Our BIG LUNCH!

I am writing this 3 days before our first ever BIG LUNCH. I should be ticking off lists and panicking, but actually I think I am done. Yes .. I am in shock too! I have been working on this for three months and I think for once planning has actually paid off!

This is our first Big Lunch and I wanted to write about what it is, why I am doing it - so I can come back to it for the memories!

The Big Lunch The Big Lunch, “Brings neighbours and communities together to share friendship, food and fun”. It’s an idea from the Eden Project and it started back in 2009. It takes place each year in June. It's about celebrating community connections and getting to know one another a little better. I honestly thought there was nothing more perfect to celebrate not only our one year anniversary as a CIC. I had been in contact with the Eden Project about a couple of things (honestly, if you look up the word SUPPORTIVE in the dictionary I am sure it will say The Eden Project Communities Team).

22.9 MILLION people in the UK took part in a Big Lunch last year (I mean wow) and I wanted to get involved. I kind of love the “old fashioned” vibe about it too, no technology, just bring a long a plate of food to a venue and share it with strangers that become friends. LOVE-ER-LY. You don’t need a big venue or a tonne of money, some people just hold them in their front garden with their neighbours.

Anyway, I am holding ours THIS Saturday on the 6th of May at West Heath Community Centre. What a lovely place that is! We have a lovely room and I have approximately one hour to turn it into our Big Lunch Venue. Thanks to Niv, Lisha and their pals for jumping in and giving their time to help me! I had to provide “tickets” rather than a free for all due to venue capacity but 31 groups have claimed their tickets and I am looking forward to seeing them on Saturday.

I chose the Kings Coronation Day because from personal experience with my own life I have felt very lonely or excluded on days of National significance. If you have wobbly mental health or a low budget it can feel hard to “get involved” with anything so I am really hoping to provide an inclusive and friendly venue where people can pop along and have some fun.

As well as a MASSIVE BUFFET (that I hope some people will contribute to on the day too) I have friends from Rainey Community Creations running a craft workshop and the marvellous Ampers& Projects providing a seed workshop where people can take away seeds to grow their own flowers and food.

I am nervous YES, am I excited .. YES, am I worried .. COURSE I AM! But i’m excited to be offering this to the community and you never know for the next Big Lunch we can go even bigger and get even more people involved and excited about their local community!

A few people have reached out to me and asked how they can donate towards our Big Lunch, me being me I have kind of batted off their kindness with “it’s okay” but if you wanted to contribute from a far, it would be helpful, lots of Big Lunches raise money at their events and I have chosen not to do that but to quote an advert “Every Little Helps” right? Donate here

You can find out more about The Eden Project Communities Big Lunch - and maybe put on your own in your own area. Here

With thanks to Birmingham City Council Food Legends initiative and Iceland for your contributions to make this happen.

Introducing Community Workshops

I am so proud of what I have achieved so far with the Pay as you can bakery and it’s amazing hearing the stories how people are benefiting, how they enjoy visiting and how I am meeting my goals of providing a safe, welcoming and warm space for anybody that needs it. I can’t help but wonder if I had more space that I could be doing even more. Workshops are always something I have wanted to offer but the space is so tight in our little kitchen, and honestly not really set up to welcome groups of people who may not have any prior professional kitchen experience it’s pretty impossible.

People are at the core of what I love to do so I am now offering community workshops. A range of workshops where I can go out to community groups to facilitate valuable workshops. The workshops are not only about learning a new skill, tasting new foods and eating a delicious meal but are there to open discussion, alleviate loneliness and to provide a bit of Lil’s Parlour magic anywhere in the community.

Workshops are available for all kinds of community groups, children, adults, older people. As a specialist in SEN facilitation I also love to run groups in a SEND environment.

Costing has been tough, you know what I am like, in an ideal world I would do everything for free but this is not realistic or sustainable. By hiring me for your workshop you are also supporting the work we do every week in the shop. I have worked out a system where prices are “per person” this is the most flexible option so groups of any size can access what I am doing. The cost is all inclusive in South Birmingham and The Black Country but a small addition for travel will be added for opportunities further afield.

So get in touch if you would like to work with me and I can send you more information, bookings are available Monday - Friday day times and evenings. Just email lilsparlour@gmail.com and you can read more information about the workshops I have designed here.

