The Easyspace Blog

Carrie Green started her first online business, Easy Mobile Unlock, at the age of 20 whilst studying Law at the University of Birmingham. Within a few years she had taken it global, selling throughout the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and Europe and receiving over 100,000 hits on the website every month.

After feeling isolated running her business she wanted to connect with women who were going through or had gone through similar experiences. This led her in 2011 to start the Female Entrepreneur Association, which helps women interested in business to keep motivated and overcome challenges. It has thousands of members from all over the world.

Easyspace were delighted to interview Carrie:

Q1. Carrie, you graduated from university with a Law degree. Please tell us a little bit about your background and what led to you to becoming an entrepreneur instead of a lawyer.

I started my first business, a mobile phone unlocking company, in the summer of 2005 in between my first and second year of studying Law at the University of Birmingham. I’d used up my student loan from my first year and needed to find a way to make some money – I had a look around for jobs, but found nothing I liked and then I spotted an opportunity to start an online mobile phone unlocking business. I knew nothing about mobile phone unlocking and nothing about starting a business, but I thought it would be fun and I had nothing to lose.

I really had no clue about getting started, so my only option was to ask for help! Within a few weeks I’d created a website (which was awful, but got me started) and I set up a Google Adwords account to drive traffic to my site and with a credit card and a spending limit of £30 per day my business was officially up and running. When I wasn’t in lectures I was learning how to grow the business – reading books, listening to audio programmes, going to night school. By the time I graduated, the business was going really well! I was confused about whether or not to carrying on with Law, so I got some work experience at Warner Bros. working in with their in-house legal team. It was an amazing experience, but I loved building my own business. I loved the freedom of it, I loved coming up with my own ideas and turning them into a reality, so I decided to cancel my place to do the Law Practitioners Course and I set my sights on taking my business global.

Q2. Why did you setup the Female Entrepreneur Association?

I set the Female Entrepreneur Association up in 2011 because I felt isolated running my online business. I used to work day in day out from the office in my apartment and ultimately it became lonely. When times were challenging I felt like I was going through it alone, none of my friends understood my problems, but I knew there must be lots of like-minded women out there and I wanted to find them.

Another big reason why I set it up was because I’d started to feel really unfulfilled running the mobile phone unlocking company. I read the E-myth by Michael Gerber and in it he says imagine walking into a room, sat down in the room are your friends and family. As you begin to walk towards the front of the room you see a box, and as you get closer you realise that you’re in the box – it’s your funeral. He asks, “what kind of things would you want people to be saying about the kind of life you lived, about the kind of person you were, about the kind of things you achieved?” It made me realise that I didn’t want to be known as the person that ran a mobile phone unlocking company!!! Yes it provided me with financial freedom and it was a great experience, but mobile phone unlocking was not my dream or my passion. I realised that I wanted to do something that made a difference, something that was about helping others.

So in 2011 I launched the Female Entrepreneur Association, an online platform where women from around the world can share their stories, experiences and advice about building their business in the hope that it inspires and empowers other women. We also publish a free, digital magazine once a month called This Girl Means Business, which features how-tos, interviews, inspiration and strategies for building a successful business.

Q3. What was involved in setting up your website?

I built the website myself using WordPress. It’s so easy and you can find so many amazing themes from places like themeforest.net! Choosing a name was tough – to be honest there’s been about 4 different names! I think that sometimes people put their business idea on hold because they don’t know what the best name for their business is. I honestly think the best thing is to get started – you can always change it later on.

Whenever I can’t do something on my website I just google it or watch videos on YouTube and normally I figure it out – if I can’t then I use elance.com to find a developer who can help me.

Q4. Of all the female entrepreneurs you have met & interviewed – who is your favourite & why?

Lara Morgan, the founder of Company Shortcuts. She started her first business at the age of 23 and then sold her majority share 17 years later for £20 million. In interviews she’s so open and honest about how she managed to do it, which is refreshing. She’s down to earth and inspires people to believe that if she can build a successful business then anyone can.

Q5. How did you market your Female Entrepreneur Association website/magazine when you first started and how do you promote it now?

At the beginning I spent a lot of time networking offline and raising awareness of it through meeting people at events and then I started leveraging the power of LinkedIn. I set up a group on LinkedIn for female entrepreneurs and then invited all the women I’d networked with to join it. I also joined other groups for female entrepreneurs and posted out messages asking if anyone wanted to share their story on the website. I was inundated with stories! I also set up google alerts for the keyword ‘female entrepreneur’ and when relevant articles popped up I would get in touch with the journalist (sometimes I had to guess their email address!) and share my thoughts. That led to me being featured in newspapers like the Telegraph.

