Former Dragon Theo Paphitis Selects Shalford Business As A Winner

Published on: 12 Sep, 2014
Updated on: 12 Sep, 2014

By Ruchi Srivastava

It is not everyone that can say they have received the nod of approval from the famous Dragon’s Den entrepreneur Theo Paphitis but Lara Bishop, the owner and driving force of Shalford based Corporate Baby, is one of that select few.

Lara’s online business, which supplies luxury baby gifts, has received the acclaimed Small Business Sunday award.

This unique initiative run by Theo Paphitis was started in October 2010. Those who wish to take part send him a tweet describing their business on any Sunday between 5pm and 7:30pm. Paphitis then chooses the six best tweets, amongst the thousands sent to him and retweets to his 450,000 followers.

Lara Bishop

Lara Bishop, who works from her Shalford home, has been delighted and astounded by the award. She said: ” I cannot quite believe that we have succeeded in being recognised by the influential businessman Theo Paphitis. It means so much and I am very proud to have Corporate Baby’s name shared with his thousands of followers.”

“I have always been interested in creating things and I enjoy working with textiles, drawing and painting.”

This was reflected in her education. After taking her GCSE’s in Guildford, she studied Art and Design at the Farnham Art College.

The decision to purchase Corporate Baby in 2011 was made partly due to her zeal to create things and also because of Lara’s love for baby clothes. She is a mother to twin girls, Sophie and Ella.

Recognising that there was a gap in the market with regard to maternity as well as paternity gifts, Corporate Baby specialises in selling beautifully made baby clothes along with a range of useful, high-quality accessories to be given as gifts, carefully presented in a keepsake box or hand wrapped.

High quality gifts for babies or to celebrate their arrival.

Customers of Corporate Baby include corporate clients and individuals who want unique, special gifts for new babies, particularly for “baby showers”. With the corporate clients, the business usually works with HR departments suggesting the perfect baby gift for their employees as part of a reward and benefit scheme.

In March Corporate Baby has also received the Jacqueline Gold for a Women in Business WOW award.