Onesie Warehouse- Star Business of the Month – May 2015

The Story

Onesie WarehouseHi 🙂 I’m Georgina and Onesie Warehouse started after selling hundreds of the all in one piece suits from my dining room table via Facebay (Groups on facebook selling locally to one another). Whilst this was happening my Sister, Lucy Hall who runs Kent Social Media was building the Onesie Warehouse website. This was all happening when onesies just emerged as a super comfy fashion item worn by many celebrities including One Direction and Brad Pitt. Once the website was launched and passed on to me the competition was rife – however sales were still pouring in. Therefore I made the decision to transform my garage into a Warehouse and continue to increase stock levels in order to market a wider range of designs and styles.

I knew for the business to keep going amongst big competitors such as New Look, boohoo.com, Marks & Spencers, Next and many more I needed to create partnerships. I have always liked the idea of doing business and giving back. I read Richard Branson’s ‘Screw Business as Usual’ and this inspired me to start partnering with charities.

Onesie WarehouseMy first charity partnership was JDRF a large Type 1 Diabetes Charity which offers support and research to cure those diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. I provided their official Onesie and gave £5 from each sale to the charity as well as going the extra mile to improve awareness of the charity. I helped with their competitions providing a onesie as a prize and held a large campaign around World Diabetes day when JDRF put on a huge walk which they do every year. I also gained my first celebrity endorser, Simon King of The Hairy Bikers. Over 150 sales of the onesie came just from the charity and raised over £750 in a few months.

I am now partnered with Anthony Nolan, the blood cancer charity, The Children’s Air Ambulance and will soon be partnering with a cause for animals, to utilise this we will make use of our fleece animal onesies. I believe Onesie Warehouse growth will be centred around developing strong partnerships and giving back to great charities.

Why start a business?

I have always wanted to run my own successful business; after university studying Media, Communication and Cultural studies I travelled to South America and returned becoming part owner of a woman’s clothing boutique. It was great fun and such a learning curve but I wanted something more and went on to travel again for a year to Asia and Australasia.

Team OnesieOn return I started managing music artists. This combined my two passions, the first being music and the second, selling, which was brought on by years as a market trader for my family’s business. I became part of a new digital music start up company which allowed me to be involved in music projects and come up with creative ideas on a daily basis. Two years on and I am now COO for the company and have since started a new music business alongside this with a great passionate team.

Onesie Warehouse and the music management both came to fruition at the same time. I really do consider myself lucky that I have a business with low costs that is growing and at the same time building a successful career in the music industry – two completely different businesses that provides an equal amount of passion. I will continue to grow Onesie Warehouse and hopefully pass the business to either family or other passionate people who believe in the brand and its partnerships. I would love to continue to run both businesses, however managing my time between the two can prove difficult at times.

Finally, I feel I must use my selling skills to plug the Business Mentoring on offer from Kent Foundation. My Mentor Jo, has not only been a great guide but she has offered fantastic support, which when times have got stressful has made me feel at ease to create strategies and take a new approach to combating problems that have arisen in the business.

Business Tip:

Its hard for me to give just one business tip so here is a few for those early on in their business.

“Keep moving forward, think of new ways to grow everyday and start that plan as soon as possible. Don’t sit on things or procrastinate.”

“Partnering with those more experienced or those that can help you grow is important.”

“Finally give back where you can because you can.”

Get In Touch with Onesie Warehouse:

Website          Facebook        Twitter

Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs a proud Finalist at Kent Charity Awards

Kent Charity Awards Finalist:

Community Charity of the Year Award

We are pleased to announce that we were crowned a Finalist in the first ever Kent Charity Awards. The awards received almost 160 entries, so we were mightily pleased to be one of the final three to be short-listed in the Community Category.

Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs Finalist Kent Charity AwardsKent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs Finalist Kent Charity AwardsKCA14_15_FinalistKent Charity Awards

Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs Finalist Kent Charity Awards

About us and our work:

The Kent Foundation is a business support charity that is dedicated to promoting, encouraging and supporting business start-up and growth amongst Kent’s young people.  We actively engage with all your people who seek business support and specifically target young people in the area of Kent with the highest levels of youth unemployment.

All of our business support services are provided free of charge to Kent’s young people. We are privileged that the business community of Kent is so willing to invest their time in to the future development of Kent’s young business people through volunteering, networking and sponsoring. In the past 4 years we have gained the support of over 100 Volunteers who have completed our training to become Business Mentors.