Become a Lil's Parlour Patreon & NEWS!

Hello! I don’t know how many times I have sat down to write this blog post. I don’t know what it is about the New Year but I always feel really intimidated by a “blank page” another 12 months of possibilities and even though I am really aware time is a man made constraint I can’t help but be dragged in.

This year I have been pretty kind to myself, instead of jumping in with a squillion ideas and pushing myself to def con one before the first week of the year is out I have tackled a couple of things I have been putting off.

The first is an acceptance I made a really big mistake in the last part of last year, holding it lightly and accepting it. I started on the usual process of beating myself up and blaming myself, bullying my most inner person - all things I have done over the years out of habit, but actually I took positive action. I wasn’t sure I was ever going to admit this has happened but Lil’s Parlour CIC is a community and I am always honest about the bad stuff as well as the good. In a nut shell “The Chocolate Chronicles” was the worst business decision I have ever made in my life. It was so simple in my head, sending out chocolate bars, people who supported us would raise money with them and the profits would go towards things I had planned for 2023. In reality despite the deadline being at the end of December I am still in a deficit of 690 bars, that’s 690 bars of chocolate I sent out in good faith and are unaccounted for, £1324 of my own savings that I could have in actuality done something better with. Emails are ignored, I have been blocked on social media and by telephone. I want to thank here the people who did accept bars, who raised money and who those who have been honest if things haven’t gone to plan, some bars are on the way back and I genuinely thank those people for trying, life gets in the way and I get that more than most. With your AMAZING efforts £694 has been raised for the CIC and I am so grateful. Another amazing human has raised £633 with his bars and has pledged this will be with me by the end of January. Sadly this does not change the fact I have found myself in a hole of personal debt because of a very silly decision. Flipping heck I didn’t realise writing a paragraph could make you feel sick but here we are! Anyway, lessons have been learnt and I move forward with my head held high. With the bars that are due to be returned I am sure there is something magic I can do for Easter - always ace when the most chocolatey event of the year is coming up.

ANYWAY. Now that is out in the open on to the second job I have been putting off. Setting up a Patreon account. Patreon is a platform whereby for a small subscription per month you can support a creator with their work. There are 2 levels of subscription you can choose from, a £2 a month option or a £6 a month option. Both come with a range of “perks” and the income will go towards getting my Very Greedy Girl Podcast back up and running. If you haven’t listened to the original episodes yet you can find them here. The next series will be shared to Patreons along with recipes, behind the scenes news, and sneak peak chapters of the next book I am writing. It’s essentially providing me a small perk of creating content, which as a bit of an oldie seems really abstract theory but apparently artists should be paid for their content - who knew? Head over to Patreon for a look and there is already a first post with a recipe that is FREE to everybody. <<< Link here.

It’s now time to move on to the next things on my list.

• Getting ready to open the shop on the 21st of Jan along with our AWESOME STUFF SALE <<

• Organising Pitches to take Audrey on the road

• Organising a Free Easter Bunny meet & greet at the shop

• Working with The Eden Project to provide a free community BIG LUNCH

• Looking for grant funding to create a workshop to go to local community groups to talk about pay as you can and why community is so important in current times and do some fun activities using cheap ingredients to create great meals.

But I am doing these tasks in my own time, with kindness.

Happy New Year and I am looking forward to seeing what 2023 brings!

Lucy x

Get involved with our CHOCOLATE CHRONICLES this Christmas

Hi Everyone, it’s been a while since I had time to sit down and write a blog post but as I am absolutely full of the horrific lurgy going around it’s the perfect opportunity to sit, write and tell you about HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED this Christmas.

Every day I get at least one email / message asking me how YOU can help, and honestly I sometimes don’t answer because I am the worlds worst at accepting any sort of help or kindness myself. Ironic.

There’s no doubt that I do need help at the moment and I was thinking about ways I could get people involved in our fundraising efforts this Christmas something fun and a way you could offer an exchange of goods for a donation. I’ve come up with the CHOCOLATE CHRONICLES and I hope it’s a fun way to get involved. It’s a bit scary and relies on me letting go and putting trust in the people who want to help, but I KNOW since starting our Pay As You Can journey humans are GOOD and this could be something really beautiful. I am so inspired by how people want to help and especially stories about kids and families that really do love talking about what Lil’s Parlour CIC is doing in the bakery and wanting to help.

