Try it, someone might like it!
I met up with Asda now that they’re interested in our product (after years of trying they perhaps were swayed by our Sainsbury’s success!)
For the presentation to the buyer there I had some special
boards made up (which weren’t cheap), but were an illustration of Asda’s snacking counter and where O2GO would fit on it. I had the boards professionally drawn in watercolour, as my retail adviser told me that people need to visualise things, to see exactly how it would be. So we had three boards made up and I couldn’t believe the buyer’s reaction! He said that it was amazing and he could see exactly where the product could fit with them.
You only get a few chances to see and present your products to major retailers, so you have to take advantage of it. So as we are extending our product lines I managed to take along our five additional products. He said yes to two of them (O2GO and Sport+) and though we have mock-ups and further meetings to go to, it is looking good.
I often miss being ‘out there’ and this Asda meeting has really enthused me again - the sun was out and I had a really good day. Also, I was voted one of the 42 top entrepreneurs recently, and Yorkshire Forward got ten of us together last week for a meeting. Nice lunch, we talked about the our region’s entrepreneurs and how we all got started and it was just nice to know that though it can be a lonely process to start your own business, it’s great to meet others in the same position. So I suggested that we all meet up once a month, which we’re going to do.
My seminars seem to be going ahead – it’s gone a bit manic. Because my Scottish seminar line-up includes some GMTV celebrity names, they’re doing a press release and I’m going to be on it, which will be great. And I’ve been asked to write a book charting my progress as an entrepreneur, and as I am still ‘in the process’ or the firefight(!) now, it won’t be the
usual rose-tinted retrospective that these books often are. It’s called ‘Make Your Own Sandwich’. The idea is even if you haven’t ever tried, or don’t think that you would like, an onion and chilli, chocolate-powder marmalade sandwich before, it doesn’t mean that someone else won’t like it. So give it a go and try new things – see how they work. It’s about what changes you have to go through to make that decision to do it, to go for it and start your own business. And as I have been writing a series of seminars for Edinburgh, Harrogate and London, the book is almost writing itself. All very exciting though!
The Easter holiday has been nice for me, as I have had a bit of time to spend with my three children because I have been writing seminars from home. That was part of the reason for starting my own business after all, to get a better work-life balance, not to cram more and more into my life…
And last but not least, we have taken out an advert for the first time in the Harrogate Advertiser, in their Food and Drink supplement. We have gone halves with Frog Water, who distribute our product in Yorkshire. So grab a copy and take a look!
