Entrepreneurs John Whyte & Vivienne Lawson of Johnnie Cupcakes

            

Johnnie Cupcakes is a start up company from October 2009 and was set up by John Whyte and his partner Vivienne Lawson from Rathdrinagh in Meath.
John's previous occupation was an architect and Vivienne's background is in Interior design.  As a result of the economic downturn in 2008/2009 Johnnie Cupcakes was born when a kiosk in the Ilac Centre in Dublin became available and John and Vivienne saw an opportunity to begin trading from it.  With a disused photographic studio and storage area in their backyard, they refurbished this into a small bakery and Vivienne did a crash course in bakery and was assisted by a DKIT lecturer in pastry (Rosemary Leonard Lynch).
With a bakery staff headcount of 2 plus Vivienne the number of kiosks grew to 3 by the middle of 2010 and in 2013 the number of shops in Ireland has grown to 7 and Johnnie Cupcakes is now trading in 11 locations in the UK with 9 pending locations awaiting contracts etc to be completed.

Having won the "Outstanding Small / Medium Business award" in the Meath area in 2012 the company goes from strength to strength having moved their operations from the back garden to a purpose built bakery in Ashbourne Co Meath and now employing staff from the Meath area in their bakery and head office and over 70 staff in total in their kiosks throughout Ireland and the UK.



I asked Vivienne what she thinks sets Johnnie Cupcakes apart from it's competitors and she said "What makes us different, The kiosk model, specializing in one product line, looking at display in a different way to traditional bakery set up"

I asked John what he thinks the secret to their success is and his reply was "What makes it work, we started with an end game in mind, we have a five year plan, we are now in our fifth year and are drawing up another 5 year plan.  We are broadly in line with the plan, some things take longer, but basically it takes strong will, determination, the plan, good people  and some luck to make it work"

Below are some of the delicious items supplied by Johnnie Cupcakes


More images and information on locations and ordering can be found at www.johnniecupcakes.ie

Amazon - An overview of the service provided

Amazon is an online shopping website which is available in various countries from United Kingdom to Ireland to Australia, Brazil and Japan to name but a few.  Items available to purchase on the website range from electronics to clothing, books (both physical and e-books) to toys and games.

The Amazon website that I subscribe to is www.amazon.co.uk and that is the site I will be using screenshots etc to backup the information I will provide in this blog.....
When you first log into your Amazon account you are given a list of special offers tailored to your previous choices of both actual purchases and items that you have previously viewed on the website.  Below is a screenshot of my Amazon homepage...

One of the major benefits of an Amazon account is the relatively new "1 click payment service".  This feature stores your default payment and shipping information from your first purchase and allows you to purchase items by just using one click therefore removing the need to enter your shipping address and payment information therefore saving you time and allowing you to purchase items hassle free!  This Amazon feature sets it apart from other competitors who require you to re-submit your information every time you want to buy something.

Amazon have also recently introduced the Amazon Prime Service which guarantees a 2 day delivery time worldwide on millions of items.  In December 2013 more than one million customers around the world became Amazon Prime customers and the Holiday season of 2013 proved to be Amazon's most successful ever with more than 36.8 million items ordered worldwide on Cyber Monday which equates to a record breaking 426 items per second!  This information can be viewed in the following report from the Econsultancy website report at the following location http://bit.ly/1hFwt7i 

If you are new to Amazon, there are plenty of guides available on the internet to help you with your first purchase......  The video below will help you with your first purchase...

Amazon has a huge troubleshooting page too which minimises the need to contact the company should you have a problem... every question you could possibly need to ask is in the troubleshooting section and therefore removes the need to contact the company should you have a problem

I would highly recommend the Amazon service and can say that every item I have ever purchased from this site has been high quality and I have never had a problem with them.