The second of 4 weekly blogs Great food is just the start. What are you good at? How do you get your products to market? Making sure you make money! WHAT ARE YOU GOOD AT? If you are: a great sales person and a brilliant marketeer and a process management expert and an astute finance director and a food scientist and a risk assessment specialist and an HR manager and a consummate people manager and a logistics professional.............. .........then you need to stop reading this blog and get on with running your company. If you are not all (or some) of these then the chances are that you will need help. When I hear a food and drink entrepreneur ask for help, I know that they are the kind of

A weekly blog in 4 parts Great food is just the start. What are you good at? How do you get your products to market? Making sure you make money! GOOD FOOD IS JUST THE START I’ve met people who make the most marvellous jam, incredible curry and astonishing biscuits. I’ve tasted the world’s tastiest tzatziki, England’s most aromatic gin, granola that will rock your world and simply the best carrot and orange juice money can buy. You’d think that each and every fantastic product that I have tasted would be guaranteed a space on Waitrose 1’s shelves: But, sadly that's not the case. The retail space is so crowded that to be the next Innocent Juice or Reggae Reggae sauce you are going to have to

​1. Campaign 2. Know your numbers 3. Resources - Physical, Financial, Emotional 4. Your opinion doesn't matter! 5. Smart Change - What have you got in the pipeline? www.thefoodagency.net TOUGH LOVE FOR CONSULTANCY'S CLIENTS I'm privileged that people allow me into their lives so that I can help them grow their food businesses. I say privileged because it takes a great sense of self awareness for people to ask for help and once they have done that they have trusted me to help them achieve their future hopes and dreams. So, it is all the more difficult when my clients present me with the products that they have worked so hard on for me to say 'OK, that's great, but what's next?' KEEPING THE PI

www.thefoodagency.net 1. Campaign 2. Know your numbers 3. Resources - Physical, Financial, Emotional 4. Your opinion doesn't matter! 5. Smart Change - What have you got in the pipeline? YOUR OPINION DOESN’T MATTER Three years ago, I was working with one of the major fast food outlets when I learned the lesson that the personal opinions of their management teams did not have much value at all. If a manager (however senior) suggested that their chilli sauce wasn’t hot enough, it is likely that they would at best be ignored or at worst be admonished. If a manager said that they had asked 100 people, of whom 75 said that they chilli sauce needed more oomph then it was likely that their findings

www.thefoodagency.net 1. Campaign 2. Know your numbers 3. Resources - Physical, Financial, Emotional 4. Your opinion doesn't matter! 5. Smart Change - What have you got in the pipeline? Resources - Physical, Financial, Emotional OK, we all know that you need dosh to run a business (your financial resources), also we all know that you need stuff (physical resources) but how come nobody mentions emotional resource. Being your own boss, is one of the most rewarding things that you will ever do but you’ve got to know that there are big compromises and sacrifices to make with your non-business life. There will be times when there will not be enough hours in the day or perhaps you might be working