You know I am always inspired by really random things and I was thinking about Girl Scout cookies you always see in 80s and 90s movies and I thought if there was anything I could produce and send out for resale and fund raising - and of course the answer is CHOCOLATE. So that is exactly what I am going to do!

So this is how it’s going to work :

1) Apply for as many of our handmade 100g milk chocolate bars as you think you can sell. It could be 2, it could be 100. All you need to pay for is postage - more about that later. The chocolate bars are handmade in the UK with fair trade, responsibly sourced cocoa to meet our brand ethics.

2) Your chocolate bars will arrive and you can fundraise with them however you see fit, in the office, in the church, in your local pub, community group, you can even sell them in your shop or market stall .. wherever you like! You will also receive a digital information pack to help you on your journey and of course you can ask for donations “pay as you can” or a fixed recommended price of £4 per bar. I will be sharing all your awesome adventures on our social media so keep in touch!

Maybe you work for a big corporate organisation and would like to gift these bars to your whole office as a Christmas Gift with a conscience - you can do that too, once you receive the bars just make your donation.

3) Once all your bars have new homes donate the proceeds MINUS your postage and packaging costs to Lil’s Parlour CIC on our website by 31st of December 2022 - and that really is it.

Is this risky, HELL YES, but I 100% trust that anyone that takes part will be doing their best to raise funds for us through chocolate!

There is only one catch - you have ONE WEEK to apply for your bars so I can do the pre order and get the bars to you ASAP.

The only other tiny little catch is in the text box please explain a little bit about what you are planning to do with your chocolate bars. This is just a tiny little bit of risk assessment for me to make sure I am not sending out 100 bars that are going to vanish into the voids of time. I can’t afford to do that as I am buying these bars with the very last of my personal savings. That’s how passionate I am about this! With transparency each bar is costing me £1.92

Order your bars HERE by 12th November 2022 at midnight … and I cannot WAIT to see what you do!

EXCITED SCREAM!

Lucy x

Opportunity Knocks

One of the things I am most passionate about at the moment is collaborating with AND supporting my fellow small businesses. I have been looking at a way to practically continue with my own postal offerings once a month but also keep the shop open every weekend as a reliable resource to the local community. I think I have come up with an idea that will not only benefit but will also benefit a fellow small biz.

I would like to offer my retail space (not kitchen) to any small, independent business who currently does not have their own retail space but thinks it might be something they want to work towards.

Are you a small food or artisan business that would like to pop up at Lil’s Parlour? Read on …

One weekend a month I will be offering my space to somebody to take over and play shop. There are a couple of things you need to take into account before applying.

• You must be prepared to run your offering as Pay As You Can and be positive about community warming within your business.

• You must have your own personal liability insurance.

• You must be able to display that your business is registered with the local authority and you hold at least a level 2 hygiene certificate.

• You must have an up to date allergen risk assessment.

• You must be able to provide everything you need - including packaging / tongs and equipment.

• Sweet or savoury foods are fine - you don’t have to be a baker, you do have to be able to bring your products for display as “ready to eat” no cooking facilities will be available.

• Other types of business are welcome to apply for example you may have a clothing brand, would your awesome gear benefit customers as pay as you can?

• You have to be able to commit to 11-3pm opening on both a FRIDAY AND A SATURDAY.

• You will need your own method of taking payments (your own card machine - you can attach to our wi-fi to use it).

• The last thing is I am not asking for any payment for this opportunity. I would however, expect a donation to our CIC at the end of your pop up on a “pay as you can” basis.

• I will give you shouts out and advertise you will be taking over for the weekend but it’s also important you are ready to commit to your own promotion too!

Dates available to apply for are : 21st & 22nd of October / 18th & 19th of November / 20th & 21st of January 2023. Applications will all be looked at. I expect this to be pretty popular so please fill in the application form as extensively as possible. This not only shows commitment but also helps me decide who to award the pitch too. Good Luck ! I wish I could offer this to everyone.

