we are proud to sponsor...

Discovering the unique and original comes second nature to us at notonthehighstreet.com, so this year we are hugely excited to be supporting East London Design Show, an event that itself supports small creative businesses and fresh design. We are delighted to see a selection of our sellers playing a key part in it. The event runs from Friday 3 – Sunday 5 December in the rather beautiful Shoreditch Townhall, and is designed to be a brilliant Christmas shopping fair that caters for all the family. The Crafthouse Cafe, decorated by notonthehighstreet.com, is on hand when you require some well-deserved tea and cake and a sit-down, and you can help create a knitted paper chain while you chill.

notonthehighstreet.com is also hosting two awards this year, for best notonthehighstreet.com seller at the show and for best newcomer.

Find out more about the event here.

We are pleased to offer notonthehighstreet.com customers 2 for 1 tickets. Simply click here for your voucher.

Posted by jokite on 19 November 2010

PM announces 'tech city'; Holly is there to represent small businesses

On Thursday 4th November, David Cameron announced his vision to create a UK version of Silicon Valley. This technology hub will stretch from Shoreditch, the vibrant area of London where technical start ups are currently taking root, through to Olympic Park. The 600,000 sq foot accelerator space would go with the grain in nurturing organic growth from the best in technical creative talent with the aim of becoming the most attractive place in the world for new technical start-ups to begin and thrive.

The big names in technology will all contribute. BT will bring forward the roll-out of superfast broadband, giving ‘tech city’ the fastest internet speeds in Europe. Google will create an innovation hub, while Facebook will provide a permanent home for their successful developer ‘garage’ programme. Intel, Barclays and Silicon Valley bank, to name but a few, will also be contributing to this leading technology destination.

Holly was honoured to be invited to sit on one of just two panels, as a tech-leader and representative of small businesses. In a room full of journalists and VIPs, and on behalf of notonthehighstreet.com and our small businesses, Holly openly questioned the government on their £200m equity pledge for growing businesses and how they will make the money more accessible to small businesses, as government loans of this nature have failed many businesses in the past. Offline, she was asked directly by one of the participating MPs to come back to him with a detailed account of why she felt these loans had previously not performed. Watch this space for developments!

Posted by jokite on 05 November 2010

nectar online business of the year!

We were thrilled to hear we had won nectar online business of the year. Nectar business small business awards acknowledge best practice, great ideas and outstanding achievements of UK Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This award is judged by a panel of experts, including James Caan, Star of BBC show Dragon’s Den and CEO of Hamilton Bradshaw Private Equity.

“Everyone has worked with such passion and energy to get to where we are today so it is very rewarding for our community to be recognised as a prestigious online company celebrating success even in this current retail climate.” Holly Tucker.

Posted by jokite on 27 October 2010

Holly appears on Sky News

Holly is getting to be an expert at TV appearances! She was interviewed by Joel Hills on Sky News at 10.45am this morning to discuss the recent investment in notonthehighstreet.com by Index Ventures and Greylock Partners. They discussed the opportunity of funding from individual private companies compared to banks and the success of notonthehighstreet.com. See Holly’s interview on Sky News here.

Posted by jokite on 02 August 2010

Holly and Sophie reveal next stage funding as reported in The Sunday Times

Many of you will have seen Holly and Sophie on the front page of The Sunday Times’ business section this weekend. Hugely exciting news, the article announced an investment of £7.5 million led by Index Ventures, who were joined by Greylock Partners. This funding will enable us to expand the team, enhance the website and underlying technology and to invest in other initiatives to improve the offering to our sellers and customers.

Commenting on the transaction on behalf of the company, Holly Tucker, Executive Chairman, said: “We are delighted to have such experienced and successful internet investors as Index Ventures and Greylock join Venrex and SPARK as shareholders. With their support we will strive to offer our customers the very best personalised online shopping experience and support our small business partners every step of the way.”

Ben Holmes, Partner at Index who will join the board, commented: “Consumers are increasingly looking for unique and personalised items, which are ever harder to find in today’s retail market. Holly and Sophie and their dedicated and passionate team have succeeded where many others have failed in using the internet to transform the way small businesses can find customers and transact online.”

Laurel Bowden, Partner at Greylock Partners, added: “Notonthehighstreet.com is one of the most innovative and original e-commerce businesses to come out of the UK with the future capability to support thousands of small businesses in Britain and abroad.”

Watch this space for exciting developments!

