Launching Glorious Gluten Free Foods

It's June 2012, three months after I retired from full-time employment to set up Glorious Gluten Free Foods. It's been an interesting and exhausting 12 weeks with the Derbyshire Food Festival being a key event for me. http://www.derbyshirefoodfestival.co.uk/ I have had stalls before at small local events and always done well, sold out of baked goods and come away feeling good about my products. The Derbyshire Food Festival was in a different league and I take my hat off to all those people who use such events as their main market place. It was hot, very hot; the only spell of summer we've had so far. Ice-cream and cold drink sellers did extremely well; those of us inside the marquee less so; experienced stall holders said sales were very slow which was strangely reassuring. I was lucky enough to be right beside an entrance from the grassy area outside where there were cookery demonstrations and lots of family friendly activities happening. As a showplace for my gluten-free cakes it was very successful; I gave out hundreds of leaflets and while most of them may be binned, some will get through to a new or potential customer. I baked far too much - the first time this has happened to me. I managed to sell some of it locally in the following few days but inevitably some had to be thrown away which I found difficult. On the upside I covered my costs and more importantly have had two orders since and several enquiries which I am waiting to turn into firm orders. One order was from a local hotel which is a very good contact to have made. A few more like that and all the work that went into preparing for the Festival will definitely have been worth it. Would I do it again? Yes, probably, but I would concentrate on it being a marketing opportunity rather than trying to make a profit from selling.

Setting up Glorious Gluten Free Foods.

I gave in my notice at work last month. It felt very much like holding my nose and jumping into an icy sea. It was very scary for a moment until I remembered that one of my favourite activities is jumping into cold water. Once I'm in and have started swimming I get that nice warm glow.
There's a few weeks to go yet; I officially finish work on my birthday, 12th March, but my last day in the office is Friday 9th March, so that's 9 more Monday mornings and then I'm free to start turning my business dreams into reality.
I aim to spend the next 9 weeks doing lots of planning; I've just been listening to yesterday's Woman's Hour programme on women entrepreneurs and the message has been plan, plan, plan. I particularly need to do more financial planning so I know what sales I am aiming for each month, and set up some spreadsheets to keep track of everything. I also need to plan some activity for the first few weeks after I finish at the university so I don't spend too much time drifting. Although working full time, carrying on all the other activities I do and setting up a new business has been stressful there has been a certain momentum which I don't want to lose. I need to have the time to concentrate on getting the business up and viable without slowing down.
So it's 2012 and I've made that leap. It feels very good and now Christmas is out of the way I can focus on finishing off things at work so all is left in good order for my successor, and starting my new venture.
Watch this space!

Thinking about the photo shoot...

Glorious Gluten Free Foods is a troublesome, but very rewarding, child; I am making progress in launching this new business but get held up by everything else I have on the go. Things happen in fits and starts and I have to look back to remind myself how much I have actually done.
The big thing I need to organise now is a photoshoot for the website. I have spoken to a food photographer who lives locally and does a lot of work for top London restaurants. His questions have sent me back to do some more thinking - 'How many photos are you after?' and 'What style do you want?'. My journalist and copywriting daughter reminded me how to do a brief so he knew the key concepts of the business, and Karen, the web designer I am using, suggested I did a mood board to help identify a style. I have lots of accessories - plates, tea cups, cake stands, tablecloths - and will go through them to pick out the ones which best represent my concept for this business.
Karen also helpfully pointed out that I will be paying the photographer by the hour so the more work I can do beforehand to make the shoot go smoothly the better. She also suggested I did lots of baking, more than I think I'll need, as he will want to do different shots, cut cakes etc and it would be good to have spare.
Other photos I might want would be 'happy chickens' as I'm using free-range eggs, headshots of me for future publicity, and other food related items that add to my story.
So lots to think about and things to do - phone photographer and arrange a briefing meeting, book some time off work for the shoot and pre-shoot baking, develop a brief, develop and mood board and BAKE!
In the meantime I am continuing to develop my range of GF foods; I had a go at some gram flour flatbreads which worked really well, plain and some with turmeric and cumin seeds. I have borrowed a vacuum pack sealing machine so vacuum packed the flatbreads to see how that worked. They taste delicious fresh so I am hoping vacuum packing them keeps that fresh taste. I am currently awaiting feedback on those. I have also been making variations on Johnny Cake which is an American recipe for a cake/bread made with cornmeal; I'm making it with gram flour which works well sometimes, not so well other times. I need to do more to find a reliable recipe and method.
The business bank account has now come through and my first payment into that should be made this week. That is a good step forward.
So progress on some fronts but still lots to do.