Urban Village Chocolates is an artisan chocolate company based in St Margarets, Twickenham. Founded three years ago by former PR professional Deborah Newbury, Urban Village Chocolates combines beautiful hand-crafted chocolates with a liberal dose of fun and creativity. Deborah and her husband Mark work with the finest cacao and natural ingredients to produce a wide range of products, including ‘Around the World’ single-origin tasting boxes, fresh chocolates, flavoured buttons and seasonal specialities. We caught up with Deborah to find out what keeps the business sweet.
PayPal (PP): What have been your greatest successes?
Deborah Newbury (DN): Winning three Gold Great Taste awards has certainly got to be up there! It’s provided us with some great marketable content and has been a huge boost personally, giving us real confidence in the business. Another success has been the development of a very supportive local network and customer base. It’s been incredibly rewarding to see the business grow and receive such positive feedback from our customers. A lot of this is down to the extensive preparation we did ahead of launching the business - we took our time developing a unique product range and didn’t go public until we felt we had the necessary skills and experience to sustain the business.
PP: What is the greatest challenge you faced in setting up your business?
DN: Creating our online presence has been very challenging as our products change so regularly. Figuring out which products to sell through which avenue – online, retail shops, or at fairs and festivals – is something we’re having to learn on the job. Joining our local chamber of commerce and having access to relevant courses and mentoring services has been very helpful, and we’d recommend all SMEs try and do the same.
We have a small team, which has to focus heavily on production and distribution, so finding time to develop interesting and engaging social media content has also been difficult. We’re trying to devote more time to this as we understand the importance of being visible across a number of social channels and platforms.
PP: What advice would you give to other small businesses and those thinking of taking the plunge and creating a start-up?
DN: This one is simple – be prepared to dedicate every hour of every day to make your business successful! Growing Urban Village Chocolates has been an all-consuming activity, particularly as we have such a focus on hand-made products. That said, it’s been extremely rewarding to see the business grow organically without compromising our ability to deliver quality products and service. So far, we haven’t needed any external investment and we hope to keep it that way.
PP: When did you start using PayPal?
DN: We started using PayPal Here in spring of last year. We needed a method of taking payment at fairs and events where we might not have access to electricity, and PayPal Here fitted the bill perfectly. Our chip & pin machine was cumbersome, expensive and would only function on our own premises, and as a result it was rarely used.
PP: How were you taking payments before you started using PayPal?
DN: Almost exclusively cash and cheques, the latter of which we rarely use any more. We are moving towards a cashless society and we’ve found that when given the option, customers nearly always prefer to pay by card or bank transfer. The quicker the transaction the better, and using PayPal Here ensures that our payment process is fast and simple.
PP: Has using PayPal helped your business?
DN: PayPal Here has offered us considerable flexibility when taking card payments. Having the ability to conduct transactions in almost any setting is very helpful and has proved to be essential given our customers’ increasing reliance on paying with a card. PayPal Here has allowed us to pursue a number of opportunities that wouldn’t have been viable otherwise and it now accounts for a substantial proportion of our sales at external selling events.