There's no better time than at Christmas to indulge in a little something sweet, making artisan biscuiteer Nila one very busy lady at this time of year. We caught up with her to find out more about how she copes with extra demand, and her top tips for artisans looking to trade for the first time this Christmas.
Quickfire Questions
Name: Nila Holden
What do you make? Artisan cakes and cookies
Where can we find your products? Via my Etsy & Notonthehighstreet stores, exclusive retailers such as Fortnum & Mason & Houses of Commons, farm shops, delis. We are also stocked in a range of boutiques across Northern France.
Favorite Product from your range? From the Christmas range our biscuit birdhouses or cookie pops.
Food Heaven? I love vegetables - they’re so healthy and versatile. My favs are swiss chard, endives, fennel.
Food Hell? Peas or any food with almond flavouring - marzipan or bakewell tart.
Nila Holden - The story so far
I started baking when I was looking for a cake for my wedding and couldn’t find anything that I liked so thought that try making one myself.
I took a class and became addicted to baking! I’d bake every weekend and take spares into work and soon friends and colleagues started to ask me to make cakes or cookies for birthdays and anniversaries. When I was offered redundancy from job in the public sector it seemed like a good opportunity to try my hand at something new. I set up my business a few months later and here we are two and a bit years later.
My proudest moment as an entrepreneur would have to be this year - we’ve had so many great moments.
We’ve worked with Fortnums & House of Commons and now lots of happy customers in France. We’ve achieved so much in a short space of time.
To me, Artisan means producing a really high quality product that offers customers something a little different - both in terms of look, design and taste. And the service you offer; [it’s] so much more personal and hands on.
Running an artisan food business at Christmas
Personalised gifts are hugely popular at Christmas
We are able to hand stamp a name or sentiment to nearly all our gifts. [This] adds such a personal touch to a gift.
This year we started working on Christmas in May and that has proved to not be early enough!
We start by looking at what sold well last year and then what sort of range we would like to present this year. We don’t really follow trends as such, but there is always so much that inspires me in terms of design. This year has been all about green/red/ivory for us which is a departure from our usual muted pastels. And I’ve been really excited to see the response to the small touches we’ve added to our cookies this year - for example the paper straws we use for our cookie pops.
Achieving a balance between work and home life is hugely challenging at any time of the year, but particularly at Christmas.
In fact, it starts in September with Halloween and then quickly moves onto Christmas as we come into late October/early November as this is when we dispatch most of our trade orders. Because of the nature of our products, we tend to get the majority of our online sales in the first two or three weeks of December, which usually the same time as school nativity plays and Christmas activities.
All in all, the last four months of year are always the busiest. We manage this by preparing as much as possible, such as ordering and assembling packaging, training staff, streamlining processes. I also try to get my own Christmas preparations done as early as possible too. And lots of help from my lovely parents who help out with meals and childcare!
This will be our third Christmas trading, and I still struggle with managing workload at this time of year.
As well as the baking, decorating, packing - there’s all the invoicing, replying to emails, preparing quotes. And then continuing any promotion, social media updates etc. Any tips or advice on how to manage any of these routine admin tasks would be really helpful!
My top tips for small food businesses who are looking to prepare for their Christmas trade?
Make sure you’ve got enough physical space to cope with the rush, you’ll need to store more than usual - ingredients, packaging coming in and products packed up ready to be shipped out. Give some thought your production process and how you will cope with a sudden large order - would you manage? Where are the potential stress points /bottlenecks? Can you put some products out of stock and just concentrate on a few key bestsellers?
But most of all try to enjoy it. It's a stressful, exhausting and manic time, but I'd rather be doing this than anything else and I feel truly blessed to be able to do what I love.
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