Elfing about...

This year we wanted to visit some of the many small creative businesses that make up notonthehighstreet.com in a bid to learn more about them and lend a hand during their busiest time of the year. We were keen to see first-hand what it takes to get an order made, processed and dispatched. The businesses who sell with us don’t necessarily have a large infrastructure to support them so we became Christmas elves for the day. Here are some of the people we visited…

Lucy Phillps visited Jo Jenner from 3 Blonde Bears in Sussex. In one day, Lucy helped pack over 150 orders (and ate amazing homemade soup!).

She also visited husband and wife team Vicki Smith, founder of sgt.smith and Jim Lockwood, founder of layereight. Lucy spent the day folding orders for Humorous Iconic T Shirts and Personalised Dinosaur T Shirts, packing them up for delivery and drinking copious amounts of tea in between. ‘It’s not that I didn’t appreciate the work that went in to it, but I didn’t fully realise the attention to detail required for each order and the sheer volume of orders they deal with each day with such a small team.’

Lucy Wood spent the day working for Hersey & Son Silversmiths. They produce high-quality sterling silver tableware, gifts and jewellery, using traditional silver spinning techniques. The skills required take around five years to perfect – so sadly she wasn’t able to help with the actual making of any items but packaged up the orders and watched intently as they skilfully spun the silver and hammered, engraved and polished each item with complete dedication.

Our production manager Jenny went out to visit the very talented Designer-Maker Laura Long. She works from Cockpit Arts Studio – a shared studio space in Holborn – that supports several of our sellers. Jenny was trusted to have a go at some stitch work and spent the day sewing tiny felt carrots contained within Laura’s Personalised Bunny in a Box. You can see Jenny’s handiwork above. Not bad!

Jo visited Gina Axell, founder of rosiebull designs. When Jo arrived, Gina and her daughter (who works there on her days off) were already busy at the sewing machines, fulfilling order after order for the Personalised Glasses Case. Jo helped cut out the glasses pattern and sewed buttons on to each case. ‘There are so many stages involved in making the cases and it’s so labour intensive, but it was really fun and we had a good laugh.’

Anna visited Noollibird who makes gorgeous stamps (that we’ve been decorating our gifts and cards with in the office) and works from her kitchen table in Brighton. She makes all the stamps herself and mounts them on wooden blocks which are cut for her in the UK (and then stored in her study). Anna packed and dispatched some orders during her visit and was even let loose to assemble a few stamps.

Liana paid a visit to Designer-Maker Sarah J Miller whose slogan ceramics and textiles are much loved… (the ‘I Am Not Awake’ Mug is a Monday morning staple). Founder Sarah works in a shared studio space and Liana was put in charge of the packaging and the printing of dispatch notes and gift notes, which gave Sarah some much-needed time to make some of her ceramics. Liana said of her day, ‘It was really, really fascinating, if not a little exhausting. It’s also really made me appreciate how much hard work our sellers put into getting Christmas orders out.’

Harriet visited Sally Beerworth who runs the Joy of Ex Foundation; set up to assist people with their legal and counselling bills following a divorce. ’This is the shot I took after a hard day’s work. There were so many orders for her Joy Tote Bag, I was like a real elf and lugged post bags on my back to the post office – but I had an amazing day!’

Posted by jenniferbaldwin on 19 December 2011

Awards success

We are thrilled and excited to announce that notonthehighstreet.com has been listed in both The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 and Deloitte’s UK Technology Fast 50. The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 champions the UK’s top-performing private companies and entrepreneurs, and is based on financial performance. Deloitte’s UK Technology Fast 50 and Fast 500 EMEA recognise companies that have achieved the fastest rates of revenue growth in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) during the past five years. To win both is testament to the company’s ever-growing strength.

Our Co-founders Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish (pictured above) launched notonthehighstreet.com in 2006 with a vision to provide an original and innovative selling platform for small creative businesses. We now support over 2,000 enterprises, 96% of which are run by women. Female ‘kitchen table’ entrepreneurs selling through the site are seeing increases in sales of up to 280% per year, despite the recession.