Nowadays I do a lot of marketing on Facebook – I have over 52,000 fans and it’s an amazing platform for engaging with people who are interested in what I’m doing. I also network like crazy offline and online – I’m very clear about the people I want to meet (people who I’d love to ask advice from and people who I’d love to do business with) and I make it my mission to get to know them. I think the key with this is to do something for others unconditionally. Be prepared to give and ask for nothing in return in order to build your relationships with people. Think about how you can help others, before thinking about how to help yourself. I truly believe in the Law of Reciprocity.

Q6. How do you create the magazine – what’s involved in producing the final product?

I publish the magazine every month, so my main focus is finding good content, amazing people to interview and companies that would like to advertise and reach thousands of women.

Once I have the content ready for an issue I send it on to my designer, who then creates the layout and makes it all look good. Once it’s all ready to go, it’s uploaded to Issuu and from there I embed it on my website and then share it with my network (email and social media).

Q7. How do you make money from your website / online magazine?

At the moment we generate revenue through sponsorship, advertisement and masterclasses.

Q8. You include on your website YouTube videos. Why did you do this and how do you create them i.e. editing software, equipment, lighting, scripting, etc? Any advice on how businesses can use video to promote themselves?

I’ve found that making videos is a brilliant way to engage and build trust with my network. It makes it all more personal when you can see someone talking about something. I publish a new video each week – they’re generally a 5-10 minute how-to video. I share things that have really helped me throughout my business journey – from how to handle isolation, to strategies for getting more out of your time.

When I first started creating them I used my laptop to film and I didn’t write a script – I just went with the flow. As things developed I learnt more about creating videos and invested in some good equipment – a good camera, a tripod, lighting (this makes so much difference!) and I script all my videos.

I think video is such a great way to connect with your audience – video has much more of an impact and there are so many ways you could use video… how-to videos, demonstrations, answering popular FAQs… I could go on!

Q9. How do you use Facebook and other social media e.g. Twitter, to promote your website/magazine? How successful has it been for you?

Social media has been unbelievably effective for me. Facebook alone drives thousands and thousands of visitors to my website every day and enables me to reach out to people in such a powerful way. At the moment I have been focusing on developing my fan page, because it’s been so effective, I try and post out at least 3 times a day if not more. I’ve managed to build a following of over 52,000 fans within about a year and I can tell you for sure that it was worth the effort.

Q10. If you had the chance to start Female Entrepreneur Association all over again, what would you do differently?

I’m not sure I would do anything differently. It’s been an amazing journey and I’ve learnt so much and I think everything has happened in the right way, at the right time.

Q11. Which entrepreneur/person has inspired you the most & why?

My dad. He built a company when I was child, which was incredibly successful and I’ve learnt so much from him. He’s always taught me that anything is possible and encouraged me to be the best I can be. When I was little my parents put a picture on my wall of a soaring eagle and underneath the words read, “your attitude determines your altitude in life”. Since I was a teenager my dad has been buying me business books and personal development books, like Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I feel privileged to have such amazing parents who have always believed in me and encouraged me.

Q12. What’s it like managing your business? Do you have any staff or do you outsource tasks? Describe your typical day.

I mainly outsource tasks as I like knowing that I can work from anywhere that has an internet connection – something I wouldn’t be able to do if I worked from an office and employed people.

A typical day includes writing content or organising content for the website and magazine. Share content on social media – although I do like to schedule posts in advance. I travel to London almost every week for meetings and I spend quite a lot of time chatting on Skype with people in the States – making time to build great relationships and expand my network has been so important. I also spend a lot of time marketing – whether it’s creating a campaign for a new masterclass or maybe the launch of a new guide.

Q13. What advice would you give to somebody thinking of starting their own business?

Dream big! Don’t let your doubts and worries hold you back. You only get one life, so go for it.

Get really clear about what you want to achieve. Write it down, set a deadline and create a plan.

Take action! Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is a habit not an act.” you have to discipline yourself to take action and to do the things you have to do in order to reach your goals.

Never give up on yourself. Building a business is not going to be a walk in the park, there will probably be times when you feel confused, times when you haven’t got a clue and times when you feel like it’s hopeless. But you’ve got to remember that the ones who make are the ones who hang on when everyone else has let go.