APPLY BY CLICKING HERE

The September Reset

I love Autumn, it is by far my favourite season of the year and like some kind of seasonal bloodhound with the first whiff of autumn in the air I feel my shoulders relax. I am not a summer person. Summer is always a time when I am most stressed about the business and everything feels hard. Hardest of all is watching everyone else have a “lovely summer” I think. This summer quarter has been the hardest for Lil’s Parlour since I started trading in 2015, it has not only been hard on my body with surgery and a plethora of problems with my boring but ever present fibromyalgia it’s also been really hard on my mind and finances. The Crowdfunder was AMAZING and my integration as a CIC and starting the pay as you can campaign instore has been mind-blowingly amazing but it has also been exhausting and has taken a real emotional toll on me as a human as well as Director of a CIC.I am struggling. There, I said it.

From the outside looking in I must seem like a RIGHT MOANER saying things are tough right now. How can they be? Viral videos, media exposure, a brand new lovely van courtesy of amazing donations and the cherry on the cake an actual LEGEND wearing one of my tees on the telly (which I knew nothing about - thanks to all those snake eyes that sent me the pics!!) . All these things are true and are indeed amazing but they have also taken a really big emotional toll on me. The really important word here is ME, not because I am a self centred, narcissist but because at the heart of what I do is ME, just me. I don’t have a team of people, I don’t have “media training” I don’t have staff who bake or do my social media, post things out or even clean the loo - that’s all me. In the past when I have been feeling like this I have battled through and I am guilty of doing that again over the last few weeks, the massive cold sores, the cold takeaway left overs, the headaches, hair loss, piles of washing, cleaning and life admin piling up at home, poor sleep… it all started and as usual I tried to ignore it. I actually decided it was probably because I was so worried by the doom and gloom on the news and feeling the pressure of steering Lil’s Parlour through rough waters ahead. I have also developed a really weird fear of looking like I am having any fun or spending money because you know it should be going towards good stuff. It’s a really weird kind of pressure I have never felt before.

This morning I couldn’t stop crying, I had another call off a journalist asking for my time and a photo shoot when I look like I haven’t slept in a month, piles of emails to answer, remembered I hadn’t ordered ice cream for this week and couldn’t even find clean underwear as my personal “life admin” is in chaos. When I dragged myself into the shop the fuse had gone in the oven and that was the straw that broke my back. I 100% need to reset myself and this time I am not ignoring the call.

For that reason the shop will be closed on 16th and 17th of September and will reopen on Friday 23rd. As usual I have had the usual fears about letting people down, seeming flaky, “closed AGAIN” Can I afford to do this? No, of course not … but can I afford NOT to for my own wellbeing .. ABSOLUTELY. I’ll be open this weekend, I’ve already started prep and I love seeing all your faces. Taking this time to reset will allow me to do all the stuff on my overwhelming to-do list, get out more rewards, plan the pop party and get a postal box ready that is so in demand but I haven’t had to time to plan anything. It will also give me a small week of breathing space before I crash all guns blazing into fairy lights season, which lets face it is the best of all! Santa will be here before we know it (runs and hides).

Lucy x

My Love / Hate relationship with Tik Tok

Love it or hate it there’s no doubt that anybody who wants to bring awareness to their business, charity or social enterprise needs to be present on Tik Tok at the moment.

Initially I only dabbled with it, thinking it was there as a side note, something I would do “when I had time” but like every good adult with ADHD before I knew it hours of my time were being taken watching cats doing ridiculous things, people dancing, stories of love, war, woe. You know those womens magazines you know you shouldn’t really be invested in? Take a Break, That’s Life! .. That to me is what Tik Tok represents in the current times. All of life is there. Laid out, raw and sadly laid out on a plate to be torn to pieces by the plethora of keyboard warriors who lurk eager to jump on the next trend.

So for that reason I am going to start with the reasons I really really hate Tik Tok. From my “older millennial” stance Tik Tok is a cess pit of bullying, opinions and question asking. Questions you certainly wouldn’t ask your Mom so why on earth do you think it’s okay to ask a stranger on the internet? I have been “lucky” to have several of my videos hit the fabled FYP page, this means your video gets pushed out on the front page on the app. As amazing as that might sound for exposure in my experience it’s been a heart thumping rollercoaster of emotions. For every nice comment you will be wasting your time deleting / blocking the trolls. Every time a video has hit FYP I have been met with a plethora of fake reviews, random emails (someone I blocked: because frankly they were rude, took time out of their day to email to finish the argument). The most frustrating, AGONISING thing for me about Tik Tok is the opinions. Mostly because I know they shouldn’t bother me .. but MORE because they DO. When you have your own business, especially when you put so much heart and soul into it the comments do hurt, and honestly some have even made me doubt myself.

