Life’s a Box of Chocolate

 It is certainly true that life is a box of chocolates as Sharlotte Bamber can vouch. Not only did she start her business ‘Choco-Lotty’ just 3 weeks before Christmas, she also had to create a product range and organise chocolate parties on top of the usual new business challenges.

Made redundant from Leyland Trucks where she had worked as a Senior Lean Engineer for 14 years, Sharlotte felt that she needed a new direction to allow her to combine her creative skills with her love of chocolate – and the idea for Choco-Lotty was born.

From idea to business in 3 weeks. ‘It all happened so fast,’ she said. ‘I attended a Chocolatiers course in November 09 after a little encouragement from my husband, then went to South Ribble Borough Council to seek advice about starting a business. They then put me in touch with Business Venture Group, and three weeks later Choco-Lotty was born.’

However from then on, things didn’t go quite so seamlessly and Sharlotte had quite a few teething problems to overcome.

‘Some of the stumbling blocks I encountered were the things that I just couldn’t have predicted. I found trading standards very confusing, I couldn’t find a plumber to install my food preparation sink and I even blew all the electrics in my conservatory however, the environmental health people were very helpful and BVG were excellent.’

Now, all this hard work seems to be paying dividends. ‘I organised my first party before Christmas and the response was phenomenal. Word of mouth recommendations have really helped and I even had to turn away a couple of customers over Christmas just so I could spend some time with my family.’

Sharlotte has nothing but praise for the team at BVG and singled out her advisor Corinne Crowley in particular. ‘Corinne was so supportive and encouraging, brilliant with the financials and really simplified everything. The best thing is – she does exactly what she says she will do, which is rare in today’s society. She is a real star!

And does Sharlotte have any tips for other would-be entrepreneurs? ‘All I would say to anybody who is thinking about starting a business is that it is hard work. I’ve had a lot of sleepless nights and I would advise anybody to think carefully before they do it. However all the good feedback I get about my products makes the hard work worth it. I would definitely recommend BVG to anybody who is thinking about starting a business.’