Q14. What are your future plans for Female Entrepreneur Association?

To build the best online support platform for female entrepreneurs all over the world. I want to help inspire and empower women to believe in themselves, to believe that they can turn their ideas into a successful reality and to give them the support they need to do it.

Thanks Carrie, from everyone at Easyspace.

To find out more about Carrie and her business please visit her website www.FemaleEntrepreneurAssociation.com

Build a website with Easyspace today !

Has Carrie’s online activities inspired you to start your own online business venture? If it has, then start off by registering the domain name you want for your business. Then get your website set up. With this in mind, Easyspace has created EasySiteLive PRO – a website builder product, to help get your website up and running in no time. Click here to try our new EasySiteLive PRO website builder for 21 Days Free of charge.

An increasingly common site on the streets of the UK is to see people dressed up in animal costumes – particularly on a Friday or Saturday night. If you have seen anyone wearing such an outfit, then there’s a good chance they purchased it from Kigu.co.uk. The word ‘Kigu’ is short for ‘kigurumi’, which literally translates as ‘costumed animal character’ in Japanese. Kigurumi are already hugely popular in Japan, where they are worn as both streetwear and pyjamas, but they’ve never been sold outside Asia before. Kigu was the first company to bring these amazing animal suits to Europe.

Easyspace recently interviewed Kigu.co.uk founder Tom Cohn:

Q1. Tom, tell us a little bit about your background and what led to you to becoming an entrepreneur and setting up Kigu.co.uk.

I’m 27 years old and grew up in Alexandra Palace in North London. Growing up I was obsessed with skateboarding, music and partying. I went to Sussex University where I studied Geography with Management Studies and as part of the course we had to write a business plan. I had been introduced to kigurumi (Japanese animal onesies) by some friends who had brought them back from a trip to Japan. So decided to use the idea of importing, rebranding and selling kigurumi to the UK festival market as my business plan idea.

Following graduation I couldn’t find a job and I’d always wanted to be self-employed, so I decided to put the business plan I’d devised at university into action. Together with my best friend Nick, we pooled together £4,000, built a quick and easy website and bought 300 kigurumi from Japan to the UK to sell to friends and other like-minded people.

Q2. What was involved in setting up Kigu i.e. choosing a domain name, website, ecommerce system, premises, staff, securing suppliers, etc? Did you follow a business plan and how difficult was it getting the business established in the early days?

Cost dictated every choice we made. We used whatever was free or very cheaply available. We used Big Cartel as our ecommerce platform because it was very cheap and we only took payments through PayPal. We had a close friend build our website in a day. Another friend knocked up a logo. There was no money for staff or premises, we just did everything ourselves and worked from home, storing our stock in my parents’ attic. We didn’t follow a business plan as such. We just did all we could to get our brand out there!

Established the company was easier than I thought. Staying in stock was the problem. As cashflow was so tight, we couldn’t afford to buy more Kigus until we had sold our current batch. We’d then have to wait 6 weeks for the next delivery to arrive from Japan. This led to us being sold out for long periods, which was painful. But in the end I think that helped our cause. It made Kigus really hard to get hold of which seemed to boost demand even further.

Q3. How did you market your business when you first started and how do you promote it now?

At first we promoted our business through word of mouth. We got all of our friends to wear Kigus when they went to festivals and out clubbing and it started to catch on. Soon celebrities like Lily Allen, Florence and the Machine and Alex Turner were spotted wearing our stuff, which caused a snowball effect in terms of demand. Social media was a vital, free way of getting word to spread about what we were doing.

On Kigu’s first anniversary we decided to throw a party, with the help of Diesel UK. We gave away 100 Flying Squirrel Kigus to guests and offered a free bar. Unsurprisingly, tickets sold out in a matter of minutes and the event was featured on a number of high profile blogs and websites. Since then we’ve run about 4 big events a year, from a Guinness World Record breaking piggy back race to a party in a container in Shoreditch. If we can build our brand by doing things that are fun for us personally, then all the better!

Q4. How do you use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc, to promote your businesses? How successful has it been for you? Any advice on how businesses can use social media to promote themselves?