From a business perspective I am on the fence about how useful a tool Tik Tok is for spreading the word about Lil’s Parlour. I am certainly gaining a lot more followers than on other platforms - but I can honestly say only a tiny percentage have ever led to sales or visitors to the shop. Tik Tok is about quick dopamine hits and I am not sure it allows you to build the same valuable relationships with your customers than on Instagram. I believe it’s fantastic for live shopping but that’s really not my bag. I don’t want a quick buck from behind a screen I am about building meaningful, long term relationships with my customers, many of whom become friends.

So now I am moving on to the love part - and honestly, I am struggling to find it. From a PR perspective you are certainly more likely to end up on the likes of “Lad Bible” or “Upworthy” through Tik Tok, they are constantly scouring the app for “free content” to share with their users. I also found myself on compendium of “best Tik Toks” on You Tube - but again, someone else was getting paid for using my content - is that fair? Probably not.

• Finally - if you have landed here wondering how to build your brand using Tik Tok here are my top tips :

• Tell a valuable story / share a useful tip / spill the tea.

• Use a strong tag line that pulls people in within the first 10 seconds.

• Use great lighting, natural light is best.

• Use trending music - even if you have a business account you will have access to “viral” background music, this always works a charm for me.

• Be consistent. I didn’t start to gain any traction using Tik Tok until I made my videos all in the same format.

• Don’t worry too much about hashtags - FYP or FYP:) is probably all you need to get your video out there. Tik Tok seems to dislike hashtag heavy captions.

• Don’t bother arguing with Tik Tok “comment trolls” . YOU. WON’T. WIN. They are professionals (LOL… )

• And finally if it ever gets too heavy remember you can turn off comments at any time. Bye Bye negativity (although comments initially tend to push your video out - turn them off after an hour or so).

• Use it as a marketing tool not a social network. Instagram and Facebook are way better for that.

All our Crowdfunder rewards in one place!

Okay, so my MIND IS ACTUALLY BLOWN that after nearly 4 weeks our crowdfunder is looking more likely than ever. (Between us I didn’t think it was going to happen!!)

I have had so many amazing offers of rewards (I never knew pudding clubs would be so popular!!) I wanted to write a list of all the rewards that are still available here in one place to help you choose. I appreciate the crowdfunder page is looking rather … BUSY!!!

First off there are TWO NEW REWARDS you may have missed due to the wonderful social media showing about 2% of my following posts.

THREE DAYS LEFT TO GET YOUR HANDS ON A REWARD. When they are gone they are gone.

First off this AMAZING NEW PUDDING CLUB to be held at Arch 13 in February 2023. Girl getting SWANKY and I am really looking forward to showing off some of my pasty skills, set in a beautiful restaurant and wine bar Arch 13 will be choosing an individual wine for each dessert.

ALSO STILL AVAILABLE :

** NEW** £50 voucher from Jenny Juice £1 gets you one entry (Where I get my crazy leggings!!)

** NEW ** Chocolate Pudding Club at Sarah’s Creative Kitchen in January 2023

Be in with a chance of a £400 tattoo session for a £5 pledge with Jason John Miles.

Buttery Biscuit Base Tees (Black or Yellow)

Tote Bags

Exclusive Wagonish Wheels

Be in with a chance of a £100 Amazon voucher for a £1 pledge courtesy of Debz Louise Blog.

A token of thanks - a small gift from me to you.

£20 voucher to spend at Lil’s Parlour for £15

Pop Party Tickets.

And of course if none of those whet your appetite you can pledge for any amount with no reward and that will go towards our total. You can PLEDGE HERE

I am so so thankful ! And on a final note this is all down to YOU - yes YOU reading this right now! No celebrity shout outs, no hype, just my community, my fellow small businesses, my friends, YOU, sharing, being involved, invested - and refreshing the page every 10 seconds. I don’t think i’ll ever be able to express in words how thankful I am. This is real people power and while sleep is off the agenda in these last few days you are keeping me going.

