Supermarkets are notorious for not answering the phone, hanging up on you and not wanting to deal with small companies. Nobody would answer my phone calls and they all laughed when I said I was a barrister. So I got in my car with my sauces, six weeks after leaving law and starting the business, and I drove to Bracknell.
I went to reception and asked for the buyer. I said, ‘Is Laura here? She’s not answered my phone calls. Can I speak to her?’ They called her and because it was an internal call from reception she picked up. She asked me to leave the sauces in reception but I said, ‘No! They’re fresh, they’re chilled, they’ll go off. I’ve come all the way to meet you.’
So I got her downstairs, looked her in the eyes, shook her hand, smiled and made friends with her in five minutes. The next day they agreed to have my sauces in 400 stores across Waitrose. That is what you need. That is what it takes to be an entrepreneur.
It’s very easy to say no to an email, it’s very easy not to respond, but it’s really hard for a human being to look another human being in the eye and say no.
Priya Lakhani
Founder of Masala Masala
People told me, ‘You’ll never do it,’ ‘Nothing’s changed in baby food for years.’
Paul Lindley
PAUL LINDLEY RUNS one of the most successful companies in the UK, organic baby food brand, Ella’s Kitchen. Paul started from scratch, knowing nothing about supply chains or supermarkets. His story proves that you can be the new kid on the block and compete with the big boys. Driven by a commitment to tackle childhood obesity, Paul honed and shaped his company to realise his ambitions.
Before embarking on his entrepreneurial journey, Paul trained at KPMG. It quickly became apparent to him, however, that suits, formality and waiting to apply for the next promotion were not how he wanted to spend his life.
“In my early twenties I decided I would get jobs I didn’t especially like in order to learn about business, so that in my late twenties I could get jobs I liked – and so that in my thirties I could set up my own business. In other words, I thought in an entrepreneurial way from early on.”
DREAM BUSINESS OWNER
Paul Lindley
Founder, Ella’s Kitchen, UK
JOURNEY
TV production 
CEO of organic children’s food company
Working as an accountant was just one part of that education. The next stage came when Paul joined the children’s TV company, Nickelodeon UK. Within ten years, he saw the business and his team grow from 20 employees to 150. It was, by then, a leading brand and Paul had overseen every aspect of the business development – from revenue to subscription, brand development and TV operations.
Paul’s time at Nickelodeon fed into his awareness of a market that has since developed into a successful business and a passionate campaign – children and their relationship with food.
“I have a passion for children’s issues, and I understand children as consumers of goods and services. I was looking to fill a gap in the market, a social need.
“I was ready for a challenge. At Nickelodeon we had carried out research and focus groups with children and it was an excellent grounding in how they think.
“I was aware of children’s health and social issues – 30 percent of children are overweight. Watching television had been blamed for this – all that inactivity plus the adverts for unhealthy foods.”
“My business idea came together during a camping holiday in 2004. I had tried to find convenient and healthy food to pack for my daughter Ella and son Paddy but I couldn’t find any. There was a gap in the market. Why didn’t I plug that gap?
“Within a day I had taken my wife through it. She was as interested in me satisfying my entrepreneurial needs as I was. So we made it a family enterprise by naming the business after our daughter. We wanted the brand to have an ‘authenticity’ – after all, it’s an authentic problem and we have a real family.
“It doesn’t take ten years working in the industry to know that television has mass reach and mass impact. I knew it was key and I knew how it worked. Often there aren’t enough adverts to fill the space. I was a start-up and needed to be creative with how I spent my capital, so, thinking differently, I offered a share of the revenue instead of advertising fees to Nickelodeon.
“If the product was successful it would ultimately provide significant added revenue for the TV company. If it wasn’t, I didn’t pay. So within the first six weeks, Viacom, who owns Nickelodeon, broadcast our adverts under this new idea of revenue-sharing. It was an innovative approach but it worked out well.”
“I gave myself two years to develop a brand that would be innovative enough to go directly into the UK supermarkets. I didn’t want to trial in the local farm shops, because I wanted to make a real difference to children’s health and therefore I knew I had to build the brand quickly and be trusted.
“Products can be copied very quickly and manufactured more cheaply by the big boys. But we were different. It was about creating an innovative product of fantastic quality. We created something that was cool and fun for the children – so it would appeal to them. But it was also healthy, which appealed to adults and parents like me. Up to this point the marketing of baby products had been aimed at the parents.
“I was very excited. I thought, if I don’t do this now I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. I’d been working for fifteen years and I was at a stage where I could afford to take a risk. I knew there would be no holidays, but I didn’t want to be reading a book like this about someone else having done it. My fear of regret outweighed my fear of the risk.
“I really believe individuals can make a difference, and that continued to drive me. If we don’t do something about the trend of poor childhood health, parents outliving their children will be the natural course of events. This business fitted with the social angle.”
“Whilst I knew about marketing to kids and I had a family and cooked for my children at home, I knew nothing about manufacturing or supply chains.”