Facebook is the social media channel that we concentrate on most. We use it to post things we think our fans would find interesting, update people of new products and events and ask people for feedback on new products and ideas we’re bringing out. We try and be as responsive as possible. People like to feel that they’re involved in the direction of the brand. And we want them to be! We’ve never paid for any Facebook ads or promoted posts so our following isn’t as big as we’d like it to be. But the level of engagement is outstanding. We’ve started having a more focused approach to Twitter recently which has seen our number of followers grow by a thousand or so in the last couple of months.

I’m not sure I’m qualified to give advice in this area, but I believe social media is used most effectively to start conversations between brands and their fans. If you’re simply updating your followers on company developments, opening times, best sellers etc then don’t be surprised if you’re engagement is low. Also, it’s a good idea to make the most of the great social media apps out there which can make life a lot easier. We use TweetDeck, Topsy, TwitterCounter, N0tice and check our Facebook insights in depth on a weekly basis.

Q5. You originally went out to Japan to source suppliers of Onesies. How easy was it dealing with Japanese companies? Do you continue dealing with your original suppliers?

Dealing with Japanese suppliers is fantastic. They’re extremely polite, loyal, honest and a pleasure to do business with. We’re still using the same supplier that we have had since day 1 and we’ll continue to do so, simply because they make the best product on the market in terms of both design and quality. When we go on trips to Japan they give us a great welcome and really look after us. There are a couple of rituals you have to observe when dealing with the Japanese. It’s important to recognise the relatively strict company hierarchy they have in place and the old “always give and receive a business card with two hands and a bow” is still very true today. One thing I have noticed though that, largely out of politeness, the Japanese never like to say “no” to anything. This can make them hard to read. So you’re never quite as sure of where you stand on certain things as you would be with the Chinese, say. But maybe that’s just my personal experience.

Q6.Have you had any problems dealing with suppliers, and have you considered manufacturing them yourself?

The only problems have arisen from demand outstripping supply which has happened on a number of occasions. When we first started dealing with our supplier they had never exported outside Asia before. So we had to grow together. We have considered manufacturing ourselves and have done so with additional product lines, but for animal onesies, nothing less than a Japanese one will do for Kigu. There’s just too many other, inferior products about to get greedy.

Q7. You are a co-founder of Kigu with your business partner Nick Harriman. What advantages/disadvantages are there in having a business partner, as opposed to starting up on your own?

There are lots of advantages. Splitting the risk and startup costs is one thing. But the thing I most enjoy about working with a partner is having someone to share the ups and downs with. When you’re doing well, you can go out and have a drink together to celebrate. And when things go wrong, at least you know you’re not the only one suffering! Nick and I have known each other since we were about 3 years old. We grew up on the same road. So we know each other incredibly well and efficiently as a team. Our skills (or lack of them) compliment each others’ and we always come up with the strongest ideas when working together. The only real disadvantage is that decisions can take much longer to make when they have to be OK’d by two people. Having one person in charge can certainly streamline processes.

Q8. What’s it like managing your business? Do you have any staff or do you outsource tasks? Describe your typical day.

Managing my business is a lot of fun and hard work. We have one full time Business Manager, Katia, who takes charge of pretty much everything from social media to wholesale and customer service. She’s fantastic. IT, graphic design, fulfilment etc we outsource and everything else I do myself. My typical day consists of answering an endless pile of emails, updating a number of spreadsheets to ensure everything’s running smoothly, meeting with potential retailers or collaborators and going through samples for new and exciting products we can add to the range. I usually work from 10am to 7.30pm.

Q9. You currently sell via your online shop, but have you tried or considered setting up a highstreet shop or partnering with one?

Most of our sales come through our website, but we do sell products to a couple of other retailers like Urban Outfitters. We’ve run pop up shops before which have been really successful. But I still think our products are a bit niche for our own high street shop. Selling online is much more efficient and allows us more time to spend on product development.

Q10. How do your Onesies match up against your competitors and how do you stay competitive?

I honestly believe that you won’t find a better animal onesie anywhere else in the world. But they’re not the cheapest. Ours are £40, while you can find an inferior onesie (and sometimes a complete knock off of one our designs!!) for around £30 or less in shops like Primark. We stay competitive by ensuring ours are the best quality and coming up with new ideas for products people love. We try, as much as possible, to be proactive when coming up with new ideas rather than reacting to what other people are doing.

Q11. If you had the chance to start Kigu all over again, what would you do differently?

I would have protected our IP on a global scale from the outset. I would have launched Kigu Kids more quickly (we only did this at the end of 2012 and it’s already doing so well). And I would have invested in a better website sooner too. We’re building a new one now, but we could have done with it about 9 months ago.

