It’s all very well running your own business and paying vast amounts of money for advertising. To me though, what really counts is when someone phones you up out of the blue and asks for details so they can feature your business in their magazine.

The first was Eve magazine (for non UK readers, it’s a Good Housekeeping type of mag for 20-35 year olds). They wanted some information on the individual cooking kits we do so they could feature them in an article on children’s cooking. That was great - just a paragraph about Cottage Cooks and the cooking kits, courses, cookie cutters and aprons, but it was written by someone interested in my business!!

Then a journalist from The Times phoned up - they were doing a feature in children’s cooking parties and wanted to know all about our “DIY” themed cooking parties as well as the individual cooking kits. Unfortunately, that article focused on one of my main cooking party rivals (who’ve been established for some years now) but Cottage Cooks still  got a mention as an alternative supplier. A little write-up  in the Times was certainly not to be sniffed at.

Following on from the Eve magazine article, they then contacted me to see if I wanted to take Cottage Cooks to the first Eve Style Show at the Birmingham NEC in December. I was torn as it sounded fabulous but was costly for the stand and my previous experiences of shows weren’t great. But I figured it would be a great time to show off some fantastic products……..after all, a cooking kit or cooking course is a perfect gift for the kids who have everything!!