Posted by jokite on 02 August 2010

Holly and Sophie have their third TV appearance

We were very proud of Holly and Sophie this week when they appeared as the guests of the day on BBC 2’s Working Lunch. We huddled around computer screens and TVs to watch the live streaming of Tuesday’s programme, as the notonthehighstreet.com founders chatted about the business. We were amongst the half a million viewers who tune in daily to see the latest business, consumer and workplace news from across the country.

Watch Holly and Sophie on the programme now on the BBC iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00sjtqt/Working_Lunch_18_05_2010/

Despite our very best plans to make sure the site was equipped for a large amount of hits during this period, visitors exceeded all expectations so please accept our apologies if you experienced a slow site around lunchtime on Tuesday!

Posted by jokite on 21 May 2010

Something Wonderful has happened

Another of our partners has broken into the publishing world, by having their work featured in a new coffee table book. Something Wonderful Design has been included in a new book called Impressive, published by Gestalten. The book is a celebration of artists who combine graphic design and craft, and showcases works from hundreds of different designers who are inspired by their passion for traditional techniques. The book features the ‘LOVE’ print from Something Wonderful Design, which is available from the site as a greeting card and a canvas.

Impressive is available from Amazon and the Gestalten website.

Posted by jenniferbaldwin on 19 May 2010

new home for Bombus!

We’re always excited to hear news from our partners, and when we heard that Bombus were moving to a lovely new studio, we were thrilled. Based in Faversham in Kent, Bombus is run by Amelia and her team and they have just been treated to a brand new home.

Bombus make beautiful customised vintage furniture and home ware, and have been working with us since the year notonthehighstreet.com began. The personalised vintage map heart is their best seller and it’s easy to see why it’s such a popular gift – choose a destination close to the heart of your recipient, and Bombus will find a vintage map of that area and make it into a beautiful heart for framing. It’s a beautiful and delightful piece for the home that is suitable for so many gifting occasions.

Due to the intricate nature of their work, it’s vital that Bombus have the right working environment where they can lovingly create each product. Their new space will accommodate for the rapid growth of the company, and for new staff to create new and exciting products. We can’t wait to see what their new inspiration leads to!

Posted by jokite on 13 May 2010

a grand show

Grand Designs Live starts this weekend and offers visitors the chance to buy, build and furnish a house. Within the Boudoir roomset in The Gallery Rooms, a number of notonthehighstreet.com homewares will be on show, chosen by stylist Kate Baxter.

We’ve got some free pairs of show tickets to give away. If you fancy winning a pair, simply write a short message about your favourite notonthehighstreet.com product on our facebook page this week. Click here to get started.

Grand Designs Live, 1 – 9 May 2010, Excel, London

Posted by jokite on 29 April 2010

so who is the small business favourite for the election? We reveal the results of our survey

In 2008 we ran a survey to learn about the hopes and concerns of our small businesses and relayed the results to the Government and the media.

In the run up to the general election and with the final party leaders’ television debate on 29th April focusing on the economy, we thought it was time to run another in-depth survey and over 400 of our female entrepreneurs have spoken out about their hopes and concerns.

The survey concluded:

• David Cameron’s Conservative Party considered best small business champion with the greatest understanding of small business

• Conservative Party at top of election poll although vast majority undecided with Labour and Liberal Democrats equally low, and running neck and neck behind in attracting the small business vote

• Nearly half say they see no signs of a Labour government making a positive difference to small business, less than 6% say Brown puts a high value on the role of small business in the UK economy and only 0.5% say they feel well supported by a government which understands small businesses needs

• Only 3.3% of small businesses say Labour’s recent budget announcement is enough to get them to vote labour

• Easily available start-up and early stage grants are small businesses’ greatest demand followed by better tax breaks

• E-commerce is key to small businesses with nearly half saying they would never have never gone into business if they couldn’t sell online

• Lack of finance and e-commerce knowledge is the greatest obstacle to growth

• Small business sector remarkably strong with over one third saying they have been unaffected by the economic downturn and 23.9% reporting annual turnover is up

• More small businesses have used credit cards to fund their business than have applied for a government grant or taken out a business bank loan or personal bank loan.

Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish, co-founders of notonthehighstreet.com, said:

“83.4% of the small businesses that took part in our survey told us that they believe there is an important job to by done by notonthehighstreet.com in representing the small business community to the government and the media, so we are pleased to be giving our warts and all report in the run up to the general election.

