IT’S been a rather random career path for Sally Hall so far, but one she hopes is on the verge of business success.

Because, the former student of Worcester Sixth Form College, who worked as an entertainer at Disney World and then qualified as a lawyer, has now won a business prize for an online boutique.

Mrs Hall – who was Sally Dey to her Worcester classmates at Nunnery Wood High and then the Sixth Form College – has won a round of the Local Business Accelerators competition for Dorothy and Theodore, an online store she runs with her business partner Emma Fear. Since being launched last year, the online boutique has grown rapidly and now represents more than 100 sellers with a range of about a 1,000 products. Along with homewares, dorothyand theodore.com also markets maternity wear, children’s wear, baby clothes, parenting accessories, jewellery, stationery and even cupcakes along with some, one-of-a-kind gifts.

Mrs Hall, who now lives in Stratford-upon-Avon, although her parents are still in London Road, Worcester, left the city in the mid-1980s to take a degree in theatre studies at Middlesex University. “After that I worked on the cruise ships and Disney World in both Paris and Florida,” she said. “Then I decided to have a complete change and went to law school. I qualified as a lawyer and worked at that for six years.”

Sally Hall and Emma Fear set up Dorothy and Theodore following their own frustrations in trying to find practical family living products which were also stylish.

The LBA competition, which is a Newspaper Society initiative, aims to give a boost to emerging local businesses and the pair won a round organised by the Solihull Observer. They will now go forward to the Midland regional finals when they will be up against other LBA local winners including Citrus Kids Clubs of Droitwich Road, Worcester, which topped the LBA competition organised by the Worcester News.