Thank you for making this possible! (...and notes on how to start a food business)
I wanted to take a moment to say thanks to everyone that has helped me so far in making JB's Suya Spot a reality. I'd like to start with Karolina from Theenk Tea (21-day herbal program designed to support your brain function and mental wellbeing, naturally). She runs a food business of her own and allowed me to pick her brain and find out about her mistakes so I wouldn't make them myself. There's a written transcript of our chat below; hopefully, anyone else looking to start a food business also finds it useful.
Next, I'd like to thank my family- my mum and dad have allowed me to hijack the kitchen for days on end while testing out recipes and they've also assisted in being "Chief Samplers" for the test batches. I'd like to thank Auntie Ngozi for being customer #1, and also thank Uncle Bolo and Uncle Oli for being "Chief Launchers" at the launch BBQ. Thanks also to my brothers and sister for helping out at the BBQ with grilling and also selling the suya spice. Thanks to Mike for being postal customer #1. I'm sure there are others I've forgotten to thank here, but it's not because I'm not grateful, but because I'm typing this late at night so I have some 'brain fog'... apologies.
And in case you haven't heard... we sold out of the first batch! So I want to also thank everyone that came along to the BBQ and bought a packet. You've all helped me be able to launch this website, and take the business to the next stage. I'm curious to see where we go from here!
Notes from my chat with Karolina, Founder of Theenk Tea
David: What things can be skipped in the early days and what's essential before launching?
Karolina: I made a mistake with sourcing boxes for packaging from China at first on Alibaba. I assumed that's just what you had to do. Turns out all the import taxes and associated costs ended up costing as much as the boxes did. So do your research and if possible speak to others in the industry first before starting.
D: What was a waste of money from idea to now? What would you not do again?
K: I started Theenk Tea with a loan from Virgin Startup. For this, I did a business plan and budget which came to me needing £25k. Luckily they provide an advisor who tears your budget apart and tells you what you really need. e.g. not paying for a web designer and using an online web designing tool yourself (Wix in my case). If I was to start again I'd probably use Shopify over Wix though as there are more options and integrations. Also, Facebook ads were a waste for me and didn't get me any results as well as boosting posts on Facebook too. Amazon might be a good starting point for you actually, I know people that have started on this and then expanded on to other sites.
D: What do you wish you started doing earlier?
K: Building an audience earlier for sure! There's a company called Lexi's Treats- he'd been posting about the progress steps all along and building an audience- people were supporting him from the start, so as he launched his first batch he'd sold out already. People want to see the person behind the brand and have convos, so talk with the audience.
D: What do you know now that you wish you knew when starting a business?
K: I wish I knew it would take some time. I thought I'd get orders quickly but that doesn't happen unless you build that audience in the early days. I'd invest in PR earlier on too. I'd check out the 'Lightbulb' group on Facebook. It connects entrepreneurs with journalists. Journalists will post requests for the kind of stories their after, and entrepreneurs will post interesting stories that journalists might be interested in too. 'People who launched their business during lockdown' is a hot topic by the way!
D: With operations, did you outsource production from the start or do it at home?
K: I started by finding a herbalist who helped me create the recipes. I bought a small batch of herbs and spices then mixed them at home to taste test. After that is when I outsourced production. I had a clear vision of what I wanted the product to look like so this made sense for me. I found a few manufacturers but only one agreed to do what I wanted. They helped sourced 90% of ingredients too which saved me some effort. My first order was around 2000 boxes, but if I did this again I'd probably start smaller with 500 maybe. Tea is a long shelf-life product so it doesn't matter too much, but it's about not having cash tied up in stock sitting in a warehouse in the early days. For finding manufacturers, I'd check out The Food Hub group on Facebook.
D: When did you register as a business? How did you deal with food safety requirements?
K: I registered at the very start, as soon as it became real. This way when I went to manufacturers, I can do invoices and other things in the company name. For food safety requirements I wrote to Trading Standards and they told me everything I needed to know. As soon as my first batch was done, I sent samples to a lab to test for EU guidelines (I found a good lab in the Netherlands). They helped set the expiration date.
D: Apart from Bread and Jam (The FoodHub group) and Lightbulb, are there any particularly valuable resources you've found?
K: The Bread and Jam group is really good! It's been my go-to resource for all kinds of questions. Virgin Startup has been really helpful! You can apply for a loan from anywhere between £500 to £25k per founder. Even if it's just a £500 loan, the mentor you get is worth it. They also do events too such as 'Meet the buyer' for getting into various retailers so it's not just money you're getting. I heard about one guy from the program that ended up getting to visit Richard Branson on his island and his product is now getting promoted by all of the Virgin Group so the opportunity could lead to huge things!
K: So what led to you starting JB's Suya Spot during lockdown then?
D: Well I'd wanted to be a chef when I was younger. I remembered talking with my cousin when I was 16 about opening up a suya spot stand in Canterbury, then we learnt about all the work it would take and gave up. I also started a Nigerian takeaway from my kitchen while I was in uni too. At that time I'd wanted to make this takeaway my full-time job but this failed and looking back now I realise I didn't know enough about sales and marketing.
My first job after the takeaway was a door to door sales role for HelloFresh. This led to me having a career in sales roles (mainly selling various food-related products) for the last 6 years. Then COVID hit. Cooking was one of the things that kept me sane during lockdown, it was my escape from the world and I tried out many new recipes and learn new techniques. It made me realise I want my work to be based more around food, with more time spent in the kitchen working on recipes.
One thing I cooked numerous times during lockdown was suya (a Nigerian kebab with a spicy peanut rub coating). It's a favourite Nigerian food of mine with lots of good memories associated with it from when I lived in Nigeria. So my first thought was opening a restaurant to serve this but with COVID and how the world looks, that would be a really big challenge right now. I've decided to start with a line of packaged food items (Suya Spice being the first) and then we'll try some pop-up restaurant style set-ups and see how it goes from there. My main goals are introducing more people to Nigerian cuisine and culture, and I'd like to help farmers in Nigeria by using their ingredients (as soon as possible) so that they have another market to sell their produce into so they can earn more money.
Leave a comment
Please note, comments must be approved before they are published