Monthly Archives: July 2020

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Coronavirus small business diary – James Cadbury, Love Cocoa

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Originally written by James Cadbury on Small Business
Love Cocoa is the luxury, ethical chocolate start-up created by James Cadbury (great-great-great grandson of Cadbury founder John Cadbury).
Based in Dalston, London, Love Cocoa has five full-time staff, while production of its handmade chocolate is outsourced to a family-run factory based in Stoke.
The brand offers luxury, ethical chocolate sustainably sourced from Columbia, palm-oil free with 100 per cent recyclable packaging and compostable inners made from wood pulp. Quirky flavours included gin and tonic, avocado and birthday cake.
The brand turned down an investment offer from Dragons’ Den in 2018 and has grown 400 per cent since to become a million-pound brand.
Love Cocoa is about to redesign its brand and launch a tree-planting project – “One bar = one tree”; for every Love Cocoa product sold, the company will plant a tree in partnership with the charity Trees for the Future, with the aim of planting over 500,000 trees in northern Cameroon in 2020, helping cocoa farmers gain a much needed second source of income while combating deforestation and climate change.
>See also: Coronavirus small business diary – Alessandro Savelli, Pasta Evangelists
25th January
We begin to think that the path ahead might be tricky when the bespoke

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South Western Railway launches £12,000 prize packages for small firms

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
In a bid to help small businesses recover from the COVID-19 crisis, South Western Railway is giving away five prize packages worth £12,000.
Each recovery package includes £2,000 of bespoke equipment and marketing support from South Western Railway (worth £10,000), including promotional activities within their train stations. The £2,000 can be spent at any UK electrical, furniture or office supplies online retailer. It cannot be used to purchase resale or second-hand items.
Two of the businesses will win the top prize of a tailored business package plus advertising on Smooth or Heart Radio.
Locals can nominate their favourite businesses, as long as they are based in London and the South West. Firms in the following locations are eligible:

London
Dorset
Exeter
Hampshire
Berkshire
Sussex
Surrey
Middlesex
Wiltshire
Isle of Wight

The business must have premises, along with a Facebook or Instagram account, to qualify for the competition. It must not be a sub-brand of a larger organisation.
If your business is selected for a radio slot, you must be available to pre-record a remote radio advert between July 20-26.
In addition, all customers who nominate their favourite business will be entered into a prize draw to win one of two £1,000 cash prizes.
Entrants must explain why their nominated business

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Top 7 turnaround tips to save your small business from going under

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Originally written by Steve Swayne on Small Business
On average some 300 plus companies fail every week in the UK, with multiple effects: employees lose their livelihoods, customers lose access to services, suppliers, creditors and shareholders all lose money.
Not every company can be turned around, but there are many stressed businesses that, with professional time-limited expertise, can reverse their decline and prosper. The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented and complex challenges for businesses and in the short to medium term we are likely to see even highly competent management teams stressed and challenged.
Just over a month into lockdown, we published a societal impact report that conservatively estimated that our turnaround expert members saved more than 200,000 jobs and protected £2bn in enterprise value in the previous year. The report also looked at the key steps in achieving an effective turnaround and the specific challenges for SMEs.
Although for SMEs a typical turnaround is between three and 18 months, a longer period of two to two-and-a-half years is required. The first period is about stabilisation, understanding what has gone wrong and resetting the direction. The second 12 months is about building on change and preparing for growth.
With a turnaround approach, this unprecedented situation

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