With over 90 per cent of the 1,500 small businesses we support run by women, we hope this survey will help get the vital female entrepreneur voice heard. Our survey clearly shows that whoever gets into power in the coming election has got their work cut out. The small business sector is strong in poor economic times with hundreds of thriving businesses telling us they are riding high above the recession. But in order to grow this vital part of the UK economy politicians must get real about small businesses demands. We undertook a similar survey two years ago and these latest results show feelings are even more strongly against the government. The same issues are being highlighted again two years on but the government clearly hasn’t listened. We invite each of the party leaders to come and meet us and we will be pleased to tell it to them straight and provide them with invaluable information about our small businesses and what they really want.”

If you have more thoughts on this, we’d love to hear them. Comment below or email us.

(in)decision bag by Mr.PS

Posted by jokite on 29 April 2010

you can judge this book by its cover

Our seller, surface pattern designer and textile artist Rachael Taylor Designs, has been featured in no less than three books recently, so we felt it was something to shout about. Getting her happy designs on everything from cards, textiles, wall art, ceramics, tea towels and gifts for the home, she was noticed by popular blog Print and Pattern (a gorgeous blog if you’re interested in print and textiles) whose creator, Marie Perkins (aka Bowie) decided to feature them in her new book.

You may remember that Rachael was awarded the title of ‘happiest Twitterer’ last year; we hope she continues to get her happy prints known far and wide!

Print and Pattern by Bowie is available through Amazon and the Tate shop.

Posted by jokite on 29 April 2010

heart-shaped heaven

The most delicious food is often the simplest – and that seems to be the motto of Taylors Truffles. Claire started the company in October 2008 after being hounded by friends to make her truffles more readily available. Word spread and slowly but surely, truffles started taking over Claire’s life. She started tentatively taking part in fairs, and when that proved to be a success, she started sharing a warehouse space with other women running their own small businesses, and that is where Claire heard about notonthehighstreet.com. The warehouse sounds like a great scheme – the women are put into groups to try and help support each other when starting out, providing business advice and a good support structure which is essential when starting a small business. As you may imagine, it’s a pretty lively place!

We were lucky enough to try out the truffles last week. What an absolutely delicious treat – perfect truffles in my eyes. Not too sweet, with a smooth and creamy texture, and despite the satisfyingly-large size, still managed to be rather moorish! We shared the heavenly treat around the office, but I must admit, I felt rather protective over these things of beauty. They arrived prettily wrapped in a simple cream textured-card box with a tiny red paper rose tied on with teal raffia and make the perfect gift for a loved one.

The heart-shaped truffle is the most popular, so that is what she makes, and as well as her original truffle and a mint one (with mint sourced from her friend’s mint farm, no less), she is currently working on a ginger truffle… that sounds just wonderful.

Wedding favours are also on the cards.

Posted by jokite on 02 February 2010

luck of the drawer...

Last week saw hundreds of small businesses flocking to Earls Court to attend Top Drawer, an event dedicated to unearthing the best products from a unique mixture of new and established designers and international brands. Holly and Sophie gave another one of their ‘standing room only’ presentations which was a great chance to meet new faces and catch up with familiar ones.

Amongst the hustle and bustle, many of our small business partners were exhibiting at the show, and we were so pleased that Pearl and Earl were awarded ‘Best home product’ for their modern and fresh art prints. These stylish prints can make a bright statement to any home or a touching gift for a loved one. For more inspirational home ideas click here.

Posted by jokite on 27 January 2010

not just one, but three Christmases!

It was a brilliant feeling to read the fabulously positive piece in The Telegraph earlier this week, which noted the success of the new catalogue campaigns that we ran in 2009, and the impact these had on the small businesses that we support.

The success of 2009 means that this year we can produce even more catalogues (six in total!). We are going to be very busy indeed, but we are extremely excited to be bringing our customers more of the beautiful hard-to-find products that they love and to be helping our sellers to achieve a more consistent flow of sales throughout the year.

Read the full article here.

Posted by jokite on 14 January 2010

Holly and Sophie give top insight

We’re preparing for Top Drawer where Holly and Sophie will be speaking at the topical seminar programme later this month, giving visitors an insight into growing their businesses and predicting trends. Top Drawer is a brilliant exhibition aimed at creative small businesses, helping them to gain a greater understanding of how to succeed in retail, whether visiting or exhibiting. Some of the notonthehighstreet.com team will also be on hand to meet visitors and exhibitors. Please note, Top Drawer 2010 is a trade only show, which means that you need to be able to prove you are a part of the retail trade to attend. Exhibitors have a ‘minimum order’ policy and will not sell to members of the public.

Top Drawer, 17 to 19 January 2010, Earls Court One, London.

Posted by jokite on 08 January 2010