Holly Tucker says “It’s very rewarding for our community to be recognised by both awards for our fast growth and success even in this current retail climate. We are proud to be supporting such successful small businesses and to be part of such a notable contribution to the UK economy, especially during an economic crisis. We feel passionately that with so many women setting up thriving businesses it’s essential that the government continues to provide incentives such as tax reliefs and investment.

Sophie and I know the barriers that women can face in the world of business and with small businesses contributing billions of pounds annually; it’s time to start reducing the barriers for home entrepreneurs to help drive the economy. Awards such as these are essential in building business profiles and acknowledging the contribution small and medium enterprises are making.”

With exciting plans in place for 2012, notonthehighstreet.com is building an army of budding entrepreneurs that will play an essential role in reinforcing the UK’s economy.

Posted by jenniferbaldwin on 06 December 2011

key trends for Christmas: Wonderfully White

This week we’ll be bringing you our three key trends for a perfectly styled Christmas, starting with Wonderfully White. For a contemporary twist on traditional Christmas style, choose winter white and shimmering silver tones to decorate your home this year. Find a stylish centerpiece for your table or mantlepiece, and use twinkling lights and candles to add warmth to the room.

From top to bottom:

1.Turtle Dove by Carol Ridler Hand Crafted Wood
2.Sola Dahlia Heart by Yatris Home and Gift
3.Clear Daisy Light Garland by Lilac Coast
4.Moroccan Bowl Candle by Lower Lodge Candles
5.Ceramic Bird Decoration by Sage, inspired by Life
6.Four Name Place Holders by Lily and Lime
7.‘Noel’ Ceramic Christmas Decorations by The Gift Studio
8.Wooden Lace Star Garland by Little Pieces
9.Sparkling Tea Light Holders by Nkuku
10.Vintage Amish Tin Barn Star by Retrophenia
11.Pick And Mix String Lights by Cable and Cotton

Posted by jenniferbaldwin on 05 December 2011

from Silicon-on-Thames to Silicon Roundabout

Last month the notonthehighstreet.com technical team made the trip from our offices in Richmond across the water to attend one of the newest and most successful recruitment events of the year – Silicon Milkroundabout. Located in East London, the fair plays on the ‘silicon roundabout’ term which was coined to describe the area around Old Street roundabout where many tech companies are based.

Silicon Milkroundabout is a recruitment fair with a bit of a difference – all the companies looking for candidates are start-ups and graduates attending get the chance to hear about opportunities within these companies rather than just going down the traditional route of applying for a graduate scheme with a bank or consultancy.

We had a fantastic day – our competition offering free beer for a year went down well and we met some fantastic candidates, some of whom are about to join the team! Here’s a photo of our lovely stand (the tech team were too shy to stand in the photo and show off their matching notonthehighstreet.com T-shirts)

Silicon Milkroundabout was great for us as we’re one of the fastest growing companies in the UK and we’re always looking for new talent to join our team As a notonthehighstreet.com developer you’ll help hundreds of small UK businesses realise their dream of taking a creative idea from the kitchen table to the world. We’re a company that moves fast and are keen to continue to do so, constantly learning along the way. If you’re talented, dedicated and passionate about creating perfect code to talk to us about joining notonthehighstreet.com email careers@notonthehighstreet.com.

Even if you’re not ready for a career change just yet or you’re still at university you can hear about any vacancies and get to know our team via our tech recruitment community – JOIN HERE http://bit.ly/uBSFF5

About tech@notonthehighstreet.com

• Work on both internal applications and an award-winning consumer website that is used daily by thousands of people

• Work on a large Ruby on Rails application and discover the limits of the framework, and improve upon it

• Since launching in 2006, notonthehighstreet.com has doubled in size every year: our customers love us, and we’re constantly expanding and growing to meet their needs

• Be part of a very social team, with pub lunches every Friday and regular drinks down by the river

• Our supportive environment encourages you to learn and experiment

• Join a team that values good software engineering – spirited debate is always welcome

Posted by jenniferbaldwin on 02 December 2011