Did someone say Drink?

So at the beginning of this month, we finally received the go ahead to start serving alcohol in the Tea Room!!
We have pushed this in a sophisticated manner, as we don't want the Tea Room to become a "boozer" but a Haven where people can chill and have a refreshing drink before/after a bit of retail therapy.
Below are a few of the photos we have taken to promote the drinks. Each week we will also do a Tea Room Special which will include an alcoholic beverage. For example, our Wimbledon Special was a bottle of Prossecco with Strawberries and Cream for £6.

So over the last few weeks, a lot of preparation and planning has been happening to organise a Fun Day for both 13years of the store being open, and a fundraiser for Cancer Research UK. We are hoping this will bring a lot of interest to the store and raise a lot of money for the chosen charity in the mean time! From designing the raffle tickets to booking the Bucking Bronco Machine (On the day competition) I have tried to throw myself head first into this, and I am wanting as much publicity as I can obtain.

Also we managed to get a free pair of riding boots from a company called Mountain Horse, so we could run a Facebook "Like and Share" competition (as spoke about earlier in the blog). The competition finished with us having nearly 900,000 people viewing the post, 8.7k shares and we have now managed to get over 11,000 followers on Facebook! The post couldn't have gone any better. A girl from Manchester won the boots and was over the moon, and came the same day to get measured up!

As well as the fun day planning and becoming an overnight success on Facebook, everyday NEW people are coming through the door. They are travelling from far and wide to come and get a taste of the "Iron Horse Experience" (something that I am extremely passionate about, and implement the quote every day!). We had a great guy and his mum come from Loughborough, and had travelled over an hour... he was over the moon, that we had everything he needed to look amazing for his up and coming events. He was kitted out with new leather riding boots, breeches and a show jacket, as well as lots of little bits for his lorry. They agreed that we was definitely worth the drive and they would be back again!

Comments and reactions like this, make you realise you're doing something right!

(Above - 2 of the images/advertisements I have created to increase talk of the store and promote my new slogan)

While the cats are away, the mice will.... Make money!!!

So this weekend I have been left to run the shop with Jean (Owner). From what started to be a quiet week turned into a busy and profitable weekend! Sales are up and the footfall of the shop is starting to increase.

I am beginning to drive towards a slogan for the shop, to encourage our colleagues to deliver great customer service, making them want to shop with us time and time again. The slogan I have chose is:

The slogan is something I am passionate about, and I am constantly working on how we can turn our shopper's trips into an experience! It is already starting to show with customers coming through the door and not only coming to treat their horses, but using the Tea Room as a lunch destination or a place where they can meet with friends.

The shop is becoming a talking point around the equine world, people desperate to try our cakes, milkshakes and coffees. Customers are beginning to come from far and wide after seeing our posts on Facebook and word of mouth. This week we had a family come from Malaysia, they had come to the UK for 5 days to Sheffield. Whilst they were here on their mini break, they came to us to buy a pair of boots for their daughter to take back home, as she was studying to be an Equine Coach.

10,000 Facebook Page Likes!!!

So this has just happened....

10,000 facebook page likes!!

In just 3 days the Facebook page has increased in activity by 51,780%!! Is that even possible???

This is such a milestone for the business, and I am glad I have been a part of it... Here's to many many more :)

Like and share competitions...

As I am big on marketing through social media, the management team and I have spoke to sales reps for different companies to help us with prizes for "Like and Share" competitions on our Facebook Group.

We have done 2 of these so far, with a good turnout of people entering the competition. These were:

Heygates Equi- Balancer

Animalife Vetrofen Sachets

BUT nobody could have guessed the outcome of our next competition. A FREE pair of Mountain Horse Sovereign Competition Boots. We added the post online on Sunday 25th June and would run the competition until Sunday 9th July.

Within the first 10 minutes, we had 70+ shares and likes on the post. Throughout the day this increased astronomically... at the beginning of the day our Facebook page had around 7100 likes... In just 24 hours this increased to 9000 page likes. The post had received 5,569 shares and the post itself had reached over HALF A MILLION PEOPLE! Our website had a huge increase in views too, from a handful per day to nearly 200 per day!

As I am writing this post the page is only 12 away from 10,000 likes and the post itself has 6450 shares, and has reached 662,736 people!!

It is amazing to watch the shares and page likes increase every minute... makes me realise I am doing something right!!

Mega Milkshakes...

So all over the internet I see places creating amazing ideas for food and drink. I wanted to add this to our Tea Room to make it appeal to all ages, and give the customers something to take a photo of and share all over the internet.

Originally we were selling Milkshakes and if you paid extra you could have cream and a topping of your choice... this just wasn't as theatrical as I wanted. After conversations with Jo, we decided to create the Mega Milkshakes!! Milkshakes (which are actually 99% fat free) with cream, sauce, toppings AND CAKE!!!

We posted a photo of one to the Facebook page, and within 24 hours we could see there was a real interest. People sharing and tagging the photo to their friends, saying how they were visiting to have one.... so we made more and kept posting them online until we had 4 flavours...

Strawberry Sensation

Chocolate Caos

Victorious Vanilla

& Banana Bonanza

These took off instantly!! Selling more and more as each day came by... and as the Bank Holiday arrived the orders of Mega Milkshakes increased to a point we couldn't fit people in the tea room!!

Success!!

Uniform...

So one of my ideas was to implement a uniform into the store, so colleagues were more notifiable and looked professional...

I decided a Polo shirt and Hoody would be great for all the colleagues. Including aprons for the Tea Room upstairs.

Here is what was created (and excuse the bad hair):
Hoodies for the shop

 Polo Shirt for the shop

Aprons for the Tea Room and above the Polo shirts.