Paul conducted research and took advice from paediatricians and nutritionists. He had a big decision to make about the food production: Should he manufacture the products himself or should he outsource? Manufacturing would have required more capital investment. He decided to outsource, working on the basis that he should focus on the bits he did know and allow other experts to take the lead on the aspects he didn’t.
“I worked on my own for 18 months just trying to set up the business and brand proposition. Financially, I was on target, spending £25,000. This funded experts and the artwork. Finding the correct buyer and the right person to talk to was the hardest thing.
“Getting that first order was my biggest challenge. Setting up a meeting required between 50 and 100 phone calls to even get their interest. They never rang back and my background was not in sales.”
“I approached Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Boots. They were in the process of category reviews which meant they were changing their shelves for new stock. I had meetings and pitched to them.
“Once I got a buyer on the phone I would tell them how we were different and why it would work. I demonstrated my passion, insight and belief that children were consumers in their own right.
“Then, my first sale came in. Sainsbury’s said they were interested and would get back to me; the waiting game ensued. So much was hanging in the balance. A second week passed and I’d heard nothing. And someone else had got back to say, ‘Not on this occasion.’ I was beginning to run out of options.”
On the third week of waiting, Paul picked up a voicemail message from the Sainsbury’s buyer who said they wanted to launch the company in January in 350 stores across the UK.
“The initial elation lasted for 30 seconds. After that the realisation hit me that now I had to actually do it. Up to that point I hadn’t sold anything to anyone. By chance the buyer was a mum and fitted our demographic.
“It was just as Sainsbury’s was launching its ‘Buy Something New Today’ campaign. Ella’s Kitchen was going to be one of the new products. They kicked off with Smoothie Fruits. It was very different. It was convenience food but less processed.”
Sainsbury’s gave Paul 12 weeks to prove Ella’s Kitchen could sell.
“We remortgaged the house. I didn’t want to sell equity. We’d been given this opportunity and we wanted to control and develop it ourselves but I remained confident. Outsourcing the manufacture had been the right decision.”
Since then, Ella’s Kitchen has grown tremendously quickly, to become a business with 57 employees and a £50 million turnover. In June 2010 they were voted Food Brand of the Year, beating other finalists (including Hovis, Cadbury and Walkers). Ella’s Kitchen now makes 77 products, and every second of every day someone around the world is eating an Ella’s product.
“This is all a testament to getting it right. We’ve got a 15 percent supermarket share in the UK, a US subsidiary now, and operate in 12 markets around the world. The personal journey for me has been making a difference to the children’s food market. We’ve done it by being innovative and thinking differently.
“I like to think I have created an uncorporate company. It’s open, like a family of people who like to work together. Ella’s Kitchen is my third child, really.
“It’s a very personal brand. By doing this I feel I have lived up to myself. You live one life, and for me it’s about trying lots of different things. People told me, ‘You’ll never do it,’ ‘Nothing’s changed in baby food for years,’ ‘They won’t take you seriously.’ But things can be done. There’s that quote by J.F. Kennedy, ‘Some men see things as they are and ask why... I dream of things that never were and ask why not.’ If someone says to me there’s a 99 percent chance that something can’t be done – to me that means there’s a one percent chance it can be done. If you think like that, that’s your point of difference.”
“I wish I’d known how much hard work it really is. I now realise I was a one-man band for too long. A passionate team not only shares the workload and creates new ideas but generates motivation and ultimately – if you get it right – comes to work because of the values the brand lives by and the sense of purpose it gives them and the exciting journey they help drive. It’s important to keep my team motivated so the staff can do what they’ve been employed to do with a smile.”
“For our brand, social media is very important. Our target demographic spends a lot of time online. We have launched an Ella’s Friends database, which now has well over 100,000 parents on it; we’ve got over 30,000 likes on Facebook and around 5000 followers on Twitter. We want to be a trusted brand, so it makes sense for us to give customers a forum to talk about all aspects of how they see our brand and products.
Paul’s Secrets
TO DREAM BUSINESS SUCCESS
1 Be focused.
2 Know why you’re different.
3 Know why you’re doing it.
4 Know where there’s a market gap.
5 Do your research. Understand your consumer. What’s he or she saying?
6 Make sure your financial numbers stack up. Have a business plan that works where the funding is sensible with clever ways of minimising need for money. Is the business sustainable?
7 Avoid poor cash flow.
8 Be passionate.
9 People skills are essential. Staff need to be valued and rewarded. Know how they contribute. If you have the right people, the world’s your oyster, so it’s important to keep them and motivate them.
“We can then respond to any praise or criticism. Without that, if someone doesn’t like something then it’s out in the ether. If we provide a forum for that feedback, it is more controllable and adds value to our brand and product development.”
I am quite easygoing – that’s important because when you run a business you’re going to have lots of challenges. You need to have a calm nature.
Horr Wai Wong
IN THIS next entrepreneurial snapshot, Malaysian business owner Horr Wai Wong set up two businesses when he saw a gap in the market. With a passion for running businesses as well as for IT, he is currently working on a third business – developing an app.