Q12. Which entrepreneur/person has inspired you the most & why?

As an avid skateboard fan I’d have to say either Tony Hawk or Rick Howard (who owns Girl Skateboards). I like it when people are able to run a successful company that incorporates things they actually enjoy. It’s not all about the money.

Q13. What advice would you give to somebody thinking of starting their own business?

My advice would be to get some support. We wouldn’t have been able to get Kigu to where it is today without the help of two fantastic mentors, which we got through the Bright Ideas Trust. There are a lot of extremely successful people out there with lots of time on their hands, desperate to invest their wisdom into developing new businesses. If you’re under 30, these people are even easier to find. So don’t feel like you have to do everything by yourself because you don’t.

Q14. What are your future plans for Kigu?

At the moment we’re all about new products. We’re working extremely hard to develop new animal onesies and come out with some different, but complimentary product ranges. We’re hoping to have one new range out by Christmas 2013 and another out by Spring 2014. Both have never been done before, so I’m excited to see if people actually like them as much as we do, or not!

Thanks Tom, from everyone at Easyspace.

To find out more about Tom and his business please visit his website www.Kigu.co.uk

Build a website with Easyspace today !

Has Tom’s online activities inspired you to start your own online business venture? If it has, then start off by registering the domain name you want for your business. Then get your website set up. With this in mind, Easyspace has created EasySiteLive PRO – a website builder product, to help get your website up and running in no time. Click here to try our new EasySiteLive PRO website builder for 21 Days Free of charge.

You may know Claire Young from the hit TV show, The Apprentice where she reached the final in 2008. Since then Claire has been actively working on several projects which are designed to empower and enable young people in enterprise. As a businesswoman, Claire now works with School Speakers, which she founded – a business providing quality motivational speakers, for schools, colleges and universities. Claire also writes for a number of publications, co-hosts a weekly BBC radio show and makes guest contributions to various TV shows & radio channels.

Easyspace were delighted to interview Claire recently:

Q1. Claire, tell us a little bit about your background and what led to you to becoming an entrepreneur.

I went to an all-girls academic school, studied Medicine and Equine Science at university before entering the world of business. I applied for graduate roles and spent 7 years working in the Health and Beauty industry before applying for The Apprentice. I worked for L’Oreal, Colgate Palmolive and Superdrug. I took part in The Apprentice and left the experience wanting to be my own boss and the rest is history. I now own an agency called School Speakers placing people into schools to do talks and workshops for students.

Q2. You’re most well-known from your time on the BBC’s Apprentice, in which you were a finalist. What was it like taking part in the show, and how’s does it compare with life as an entrepreneur now?

The Apprentice really is the business bootcamp from hell! It is exhausting, exhilarating and life changing! You work relentless hour, work with people you don’t know, to tight timescales and have to continually come up with new ideas. That is pretty much what life is like as an entrepreneur!

Q3. What did you do after the Apprentice?

I set up School Speakers which I have previously mentioned, am a co-founder of a social enterprise called Girls Out Loud and work with a number of government groups helping young people be more enterprising – and start new businesses. I desperately enjoy what I do and get great satisfaction from making a difference. The UK needs more business start-ups and young people need opportunities, the two go hand in hand.

Q4. What was involved in setting up SchoolSpeakers i.e. website, recruiting speakers, contacting schools, etc? Did you follow a business plan and how difficult was it getting the business established in the early days?

Within 3 weeks of the idea of School; Speakers coming to me we have a live website, recruited speakers and started promoted ourselves to schools. The business was born out of demand from teachers so we grew from day one through word of mouth. Be warned, starting a new business is hard work and there are never enough hours in the day!

Q5. How did you market your business School Speakers when you first started and how do you promote it now?

Social media, word of mouth, contacting schools directly, cold calling, writing letters, emails, offering competitions and being a walking talking PR machine. You have to be unashamed and promote your business as no one else will. We now work with nearly every large campaign across the school year and have a number of collaborative partners.

Q6. How do you use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc, to promote your businesses? How successful has it been for you? Any advice on how businesses can use social media to promote themselves?

Yes we use social media every day for brand awareness reach new people and gain information. It has been very successful! My advice to people is you just have to take the plunge and go for it – you have to commit. What you put into social media is what you get out.

Q7. If you had the chance to start SchoolSpeakers all over again, what would you do differently?

