Tell us the story of your business! How did you come up with the idea?
Until a few of years ago I worked as a psychiatric nurse specialising in forensics at a private hospital in Ayr. I was pretty good at it too- I was a charge nurse by 25, then things started to go wrong, my health deteriorated and an injury at work resulted in my move back to Dumfries and back home with Mum. During a rough couple of years I was told I could never return to practice as a nurse and so the idea of Wee Sweetie started to grow. My papa always called me Wee Sweetie - I’m 5’2”, 7 stone and I’ve always had a very sweet tooth. He worked at the Carnation factory and would bring home mountains of mis-shapes and rejected sweets- heaven! I eat a massive amount of sweets but for medical reasons (that’s my excuse!) because I have Crohn’s disease, a chronic digestive disorder. Sugar is about the only thing I can eat without being unwell so I always have a stash in my pocket or bag. I often complained about the lack of variety and quality of sweets and got fed up of eating the same things so I was delighted when for Christmas one year my sister bought me Hope and Greenwoods book ‘Life is Sweet’. I started making sweet presents for friends and family and everyone said they were great. I then started to put out a variety of samples at my friends business and her customers blind tasted and rated them for me. The results and comments were amazing so I started taking custom orders (far more than I expected!).
Right now Wee Sweetie is tiny but who knows where I’ll end up? I’m doing something I love on my own terms, keeping my own hours and building a fresh start all at the same time!
What was your motivation for starting your own business?
To allow myself to continue working basically- my health is so unpredictable that I’d find it almost impossible to hold down a job. Running my own business allows me to work when it suits me.
What’s the most exciting thing about being an entrepreneur?
Having so few rules! Aside from complying with the relevant legislations, I have the freedom to work as much or as little as I want. I also love meeting with and learning from other entrepreneurs. The very best thing about my business is seeing that look on my customers’ faces when they try my products for the first time- it’s just a shame that I don’t always get to see it.
What challenges have you come across?
Oh, where to start?! There’s so much legislation involved in running even the tiniest food business and it’s mostly written in legalese so I’ve had to learn another language, as well as returning to accounting for the first time since school. Then being a marketer, PR, designer, photographer, the list goes on and on.
What advice would you give to someone thinking about starting their own business?
Two things really stick out for me. Firstly really, really do your homework- had I known how much red tape surrounds running a food business I doubt I would have started up. I spent almost a full year conducting market research, sampling products, gaining approvals, perfecting my techniques and expanding my repertoire before I sold a single sweet. Secondly believe in your product but remember you’ll never please everybody so don’t try to. When I was sampling my sweets I created a feedback form asking each tester to rate the sweet from 1-10, whether they would buy it and to leave comments. I then used the numbers to ascertain an average instead of panicking when a received the odd low score.
What support do you wish you could have received?
What support do you wish you could have received?
I would love more help with marketing. As I source my ingredients as locally as possible I’d prefer to sell my sweets locally too initially but I really don’t know how best to approach potential stockists. I’ve had businesses approach me from the Scottish Highlands to Devon wanting to stock my sweets but I’ve turned them down while I try to get the brand established locally, but I often feel out of my depth and question if I’m making the right decisions. Business Gateway (who are really the only local advice agency) told me to write a press release to send to local media- they didn’t offer to help write it or say what it should contain though!
What would you like to see in a food hub that showcases new producers?
That’s a tough one. Having recently started using social media (and still not having figured out how facebook works), I’ve found dozens of organisations that claim to be food hubs but there’s no cohesion. I learned of three food fayres in the past two weeks that I could have attended but didn’t find out about until it was too late. I’d love to see some form of national register of small scale producers that provides regional details of events and allows for networking, advice, advertising and celebrating the thousands of fantastic products and businesses that we have.
What do you think about our big idea and what we’re trying to achieve?
I love that you’re so keen to champion small scale food producers and wholeheartedly agree that everyone can and should benefit & learn from each other. It would be amazing to see shops opening up selling local, artisan foods to the communities where the food is produced.
Like what you've read and feeling hungry for a sweet treat? You can find Donna and Wee Sweetie tweeting all things sweet here, or on Facebook here.
Are you an Amazing Artisan who wants to be featured on our blog? We'd love to hear from you- drop us a Tweet @KitchTablePro with the hashtag #AmazingArtisan or send us a message to hello@kitchentableprojects.com
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