Love from Brum, Lucy x

50% Crowdfunder Update and some basic maths.

I’m SO excited that the crowd funder has reached 50%, a wholehearted thank you to everyone that has supported it so far in all the different ways you have.

There are just nine days left in this all or nothing campaign to :

• Get our pay as you feel bake sales on the road.

• Provide essential funding towards future projects to support, include and empower anybody that wants to access our services.

Our first Pay as you can sale on Saturday 2nd of July was awesome, it was quite a quiet day in the shop but it really didn’t matter to me because being there, doing the thing felt better than it had in a very long time. Coming home and reading the DM’s of thanks were so impactful and only underlined that me putting my neck on the line, standing up and saying THIS IS WHAT WE WANT TO ACHIEVE was the right thing to do.

Now for some maths, now let me tell you before I start to write this down I have dyscalculia - nothing in the world upsets my internal balance MORE than a number (or a hair in my food but that’s a different story). The little so and so’s jump all over the page, make me feel unwell and essentially speak in a different language, but I did some maths this morning and this is my most basic conclusion :

As I write this the total stands at 50%, with 9 days to go that means the crowdfunder needs to receive £833 in pledges PER DAY to be successful. As you can imagine those figures sent me into a spiral of self doubt.

Making that more POSITIVE 500,000 people watched the video about our crowdfunder on Tik Tok, Instagram and Twitter, if just 5% of those people had pledged £1 the target would have been smashed. That friends is PEOPLE POWER.

I think I have possibly dilly dallied around the message about how crucial this crowdfunding campaign is to the longevity of Lil’s Parlour CIC. Because I hate asking for help I make things flowery and positive and “it will be reet” but I’m at a place now where I really do need as much financial help as possible off as many people who can to get our project off to a zooming start.

There are lots of lovely rewards but if there isn’t anything there that tickles your fancy just a pledge for the cost of a packet of chewing gum would go so far towards achieving what feels like the unachievable.

If you haven’t already seen it the video I made that got seen by so many people is at the top of this blog. I hope it explains what we are trying to do - but if you have any further questions I am happy for you to reach out on lilsparlour@gmail.com

With love from Brum,

Lucy

Feeling a bit Ick

Immediately before writing this blog post I was going to go for one my pity naps. I’ve been writing to influencers and business all week about my Crowdfunder and another “thanks for the email, great idea but no” message has just landed in my inbox. I understand. I understand that in this world you have to be careful where you ally your patronage, where we all feel judged to some extent by the things we choose to support. I can’t help but feel increasingly frustrated.

That’s why I want to put it here that I am acutely aware of the brewing cost of living crisis, the strikes, the appalling injustices in the UK and the world right now and my small business friends suffering from lack of sales and struggling to “keep going”, it’s all making me feel really “ick” about asking for money at this time. As a child we were told, “children who ask for things don’t get them” and this really echoes around my head every time I post another story, Tweet, Reel, send an email. This has probably always held me back in my business activities and in my personal life. Independent, stubborn and absolutely determined to go to all lengths before I ask for help.

The difficulties so many facing at the moment IS the reason I am asking for donations NOW. I know come this autumn there is going to be so much work that companies like mine will need to do, I am already in the planning stage towards offering hot, savoury dinners (I am actually an epic cook as well as baker!) for people who need them this Autumn but without a solid start that is simply a pipe dream. Since announcing my plans I have been contacted by so many amazing local organisations, schools and individuals that would like me to get involved, again, I can’t do this without the funds to do them, even free services cost someone money. This is what the Crowdfunder being successful will afford. The wheels will mean I can travel to anywhere to raise the funds to get the really good stuff rolling. I’m not asking for something for nothing, there are lots of lovely rewards - but even if you can spare £1 it will go a long way (and stop Crowdfunder emailing me every day telling me the project isn’t looking like a success - way to go to build a girls confidence CF!).

