After attending the Maida Hill Foodies event a little earlier this month, it was great to catch up with Yasmin from Maida Hill Place, the hosts of the event. In our Industry Insider feature this week, Yasmin gets chatting about why it’s so important to help small emerging food businesses.
Tell us a bit about yourself! Who are you and what do you do?
Maida Hill is a food hub connecting like-minded entrepreneurs within the industry. We're a small team [who] help budding food entrepreneurs by renting out both our fully equipped kitchen and upstairs event space for pop-ups, talks, product development and whatever else they may need!
What does artisan mean to you?
Either a person with a very specific skill in making or a product made in a specialised way, not mass produced, using high quality ingredients...and just that bit more love than a big machine could ever give!
How can small artisan's stand out?
It definitely helps to have a good story, something that social media and press can grip onto which in turn raises your profile. Talk to as many people as possible but more importantly make lasting connections and even friendships with them. You never know when and who can help to push your business further.
How do you think small artisan food producers should be supported?
There is so much competition out there, particularly in a city like London. Some businesses are in the lucky position where the people involved have enough knowledge to cover all of the most important areas of creating and selling their product: cooking, brand design, sales, marketing, PR, finances etc. Unfortunately, the reality is that most businesses don't have all of this. There need to be more workshops and classes where small producers can learn or simply improve on [their entrepreneurial skills].
What do you think is the next big opportunity for small artisans?
People's mindsets are changing and more of us want to know exactly where our food is coming from; we want to know what all of the ingredients are when we read the labels. There are already great initiatives such as hisbe.co.uk in Brighton that put good food and customer happiness at the forefront of the business [and] profitability comes as a result of this.
What are your words of wisdom for someone starting out?
Connect, connect, connect. Talk to everyone, be friendly. Don't just take, give back where you can, even if it's just by giving words of advice. Make the most of social media and have a good hook to your story.
What do you think of our big ideas and what we’re trying to achieve?
Everyone should have the chance to get on the high street and where there's a will there's a way. We [need to] help businesses start or make their next steps to showcasing their offering and actually start turning a profit. It would be nice for everyone to have a permanent space on the high street, but starting slow and steady isn't always a bad thing. You can learn with less of a distance to fall if things do go wrong. If you're interested in finding out more about Maida Hill Place and they kind of space they offer, have a look at their website here, or find them tweeting @MaidaHillPlace.
No comments:
Post a Comment