Jo started her side hustle making handmade artisan chocolate back in 2019 after her dream of owning her own restaurant was crushed when she was diagnosed with a large brain tumour
A brain tumour diagnosis put the brakes on one woman’s dream of opening her own restaurant – but it did help her launch a completely different side hustle, which has now made her an award-winning chocolatier.
Jo Garnham-Parks, from Sheffield, has always loved cooking but never considered it a career. The 54-year-old spent the majority of her working life within the charity sector, working her way up to the top and eventually becoming a Chief Operating Officer (COO).
Although she cared deeply about her work, she didn’t feel as fulfilled as she did when working with food. So, a few years ago, she decided to follow her passion and retrain as a chef. At the age of 44, Jo’s plan was to open her own restaurant, and she was on the verge of doing so, but a devastating brain tumour diagnosis changed everything.
After undergoing multiple surgeries that left her with stroke-like symptoms, Jo could no longer pursue her dream of working in a professional kitchen. She told the Mirror: “I went in for an MRI for something else, but this was when they found a large brain tumour which was about a quarter the size of my brain.
“I got most of it taken out, but there were complications, and my left side wasn’t able to work properly. I also had lingering symptoms, so there was no way I could do a service. But I still had a hankering to do something.”
Jo didn’t want to give up on her plan to work with food. Instead, she turned to chocolate, specifically handmade artisan chocolate, and this was when Chocolates By Design was born. She added, “It wasn’t specifically chocolate; it was all about making something really beautiful.”
“The chocolates I make are designed not only for beauty, but also for the taste, as I have an experimental range which features more unusual flavour combinations you wouldn’t normally see. This is what I hoped to do with my restaurant.
“So my raspberry lychee and lilac chocolate is designed so you get floral notes of raspberry, which will increase with the lychees. Then you’ll move to lilac, so you’re really at the top of the band for the floral flavours, but then you’ll come back to a sharp raspberry at the end. I wanted to design flavours which take you on a journey.”
In 2019, Jo began working on her products, and at Christmas, she took them to her first market. The market stall consisted of a small glass cabinet which displayed the chocolate, with Jo, her cash pack, and her husband’s spare card reader.
After 10 minutes of opening up, Jo almost packed everything away as she hadn’t sold anything. “I was petrified,” she said. “I thought no one was going to come to me, so I was set on leaving. People kept asking if they were gems and I had to explain. But then, all of a sudden, I went a little crazy. We made £300 in one day, which back then, was a big deal to go from nothing to £300. It was huge for us.”
Jo then launched an Etsy shop for Chocolates By Design, and over 2020 and 2021, she took on orders mainly for Easter and Christmas. Doing this alongside her full time work as a COO, Jo said the work became “full on” as the number of orders grew. In 2023, she expanded her online store, opening it all year round due to the demand.
She added: “Honestly, we were not even touching the marketing line of things, but we were doing really well. I soon realised I was spending more and more of my spare time making chocolate.”
Jo continued to grow the business, mainly by taking her speciality chocolates to multiple artisan and farmers markets across the north west. After a “challenging” contract at her full-time charity job, Jo decided to leave and potentially take on a part-time consultancy role to support her.
However, this was not the case and Chocolates By Design orders suddenly “went crazy”. Jo explained: “We got a contract with Porsche to match chocolates with their special edition cars. I got a contract from EA Games for a Halloween launch. I’ve done some hotels, and we also got a contract with a French dairy farm to make chocolates with their cheeses. This kind of business has been amazing, and I still sit here and go, what’s happening.”
Jo officially quit other full time work in December 2023, to put all her effort into Chocolates by Design. With artisan markets still being Jo’s main source of income, six months ago, she decided to invest in Visa’s Tap to Phone technology. This app allows business owners to accept contactless payments through their smartphones, with the money going straight into their nominated bank account.
Jo said: “When we first started, we took mainly cash, but I did have a card reader too because of my husband’s business. But you do find yourself in a pickle if you can’t take a card. I sometimes would take payments for other stallholders and send them the money.
“Sometimes it’s also hard to get a signal, and it would take ages for payments to go through, so it started to get frustrating because customers would walk away if it was busy and payments were taking too long.”
Jo said the move had “absolutely revolutionised” her business. Previously, Jo’s market days would take around £800; however, during one trading day at the Maker’s Market in Sheffield last Christmas, she was able to bring in £2,500 in just four hours with Tap to Phone.
She added: “It was literally because we could get through more people than we could before. Nobody was being held up, plus more than one of us could take payments at the same time. So it made things so much smoother and easier overall.”
Jo says other small businesses should consider Tap to Pay as an option, particularly if they rely on markets like she does. She added, “Honestly, it’s made a huge difference. The old ones I used often broke, and it would be a bit stressful trying to fix them when your customer is standing in front of you, you know, tapping their foot and waiting to pay.
So now I have peace of mind, and that little bit of added stress is gone. I’ve truly been raving about it to other small businesses in the markets.”
This year, Chocolates by Design was awarded a Silver Medal at the Free From Awards, coming second to Tesco and BoojaBooja. Looking ahead, Jo anticipates a 250% increase in sales across her product range and sees Tap to Phone as one of the main reasons for this. Alongside this,
“It’s a dream come true to do this as my full time job, and I love it,” she said, “We’ve got weekends booked at markets until the end of May, and then again in June and August. From October onwards, we’re also fully booked as we lead up to Christmas. We are starting to see it snowball now, and I can’t believe it.”
READ MORE: Doc Martens axes price of ‘comfortable and stylish’ sandals shoppers ‘wore so much last summer’
