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My three months since being named Home Business of the Year

26/02/2010 send to a friend

Janan Leo was named our 2009 Home Business of the Year on Friday 20th November at the Enterprise Nation Conference. This 5 to 9 entrepreneur has not stopped since. Janan writes in to tell us about the past 3 months, including an A to Z summary. But can you help with the last letter?

A three month whirlwind

It’s certainly been a whirlwind of activity since winning the Home Business of the Year award at Enterprise Nation’s Conference last November! On reflection, I wonder whether Gareth and I should start making home made preserves because we’ve certainly jam packed a lot of activity into the last three months! However, as much as we love jam, it’s been all about shoes – and not just any shoes but CocoRose London’s foldable ballerina pumps in particular!

Before I go any further, may I take this opportunity to say thank you again for all your support and well wishes. We truly appreciate it and hope that you will enjoy reading our three month update.

December 2009

We certainly didn’t shy away from the odd glass of bubbly during the party season to celebrate our fantastic award and thinking about it, this could very well have been the reason for feeling a little giddy! On second thoughts though, perhaps the giddiness came from our feature on BBC’s Working Lunch program which was part of the Enterprise Nation award. Either way, these opportunities have both been crucial in building brand awareness and raising the credibility and recognition of CocoRose London. On the subject of BBC’s “5-9er” feature, I’d like to share with you how everyone at my "9-5" job excitedly crowded into the Communications & PR office (the only room with a TV!) on the day the feature was aired and the claps and cheers we had following the program. I'm so lucky to have such wonderful support from all my Virgin colleagues.

We ended the year on a real high – and it wasn’t just because of the bubbly or the fact that we could put our feet up on Christmas and Boxing Day! Sales were well up on last year and we were receiving some lovely feedback from our customers. The perfect scenario.

January 2010

No time to reflect on post Christmas blues and the one too many mince pies, January was the launch of our Spring/Summer collection at our first trade show of the year, Top Drawer Spring. A buoyant mood and positive outlook from the buyers and exhibitors attending the show, this was a great start to the new year, with orders being written and new leads to follow up. Of course we had our challenges too – with Chinese New Year on the horizon, time was of the essence and deadlines were fast approaching.

February 2010

And what a month we’ve had! CocoRose London was able to fully participate in the award season by being selected for the exclusive BAFTA goody bags that were given to all the nominees and presenters attending the Orange British Academy Film Awards on 21st February. We were certainly keeping tabs on who would have received CocoRose’s ballerina pumps and were very excited to see Kate Winslet, Uma Thurman and Carey Mulligan, amongst many other amazing individuals, as receivers of our shoes. The jury is out now on whether Prince William has given his pair to Kate Middleton!

All in all, a very exciting time for CocoRose London! And just for a bit of fun, we've also compiled a little A-Z summary of our 3 months for you. Good luck to all and until next time!

Janan xx