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Success stories - Coco-Ribbon

Here are some real life stories which chronicle the ups and downs of starting your own business and illustrate how the Portobello Business Centre can offer vital help

Innocent : Urban Kids : Holistic Silk : Asquith : FreshMinds : Damaris :
Coco-Ribbon

Alison Hampel, originally from Sydney, and Sophie Threapleton, who hails from Sheffield, are the force behind upmarket gift and fashion boutique Coco Ribbon. Their enchanting shop, dubbed: 'possibly the prettiest shop in Notting Hill' by the Evening Standard, sells everything from Italian chandeliers and silk curtains to French antique furniture and jewellery. Jamie Oliver, Minnie Driver and Meg Mathews have all shopped there and they've featured in top fashion magazines like Vogue, Elle and Vanity Fair.

The shop opened for business in September 2002 but as Sophie points out that came only after a good nine months of hard preparatory work. "We spent that time honing our business plan and that was one of the things that the Portobello Business Centre were able to give us absolutely invaluable help with," says Sophie.

"It was actually Alison who steered us towards the Business Centre - she'd heard about them from friends who were already in business and they came highly recommended.

"Our business adviser was Bob Howell and he was able to give us loads of excellent advice about the right things to do when setting up a business - as well as the things not to do. He was especially good at advising us on the hard end of the business - things like accounting and cash flow.

"We entered the Business Centre's own Business Plan competition and, much to our delight, we won it. That gave us a real impetus to set the business up so we both gave up our jobs and started putting our energy full-time into getting the business up and running. We only had £40,000 to invest so we had to be very smart and there's no doubt that the PBC helped us with that.

"The Business Centre also gave us a lot of help to enter the Shell Livewire competition and we were named as London's Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneurs Of The Year for 2003. That was a tremendous boost to us and to the business and I think it's also a real tribute to the help we had from the Business Centre.

"Now our brand recognition is growing and we're really getting to know what our customers want to buy. Our next step is to set up our own label making sleep wear and lingerie.

"Alison and I both feel that we owe a lot to the PBC- they really helped us to get off to a flying start."Visit the Coco Ribbon website

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