Just a note on where the money is going. If the crowdfunder is successful the monies collected belong to The Company - not me, I have been paranoid people will think I am luxuriating in my new found “fortune” but legally the van, and any equipment belong to the CIC. If for any reason the business folds all assets will be donated to our allocated benefactor, this is Love Brum. I can’t sell it and skip into the sunset with the proceeds! So compared to a lot of other crowd funders your money is spent in accordance with the rules a CIC must follow, it is audited and monitored. You can see our registration details here.

Thanks so much for reading this! As ick as I DO feel I will keep on going! There’s 3 weeks left to make this happen. Jump on board.

Lucy x

Where I have been .. and where I am going.

2020. WHAT A YEAR. Honestly, there have been times when I didn’t even think I would be here writing this. It’s been such a monumental effort to keep the business going there have been dark times when I am tired and stressed where I could have just closed it all up. That’s not why I have worked so hard though so I have thought long and hard about where I want the business to go. I am not going to do some long and winding reflection of how 2020 went, I think we all know. It was a blur. What I am going to say is I am SO THANKFUL to every single person who supported me. It was fast, furious and I pivoted so many times the room was spinning more than I could handle.

So, lets move forward! I am a BIG FAN of new and a BIG FAN of shaking things up.

RECIPE SHOP

The highlight of 2020 for me was bringing my book to fruition. I loved every second of it. I don’t think it has sunk in yet! Christmas 2020 : Recipes & Nostalgia lit a spark in me I had not felt for some time. I have always loved recipe development so I want to move that on into 2021 and the business going forward. I don’t think I have ever SHOUTED loud enough about how ruddy good a lot of my recipes are, so I am going to continue with that! I have opened up a recipe shop on the website with a collection of my best recipes, including my blondie recipe and salted caramel recipe. They are downloadable PDFS and a link will be emailed directly with you to instantly get the recipe. Exciting huh? Throughout 2021 I will continue to add more and will also be adding some free recipes throughout the year too.

CHOCOLATE BAR MADNESS

The biggest investment I made in 2020 was for a chocolate tempering machine. I instantly regretted it .. the buyers remorse was real. I’m not known for chocolate bars! More and more though I had been becoming obsessed with chocolate, it was a new skill and I am so into the science and the crystallisation and the temperature monitoring. It’s also a medium I can have FUN with so throughout 2021 I will be building up a range of FUN chocolate bars, all with the usual Lil’s Parlour twist. Most excitingly I will be asking a bunch of highly talented illustrators to design the bars. Each wrapper will be a little piece of collectable art .. I am SO EXCITED! The Wham Bar and Cliff Bar were received so well I hope I can do the same with these.,

MORE FUN STUFF

I will continue to open the website on Fridays with a restock. I am really excited about trying new things though. I felt like the world was saturated with brownies and blondies in 2020, although I love making them I always strive to try and be different so I will be expanding on Browniecorndogs and Wagonish wheels and Cookie Pies and more weird and wonderful stuff you can’t get anywhere else.

SPREADING THE WORD

One of the hardest parts about having your own business is having to do everything, yourself, all of the time. This year I want to step back from being so present all the time. Some times putting your life on social media day in and day out becomes really exhausting. You become paranoid you are upsetting people when the followers go down, you can’t help but feel it is a personal reflection on you. My google analytics tell me nearly all my traffic comes from Instagram - which is amazing, but that also corresponds with me putting myself out there all of the time. I will be working on a You Tube Channel Baking Course where there will be a big dose of Lucy but it will be shelved on You Tube .. hopefully it will bring some new inspiration to me and to folks yet to discover the business.

Eeek so I think in a nutshell that’s what’s happening in 2021 … I mean I think I need to add some terms and conditions stating this probably will change, 2020 has taught me you really never know what is around the corner … but I am going to try my best! I hope you will join me for the ride!

Riding the Covidcoaster - Business Changes.

Who could have imagined back in January when I was making plans for the year, all these exciting plans Covid-19 was going to hit the entire planet like a big scary germ ridden zombie and change everything over night? I will never forget March 23rd 2020. The day I lost a years work over night! All my bookings for events, weddings and my wholesale income gone. Like that. Pretty much in the same amount of time it took to write this sentence. The feeling of panic and not knowing what to do, close, open, right, wrong. I had nightmares about having to hand the keys back to everything I had worked for for so long.

SO I PIVOTED. HARD.

