Review: London Coffee Festival

For those following me on Twitter you will know that last weekend I took a trip to our capital to visit the London Coffee Festival. Last year this was the first festival I went to in the name of Ginger Sky and was the first I looked for this year.

The festival itself is held over the last few days of UK Coffee Week and is the venue for the UK Barista Championships. With stalls from many of the big chains as well as up and coming independents there is something on offer for everyone in the great surroundings of The Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane.

I have to admit that this trip is as much for personal pleasure as it is for business. I love trying all the weird and wonderful coffees on offer. However, watching the experts do their thing with the latest in coffee gadgetry does give a great insight into what the consumers will be using in a few years’ time. There are also some great smaller designers and distributors to network with. And that’s not to mention the great artisan café section with loads of fantastic food on offer, couldn’t resist treating myself to a nice home baked loaf.

What always pleases me about these kinds of events is the wonderful people there, and it’s not all about selling. This year was no exception, like the people at FruitBroo (@FruitBroo) who, despite knowing we aren’t going to be stocking drinks, still entertained us. In all fairness they did have some great funky flasks that I just had to know about, the free samples were a bonus too J.

If you’re interested in learning more about the festival their website is http://www.londoncoffeefestival.com/

Why it pays to plan

It’s been a year this week since I first registered Ginger Sky Ltd and set out on my mission of creating a retailer of unique, quirky and fun kitchen accessories. I’m getting close to launching the site and starting to trade but as this is my first venture into business I have spent the past year planning every part of my company.

For me, planning means that when I start to trade I have as many bases covered as I can. There can always be surprises around the corner but having sound contingency plans ready means that I should be able to respond effectively to these challenges. These contingencies have been thought through following research into other local businesses, speaking and networking with other business people and learning from their experiences.

Recipe: Chicken Jalfrezi

A spicy and tasty traditional Jalfrezi

This is a great dish with some wonderful flavours. It can be made in just over an hour and is a great alternative to a takeaway.

Recipe: Spicy Chorizo Soup

A zingy, spicy soup that’s full of flavour

This recipe is a personal favourite of mine and makes enough to cover a couple of working lunches through the week or you can always freeze any extra for later use. The chorizo and the curry powder really give this soup a good kick while it maintains bundles of flavour.

Ginger Sky Update - March

It’s been a while since I’ve given an update on how things are going here at Ginger Sky so I’m going to do just that now. Last time I updated you I’d just been to Spring Fair International and the plan from there was to review all the brochures and information I’d picked up at the NEC.

 

Since then I have drawn up a shortlist of the products I am going to order. This was no small task given the size of the event at Spring Fair. I met loads of great suppliers with loads of great products to offer, so choosing which ones to focus on did take a lot of consideration. I have now settled on a good mix of products that compliment each other and fit the mission statement of Ginger Sky which is to provide fun, quirky and unique kitchenware and gadgets. I’ll be ordering my selected products over the next couple of weeks so stick around to find out what I’ll be stocking come launch day.

Mentoring the Next Generation

I’ve been fortunate during my time working for Esteem in Hull in that they have given me great opportunities and fantastic support while setting up Ginger Sky Ltd. One of these opportunities is sharing my experiences with the next generation of entrepreneurs through Young Enterprise.

Young Enterprise are a business and enterprise charity helping over 200,000 young people every year in the UK. Their mission is to “inspire and equip young people to learn and succeed through enterprise.” By focussing on learning by doing Young Enterprise are able to offer an alternative method of preparing the UK’s youth for the world of business.

 

Is Cloud Storage the Answer?

If, like me, you are forever emailing documents backwards and forwards, carrying around flash drives or just lugging your laptop everywhere, then you may be entitled to ask, is there a better way? In this week's blog entry I am going to look at Cloud storage, and whether this is a viable alternative.

The Challenge
I like to get second opinions on many of my ideas and a fresh pair of eyes on a document never hurts. To do this at the moment I email my minions with the documents, they suggest changes and email me back. This normally goes on 2-3 times at least before I am happy with the outcome. Another solution is to physically hand over my flash drive to them and then the same pattern occurs, much to-ing and fro-ing before I'm happy with the finished article. Both of these tend to get messy, clog up my inbox or require plenty of legwork. They are also both very time-intensive which, when you're running your own business, is not something you look for in a process.