Nothing, it’s all been a solid learning curve.

Q8. You also offer mentoring to business start-ups. From your experience what are the most common problems people face when starting their business, and what are the possible solutions?

Keeping their positivity as life as an entrepreneur can be lonely and very challenging. Join a network, get out to events, speak up and find a mentor!

Q9. Which entrepreneur/person has inspired you the most & why?

Alan Sugar. He has made his success (and fortune), is an OAP and could retire but he is still grafting away. I admire his drive, energy and sense of humour.

Q11. What advice would you give to somebody thinking of starting their own business?

Do your research on the market, product/service, target consumer and competition before you spend any money!

Q12. What are your future business plans?

I’d like to move into politics one day.

Thanks Claire, from everyone at Easyspace. Good luck with your business projects.

To find out more about Claire Young and School Speakers visit her websites below:

www.ClaireYoung.com

www.SchoolSpeakers.com

Build a website with Easyspace today !

Has Claire’s online activities inspired you to start your own online business venture? If it has, then start off by registering the domain name you want for your business. Then get your website set up. With this in mind, Easyspace has created EasySiteLive PRO – a website builder product, to help get your website up and running in no time. Click here to try our new EasySiteLive PRO website builder for 21 Days Free of charge.

Fraser Doherty, now 24, set up SuperJam at 14, using his Gran’s jam recipes. After selling his produce at farmers’ markets and to delicatessens, he developed a method of producing jam 100% from fruit. After setting up production, creating a brand and perfecting his recipes, Fraser became the youngest ever supplier to a major supermarket chain when Waitrose launched the range in March 2007. SuperJam now supplies over 2,000 supermarkets around the world (incl. Tesco, Asda Wal-Mart, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose) in countries including Australia, Russia, Denmark, Finland and Ireland.

Easyspace recently caught up with Fraser for an interview:

Q1. Fraser, tell us a little bit about your background and what led to you to becoming an entrepreneur and setting up SuperJam.

I was always interested in starting my own business ever since I was eight years old. My first business idea involved baking cakes and selling them at school to raise money for Greenpeace. By the time I was 14 I took an interest in my grandmothers secret jam recipes and asked her to teach me how to make jam.  We spent an afternoon making jam together and I soon started selling it to the neighbours at farmers markets and to small shops. Soon I was cooking 1000 jars of Jam a week from my parents tiny kitchen and I soon realised that I would have to come up with some kind of big idea to move production into a factory. After doing a lot of research I came up with a way of making jam 100% from fruit. I called it SuperJam and pitched it to Waitrose when I was 16 years old. They later lunched SuperJam in all of their stores around the UK and we have since gone on to sell millions of jars around the world.

Q2. It’s a big leap going from a successful, but small jam seller at farmers markets, to where you are now – with your jam being sold in major supermarkets, not just in the UK, but overseas too. Many people, especially a teenager would have been happy with your success at farmers markets – but you took it to the next level. Why & how did you make that leap?

I got my big break when I was 16 and I got my chance to pitch my ideas out at a ‘meet the buyer’ day to Waitrose one of the big supermarkets in the UK. I like to describe ‘meet the buyer’ days as the X-factor of selling groceries to supermarkets.

I turned up at the meeting wearing my Dad’s suit; it was probably two sizes too big for me! The buyer listened to my idea and give me some advice.  A year later I had developed a product that they were willing to put on their shelves, after convincing a factory to work with me and creating a brand.

Q3. Originally you made the jam yourself in your parents kitchen, but as the business grew you had to upscale. Tell us about how you expanded the manufacturing process, to what you now have?

Obviously as a 16-year-old I wasn’t really in a position to build my own jam factory. I was going to have to convince an existing jam manufacturer to work with me to produce my recipes on a big scale. And so I travelled around the country, from the tiny little islands in Scotland to the big cities in England, trying to find somebody who would be willing to work with me to make my SuperJam. As I am sure you can imagine most of these hundred year old factories Where a bit sceptical of a teenager turning up with no money and no experience. But eventually I found one factory who were willing to give my idea a shot, we figured out how to produce my recipes on a big scale we were soon ready to start supplying supermarkets!

Q4. Did you follow a business plan and how difficult was it getting the business established in the early days?

Of course, because I was so young, I didn’t really know anything about supplying supermarkets or how factories work. But something that I have been amazed by on my whole journey has been how willing other entrepreneurs are to share what they have learned with me.