Over night I started concentrating solely on posting super duper treats all over the UK, I couldn’t believe how busy it was, and I was so so happy! I had planned to become a fully postal business from the start of 2020 and it was going to be a slow considered process but here it was, literally over night and it was SO intense. Starting something new when when ingredients were hard to come by, working in full PPE, scared to death of becoming unwell or even worse making someone else ill. I was working the longest hours on my own as an absolute workaholic I was loving it!

BUT ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END.

Before we knew it the government was starting things up and over night and orders started to dry up. A billion “brownie” businesses seemed to pop up over night, flooding my social feed with “deals” and “specials” offering every multi pack chocolate available in Asda shoved into a brownie (hello Kinder Hippos). I couldn’t compete with this and in all honesty I didn’t want to. 5 years of trading and learning, coming up with my own exclusive recipes, not to mention paying massive insurances, tax, rents and training bills not only means I was not in a financial position to do this I wasn’t in the head space to do so either.

STEPPING BACK

To be honest I was exhausted, I decided to go back to what I do best - sending out my own inventions. The Brownie Corndog, Wagonish Wheels and even came up with a range of Twinkies. I was taking autonomy back and going back to the bare bones of what I always wanted my business to be. Original. Creative. Fun. Individual. My amazing, loyal customers were buying every week and my stock was selling out. I felt like I was finally doing what I always wanted to do.

THEN I BROKE MY ANKLE

Yep, that fickle finger of fate stepped in and while putting the recycling out, absolutely knackered after another day in the kitchen I fell over a 10cm wall - hilarious right? It felt like going back to March 23rd all over again, only this time there was no getting away from the fact all my usual tactics were off the table. I dragged myself about getting orders out knowing that it was going to be the last bit of baking I did for a while. As I write this I am still sat in my cast. 3 weeks to go …

MOVING FORWARD

This time has really given me time to reflect. Time I wouldn’t usually have had, while a lot of people had lots of “lockdown thinking time” that wasn’t a luxury afforded to me. IT’S BEEN BRILLIANT! All this time to think and plan and work ON the business. Here just for you is that plan for the future for Lil’s Parlour.

• I’m now 100% concentrating on being a postal, e comm business. That means I’ll be turning my workshop into a baking, picking and packing PALACE. That sadly means no more “big cakes” but being tagged on local business pages for a “cheap cake” was never really my bag anyway. Don’t worry I’ll still be doing some pop up open days once it’s safe. I absolutely love meeting my customers face to face.

• Working hard on my packaging and presentation to produce a range of high end, postable, giftable goodies you will be proud to send or receive. I know this hasn’t been my strong point, my presentation needs to be better .. it’s something I really want to work on.

• More “in stock” products on the website. I have always made everything to order which has meant long lead times. I am working on a range of products with a longer shelf life that will be “in stock” all of the time and available for delivery within 2-3 working days.

• More collabs - as an indie business myself I LOVE working with other indie businesses during lockdown I was so lucky to work with Niomi from Foggish and Collette from The Paper Lobster. From September I will releasing a monthly subscription box and every single month it will contain a different product from another indie biz as well as baked goods. Give me a shout if you would like to be involved! It doesn’t have to be edible, just wonderful, whimsical and individual.

• More recipes! One of the best parts of the Coronacoaster has been publishing some of my recipe PDFS. I am using my ankle downtime to write my very first published hold in your hand recipe pamphlet .. and yep .. it’s CHRRRRRISSSSTMAS themed!

• I still want to be involved with your weddings! One of the saddest parts of the Coronacoaster so far for me was losing my wedding bookings, luckily all my couples have rolled over their dates for next year. I am still happy to design big, bold, brash wedding cakes .. but can also be involved in your special day designing a range of “bespoke treats” packages .. corndog for every guest with their name on it as a table setting? YAASSSSS.

FINALLY

This amazing mural says everything I need to say about the business moving forward. I want to take this chance to thank ALL of you for buying, supporting, sharing, cheerleading and most of all holding me up. This business would be nothing without my customers and moving forward I will continue to run the business based on kindness, respect, inclusivity. Everyone is welcome in our gang. Long may it continue.

Lucy oxox

p.s the best place to find up to the minute updates is by following me on Instagram.