University of Lincoln Careers & Employability

E-commerce site supplying the gardening retail market.

Number of Employees: 3 for Garden Supplies alongside another 3 for British Hardwood

Set Up in May 2008. Website went live March 2009, still developing the business in terms of product range and maximising our exposure on-line. Sited on the same premises and operates from the same offices as the original business (British Hardwood Tree Nursery Ltd) which is a successful family run concern and has been trading for over 20 years.

• Involvement in a start-up business in e-commerce.
• Real business experience
• Possibly a variety between the two businesses
• Being in a position to take on some tasks and work on them independently to develop their own time management skills
• Experience new software programmes (if they have not done so already)
• Possibly (and we would hope this would be the case) the satisfaction of being able to contribute to our team and its targets

Garden Supplies is currently run by a Husband and Wife Team (Andrew and Zoe Henderson) and they make up the Directors of the company

There is currently one full-time employee who is responsible for the day to day operations of the pick, pack and despatch of orders as well as website maintenance. The rest of the work load is shared between the three of us.

The business does tend to receive ad hoc support from other employees based on the same site working for British Hardwood. This can come in various forms whether it’s from the secretary assisting with processing orders or from the outdoor team in the packing shed.

The two businesses are quite different, but the team of staff available across both have to remain flexible to support each other at peak trading times.

Ideally we would like our current full-time employee to be free to concentrate on what he does best which is IT based; maintaining the website, setting promotions running etc. It is our intention, as the business grows, to have dedicated individuals fulfilling more specific roles, for example Buying, Warehouse Supervison, Marketing.

We would be happy to consider students for work experience – they would need to make contact with Zoe Henderson in the first instance on 01673 818046.

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