of Vintage Patisserie is passionate about everything vintage and she has the creativity and business acumen to make it a success.  She started off being a collector of all things beautiful, lining her house ceiling to floor with hats, scarves, coats and capes.  In 2003 Angel opened up her first business ‘The Vintage Experience’ where she threw  open the doors of her home and welcomed in fashionista’s to help them find the perfect look and offer her expert advice.

Angel decided to move her business online and set up the T-Shirt Patisserie, selling customized clothes which were beautifully wrapped and delivered with a home-baked treat.  The treats went down, well… a treat, and from this the Idea for Vintage Patisserie was born and Angel now sells customized cakes, chocolates, clothes and ceramics, as well as running her famous tea-parties.  You can follow them on twitter at vint_patisserie.

I think that Vintage Patisserie is a well deserved winner of October’s Business of the Month and I’ll be racking my brain trying to think of as many reasons as possible to have a tea-party!           

P.s You can  find out all about what Vintage Patisserie have been up to since their Dragons Den appearance on Dragons Den-What They Did Next, 17th October. Don’t miss it!                 

  

From cupcakes to chicken coups

From working at Sage Pay, my eyes have been opened to the changing trends of online retail.  Innovation has always been key to us and when we come across businesses that dare to be different and strive to innovate, we love to celebrate them.

In the past years the e-tail space was very much owned by electrical companies and travel.  But times are a-changing.  We’ve recently seen a huge surge in websites selling the weird and wonderful.  The online marketplace is now a wonderland of the exotic.  Fed up with your usual mid morning nibble?  You can now order snack size boxes of fresh fruit, nuts, seeds and dried treats online to arrive directly at your desk.  Graze.com has seen the demand for this and with all their food 100% natural, our office has been busily snacking their way to 5 a day.

Speaking of snacking, who would have thought 5 years ago you could have fresh cupcakes bought online and delivered directly to your door.  At Buttercup cake shop you can order every type of cake from chocolate peanut butter to banana split.  And because you never know when a cupcake craving might hit, you can place your order through their website in the morning and (if you’re in London) they’ll be zoomed over to you, by…well…later that morning!  You can even order an extra shot of icing (which makes up for not being able to lick the spoon!)

Fancy living The Good Life?  How about joining the urban farming trend by ordering a few hens online.  Relax by watching them potter about your garden whilst you enjoy fresh eggs on toast.  Or perhaps you like more excitment?  The latest buzz is Beekeeping.  Why not purchase a swarm of bees over the internet to begin your new hobby as an urban conservationist.

Omlet allow you to do just this and we think they are a true pioneer of the online space and this is why they have been chosen as our second Business of the Month!  Their innovative products are perfect for city dwellers who fancy a taste of the rural.  Their website is a complete knowledge base of everything and anything you need to know to become an ‘eggs-pert’.  They also have a fantastic community forum where they actively encourage discussion on a number of topics.  Through the Omlet website you can pre-pay securely by card and then your bees are sourced locally and delivered to your door. Companies like Omlet prove that shoppers are demanding more from e-tailers and their sales are soaring.

Well done Omlet for ‘bee-ing’ Sage Pay’s March Business of the Month!

P.s Our friends at Graze.com are offering a free snack box and your second half price!  Simply enter the code SAGEPAY to take advantage of this yummy offer!