When I was 15 I met a local entrepreneur called Kevin, who became my mentor. He shared lessons with me about mistakes he had made, people he had met and lessons he had learnt. With his help and help of others I was able to overcome most problems that came my way.

Q5. How difficult was it getting your jam on supermarket shelves? Did you face any setbacks in dealing with supermarkets before achieving this?

When I pitched my idea to Waitrose, they explained that, although it was a very good idea, there would be a long way to go until I would have a product that could sit on the shelves of a supermarket. I would have to set up production in a factory, create a brand and do a lot more work on my recipes before they would be happy.

The branding was one of the main challenges because at the beginning I thought that packaging should make people laugh and if you could make them laugh enough then maybe they were buy your product.

So I first created the brand around at comic book idea-we had a lot of fun writing jokes on the labels and even spoke about making a superhero costume for me, the ‘jam boy’ to wear at the launch of SuperJam!

But when I pitched this idea to the supermarket, they explained that packaging is not there to make people laugh, it is there to get the message across. So after they said no to my idea I had to throw everything in the bin and start  all over again.

Second time around, we created a brand that was a lot more simple and that did a far better job of getting our message of ’100% Fruit’ across.

Q6. How did you fund your business, particularly its expansion?

A lot of the time, people imagine that starting a business has to involve borrowing money and taking on investment. But in my experience, it is possible to start something on a very small scale and with a lot of hard work, grow it organically, staying independent all the time. In my case, I started up by making 12 jars of jam, which I sold to the neighbours. I then had enough money to make 20 jars and then 40 and so on, until we wound up making millions of jars – never having to borrow any money along the way.

Q7. How did you market your business when you first started and how do you promote it now?

When I first started I had very little money for marketing and so I had to literally stand in the supermarket stores handing out samples and telling people about my products all by myself. But now we have more budget for advertising, giving away free samples and promoting the business online.

Q8. Was there a ‘tipping point’ to your business’s success?

When SuperJam launched in Waitrose, there was a huge amount of media coverage. I had no idea that this was going to happen but when did I found myself been written about the newspapers and magazines, interviewed on TV and on radio. Because of this media coverage, sales went through the roof and we very quickly launched in thousands more stores. In fact on the first day in one store in Edinburgh, where I come from, they sold more than 1,500 jars of SuperJam in one day, which was more jam than they would normally sell in a whole month!

Q9. Do you use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc, to promote your businesses? How successful has it been for you? Any advice on how businesses can use social media to promote themselves?

For my business, the most successful types of promotion have been off-line; handing out samples in stores, money off promotions in supermarkets and conventional PR. However, I have always kept a blog, Facebook and twitter and I love hearing directly from people who buy our products – what they do with them and what they think we should do differently. I think the only piece of advice I have for brands is not to waste their customers time with inane drivel on social media.

Q10. How does your jam match up against your competitors and how do you stay competitive?

Most jam brands have been around for at least 100 years, which means that it is not the most innovative or exciting category in the world. SuperJam stays competitive by offering something new, innovative and fun in the category that is dominated by very old, boring, traditional brands.

Q11. If you had the chance to start SuperJam all over again, what would you do differently?

I have definitely made a lot of mistakes on my journey! I think one of the biggest lessons I have learned is that everything takes a lot longer than you first imagine so you should not beat yourself up about it.

I would have tried to come up with one clear reason for why someone should buy my product right from day one, and then just put all of my energy into trying to get that across – rather than trying to make people laugh or trying to give them ten reasons why they should buy my product.

Q12. Which entrepreneur/person has inspired you the most & why?

My heroes in business are people like Anita Roddick, the late founder of The Body Shop. I am inspired by business people who use their business to do more than just make money, who use it to do good.

Q13. What advice would you give to somebody thinking of starting their own business?

1) don’t be afraid, you have nothing to lose.
2) start small, you don’t have to jump in at the deep end.
3) ask for help – people will more often than not be willing to give it to you.

Q14. What are your future plans for SuperJam?

We are getting ready to launch in the US, which is really exciting.  I’m also ambitious for the growth of our charity, The SuperJam Tea Parties, which runs hundreds of free tea parties for elderly people.

Thanks Fraser, from everyone at Easyspace. Good luck with your future plans.

If you want to find out more about Fraser Doherty then you can visit him at his websites www.SuperJam.co.uk and www.fraserdoherty.com

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