Support us:

To donate, just click below, and don’t forget to include Gift-Aid, it gives us that little bit extra 😉
Donate Now Button

To sponsor us head over to our Contact Us page to send us a message

To become a Volunteer Business Mentor, check this out…

French Work Experience Student Supports Kent’s Young Business Owners

Myriam CompressedHello I’m Myriam

I am 17 years old and enjoy singing, shopping, listening to music, sport, going out at night to restaurants, cinema, etc…

Tell us about where you are from in France?

I’m from Marseille, a big city in the south of France. Previously the name of the city was Massilia, don’t ask me why, I really don’t remember 😀 Here’s something important to know about it? It is very sunny! In Maidstone the “must have” is an umbrella, but in Marseille it’s definitely the sunglasses!

beachesI think two of the most important aspects of life in my city are “The Summer” (we have beautiful beaches) and “The Football” (our team is Olympic de Marseille). We have many places to visits, many malls for shopping, and a lot of beaches to tan.

The “Marseillais” (people who live in Marseille) are proud of our accent which is unique to the South of France, so much so that a lot of French people from other regions in the country can have trouble understanding us.

Plus the foods are totally better than England.

Why did you come to England for your work experience?

Since I was 11 years old, I have loved English and am really interested in the English and American singers.

I started my studies in a College General and my English was really good so they put me in the European section but this didn’t interest me enough so I decided to change to Professional Studies. I am currently study Admin Work in the vocational High School Frederic Mistral and this is my last year.

There are 5 periods of work experience that I have had to complete during my 3 years studying Admin and 1 period is in England because I’m in European section.  Not all students in my class have the chance to do this work experience in England, you have to be responsible and good at English.

To complete work experience in England allows me to improve my English and discover a new way of working in a different culture.

What does Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs do? What was your role?

Kent Foundation is a charity enterprise that helps young peoples to start their own business. They find a Volunteer Business Mentor for each young business person to support them.

Myriam MazeThe Mentor meets the young business person and they work together on business problems. The Mentors have attended training to be prepared for this experience.

Some tasks that I completed were:
– Participated and engaged with young people and business owners at exhibitions.
– Create documents such as minutes of meetings, posters, risk assessments, organisation charts etc
– Participate in meetings with Mentors, Mentees and Volunteers.
– Redesign the notice board at the entrance.

Where did you go and what did you see on your stay to England?

During my 3 weeks in Maidstone, I went to London visiting Camden Town where you can find a bargain so I bought some clothes, I also went to Oxford Street via Piccadilly Circus. I went just the once to London because the train from Maidstone to London is expensive…

We also celebrated the birthday of a boy in my class by having a night out bowling.

When I was with my teachers in October, we visited Leeds Castle, Historic Dockyard in Chatham and Madame Tussaud’s in London and of course I went in to Maidstone Town for some shopping and souvenirs…

What have you learnt from your experience?

During my work experience I learnt to:

– Develop my language skills
– Discover a new culture, a new way of life
– Be more mature, be independent
– Be aware about the clothes i’m wearing e.g. formal/informal
– Listen and respond
I will always keep a good souvenir about this work experience in my memory, it was exceptional for me to do it in England and with great people. I met so many people during meetings and events, all the things that I did were really interesting. It was a one off chance for me to work in this enterprise with Paul and Liam, they are so passionate about their jobs 🙂

THANK YOU FOR THE EXPERIENCE

Kent Social Media – Star Business of the Month – April 2015

Kent Social Media – What’s it all about?Kent Social Media

Kent Social Media is the small and local business set up to help to grow other small and local businesses. Kent Social Media is a full service strategic marketing agency with one clear aim:

“To deliver targeted results across several key areas; web design, app creation, social media marketing, SEO, email marketing, content marketing, digital marketing and publishing niche content.”

This combination has helped many of our clients to interact and engage with their customers on a much higher level.

We offer a personal, passionate & tailored service to each and every one of our clients, large or small.

Our team aim to define a digital strategy focusing on driving your businesses key commercial goals. Raising your profile, increasing efficiency, boosting revenue, reducing cost, training your staff or communicating better with your customers are only few business priorities that are important for all companies.

We provide local businesses with the support and expertise they need to avoid over spending with little return.

