Aim

Aim: To bring Not Before Tea, the creation of 9 year old Henry Patterson to life. The brand is a modern Beatrix Potter, selling sweetie themed gifts and creative crafts for children. Centred around two main characters: Pip the mouse and Sherb the owl. Henry's business has been using a page on my (his mothers) website and it is now time for it to spread its wings and have its own identity. Recently Henry was invited to pitch to Sainsburys and was nominated for the Great British Entrepreneur Awards. Now is the time for Notbeforetea to fly.

Created by 9 year old Henry Patterson, Not Before Tea sells sweets, sweet themed gifts and creative crafts for children between the age of 3-11 years old.

Based around two fictional charactors that Henry created, Sherb the owl and Pip the mouse (who live in a sweet shop called Not Before Tea) the business is all about  traditional values such as baking as a family, drawing, bed time stories, building camps and exploring nature. These are the ingredients to lasting childhood memories.

THE STORY SO FAR...

It all began when I (his mother) told him stories about when I used to cycle to sweet shops to spend my 10p. He was fascinated about how much detail I went in to and felt sad that there was no magic in sweets for children these days.

He set out to create six magical sweetie jars: Mud & Worms, Aliens in Space, Girls Only, Boys Only, Mallow Meadows and My Little Fishing Jar.  Each jar comes with a glass pen to decorate it afterwards (Henry says this is to soften the blow that the sweets have gone and also to encourage recycling!). They also come with reward stickers for brushing your teeth.  

Henry then went on to write a collection of short stories on Pip the mouse and Sherb the owl who live in a sweet shop called Not Before Tea. He has just completed the product range with 8 Doodlepods (bags of creative fabric art to keep children entertained after tea).

(above) Opening day of Henrys Pop up Britain shop

AWARDS AND ADVENTURES...

When he launched in March, Henry was given honorary membership to the Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce (where he was the youngest member ever).

He was invited to pitch (on his own, for the cynics who think it is all my doing) to Sainsburys a few weeks ago and they were impressed with the range but wanted us to develop the packaging and supply chain. They particulary liked his jar of Mud & Worms (only a child could create an appealing jar of dirty brown chocolate mud and jelly worms!).

Last week Henry was nominated for The Great British Entrepreneur Awards which attracted a huge amount of media attention.

Henry has had media attention from all of the national UK press including The Times, The Daily Mail, The Independent, BBC News and accross Europe, Australia, Japan and New York. They will all be keen to cover the next phase of his journey.

The Metro (above) and The Times - both week commencing 24 October 2013.

HOW CROWDFUNDER CAN HELP?

This has been a very exciting six months and it is time to develop this in to a strong brand with its own website (it currently lives on my retro sweet shop Sherbet pip). We will use the funding to develop an interactive site, produce the doodlepods and publish/print the series of books created by Henry.  We would also like to exhibit at large events next year such as the BBC Goodfood Show to promote Not Before Tea.

Any funds we raise over our target amount will go towards making our dream of bringing the Not Before Tea magical sweet shop to life with an actual bricks and mortar shop in Herts.

HELPING OTHERS...

Henry has volunteered to do some talks to school leavers about how to turn a concept in to a business and proving that working can be fun!  Not every child finishes school for various reasons;  I believe that examples such as Henrys business will give them the inspiration and confidence to perhaps develop skills they have and with the right guidence go on to develop a business of their own. We are passionate to ensure this message runs alongside the commercial stream of the business.

For his story and full press coverage click here

(above) Pitching to Sainsburys

(above) With Jon Wright, Innocent Drinks

(above) REWARD Handmade fimo clay allsorts bracelet 

(above) A Not Before Tea ja (Mud & Worms)

(Above) - REWARD Handmade Fimo Rolo (will be on key ring)

(Above - REWARD Retro Sweet Hamper

Product range here: www.notbeforetea.co.uk 

This project closed unsuccessfully on 29th November 2013