Meet Lucy Hall: The Brains Behind The Business

Lucy Hall Kent Social MediaHelping Small businesses is my passion! I come from a family of small businesses from Market Traders, antique dealers, to shop owners. I feel very lucky that I have always been brought up to know the value of business and running your own show! I’ve always been intrigued with entrepreneurs and the way they work and the reasons they do what they do. It’s not easy to run your own business and it’s very, very brave. Which is one of the reasons why I like to offer as much advice and encouragement as possible. It is one of the reasons why I started my business and the reason my own business has evolved just as the Internet has over the past few years.Lucy Hall Kent Social Media Theo Paphitis

By also running online projects – Such as – Pixiebo (online fashion boutique, Onesie Warehouse, Vintage and Upcycled which won the Theo Paphitis Small Business Sunday Award last November, Inside Maidstone etc – it has helped me to understand my own customers better and what they are looking to achieve. I have learnt so much over the last 12 years about sales and marketing – what to do, what not to do, who to listen to and not too. I want to teach start-ups and business owners everything I have learned so they can use these skills to rock their business online and be in control of their own customer’s online experience! Next I will be starting DIY Digital which is an online course website to help and teach small businesses to use the various digital mediums available to them.

Business Tip:

“Remember to be brave and don’t hold back. Strategy is important but so is impulse…If you see a Bandwagon it’s too late!”

Get in Touch with Lucy Hall – Kent Social Media

@LucysHall     @KentSocialMedia   Website    Facebook    LinkedIn

Kent Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs shortlisted as a finalist in the Kent Charity Awards

Kent Charity Awards FinalistWe are excited to announce that we have been shortlisted in the first ever Kent Charity Awards. You’ll find us in the ‘Community Charity Award Category‘ plus there’s a chance for us to win overall charity of the year. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for us.

What are the Kent Charity Awards?

The aim of these awards is to showcase the hard work and perseverance that charities and voluntary groups undertake to make the lives of others better. There are currently no similar awards in Kent and these awards will be unique and become an important date in the third sector diaries. The awards will be open to both small and large charities whether a branch of a national charity, a small community based charity or a voluntary group.

When do you find out if we have won?

We will be attending a gala evening on Thursday 19 March at The Corn Exchange in Rochester, hosted by BBC South East TV’s Rob Smith.  There are six categories this year; Heritage and Environment Award, Care Sector Award, Animal Charity Award, Voluntary Award, Community Charity Award and Children’s Charity Award. There will be one winner from each category and then an overall Charity of the Year winner. We will be sure to keep you in the loop of how we get on via our newsletters but if you really can’t wait all the latest news will be on our social media channels Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin

This Art of Mine – Star Business of the Month – February 2015

This Art of Mine, arts and crafts studio Maidstone KentAt This Art of Mine we help people to enjoy their leisure time through our program of art workshops and short courses. We deliver high quality courses that encourage people to try things they may never have tried before such as glass fusing, ceramic painting, jewellery making and painting.

We also run art workshops as corporate team building events and host several birthday or hen parties each weekend at our creative studio near Maidstone. Our studio is based in a converted barn on a flower farm and seats up to 60 people.

This Art of Mine Gemma BlackerMeet Gemma:

I started This Art of Mines in 2010 when I was 24 and it has grown steadily over the last five years. Last year we launched our own range of craft kits that are sold in independent retailers and online.

I started the business because after I left university I went down the traditional route of getting a graduate job in a corporate world and after a while I realized this was not for me. I really wanted to work for myself and my hobby was art so I thought I would take the plunge and set up my own company teaching art workshops.

This Art of Mine, arts and craft studio, Maidstone KentThe biggest achievements we have had as a company has been to turn a profit. I know it sounds silly but after paying off our set up costs we turned a profit in our fourth year of trading which was a great achievement.

Being featured in the Guardian was an exciting time plus we have had the opportunity to work alongside big corporations such as the BBC, Kimberley Clark and Mylan Pharmaceuticals which have made the job really fun.

The aim over the next five years is to become the best art course provider in Kent. To do this we will need to hire more staff and tutors and possibly relocate our offices. Currently one of our biggest challenges is running a business in a rural location. The scenery is beautiful and it’s a lovely place to work but the poor internet connection and phone signal are very difficult to deal with, making progress slow and frustrating.

Business Tip:

“My advice would be that you can work for yourself and earn a decent living as long as you are doing something you are really passionate about. If the product does not get you excited then it is not going to work, find something you really love and get behind it.”