DREAM BUSINESS OWNER
Horr Wai Wong
Founder, Sports Planet, Sports
Tech Pro, and Adgoggle, Malaysia
JOURNEY
Corporate employee Multiple entrepreneur
Since studying commerce and law at Melbourne University, Horr Wai always knew he wanted to have his own business. He started working for Anderson Consulting Kuala Lumpur and while he was with them he was contacted by a friend who wanted to start up internet-based companies. They began to work together, but Horr Wai also started his own futsal (indoor football) venue company.
“I had worked for four years and felt I wanted to start out on my own. I was looking for a business to run. At that time there was only one sports venue open, so I went with my friend to see what it was like. It was very crowded! There was so much demand, and not enough pitches. In Malaysia the English Premier League is very popular on television. I called up another friend and asked if he had any warehouses available that I could use. He found me one and I opened my own futsal court in it.”
Horr Wai found more venues, and each time he bought sports flooring from a local supplier. “I knew this guy quite well and I called and suggested we start a company and start supplying sports floorings both to my venues and to other people as well. He had all the know-how to select and install the floorings. We started off small but now we have the whole range of sports floorings – we can put down football pitches, hockey fields, tennis courts. The business has been growing every year since we started.
“That was just an opportunity that came along. I asked myself, instead of buying in so much flooring, why didn’t I set up my own?”
Horr Wai is restless – he’s not content with two companies, he wants more! “Since last year I’ve had a bit of time on my hands because these two companies of mine have teams of people running them. I give them guidance and try to push them along. But I’ve been feeling that I should try and do something else.
“I have a passion for IT and I think it’s very scalable. In my futsal venues, once the courts are fully booked you can’t book more people. But with one server you can serve 1000 people. Mobile advertising is growing very rapidly so I’m developing an app. It’s still in the very early stages.
“There are risks to starting up new ventures, but there are ways that you can go about it that minimise the risk. Don’t quit your job right away – get your start-up going first. There will come a time when you need to commit in order to focus, but some of the initial preparation can definitely be done while you’re at work.”
“Sports Planet has been around for ten years and is still going and is a stable, profitable company. The sports flooring company has seen a lot of growth.”
“So far the businesses have been recession-proof. Futsal is not an expensive activity at $8 per person and so even with the downturn in the economy people are still playing.”
“When you face a wall that is stopping you from reaching your destination, you can stand there and just wait or you can try climbing over it. Or breaking through it. Eventually you will solve the problem – you’ve got to be creative. If you’re flogging a dead horse, don’t waste your time. But don’t give up easily; keep trying until you find a way.
“You mustn’t get too emotional in business. Say you have a disagreement with your business partner. You need to be able to sit down and discuss, and come to an understanding. Both of you need to be calm and reasonable.”
“I like mountain biking, hiking and outdoor activities. A friend of mine sells camping stuff online – bags, knives and camping equipment. He’s been doing this business for a year and now he wants to open a shop. He wants to open up in one of my venues that is in a very good location with a lot of people coming in. I agreed but asked to be a shareholder because I have a passion for outdoor activities. So I put in the capital in proportion to my shareholder percentage. We came to an agreement that we would probably have the shop in January. What I think he needs to do is get enough capital for stock. He needs to work out how much stock he needs to buy in order to sell; how much money he needs to renovate the shop; how much to cover his costs for six months. Then he needs to have a forecast by looking at his sales online and working out what he can improve.”
When interviewed for Desert Island Discs and asked about the good fortune in his life, business leader Lord Digby Jones said, “The harder I work the luckier I get.”
Many of us starting our own businesses often fall into the trap of thinking there must be some golden key out there that if turned will magically bring abundance flowing into our bank accounts. We assume we must be missing something and start taking up extra evening or online courses to be sure.
Sometimes we might invest in some expensive new gadget or marketing offer that promises the deliverance of wealth; other times we just think that some people have been given a bucket to dip into the sea of success while we were given a teaspoon with a hole in it.
This way of thinking presupposes that there is always something just out of grasp, something unseen that needs to be accessed.
But the real route to success comes down to hard work, tenacity and a steely belief in what you are doing. Being a business person means you have to be positive, upbeat and ready to drive your services or products at all times. It takes heaps of energy and confidence that it will pay off even when the chips are down and times feel tough.
As we have seen from this chapter, Paul Lindley made up to 100 phone calls before Sainsbury’s agreed to trial his range of baby food.
This is not unusual. It isn’t easy and it takes a lot of nerve to maintain one’s dynamism in the face of rejection, indifference or disregard. If Horr Wai Wong faces a wall, he thinks creatively to get round it, through it or over it.
When the going gets tough don’t throw in the towel. Take the time to refocus and take stock of what you have learned.
If at first you don’t succeed, you have several options:
• Step back and reassess. Give yourself some time off, to clear your mind and get ‘distance’ and a fresh perspective.
• Strategically network. Find specialist networking groups in fields relevant to what you do and be sure to dynamically spread your message.
• Visit large trade shows and see what’s up and coming in your field. Gather information and be curious about what’s out there. This isn’t a time for raging envy.
• Don’t be set in stone. Have the courage to adapt and reshape your concept if need be.
• Ask for constructive feedback and be big enough to accept it and rework your idea or strategy.
• Practise ‘selling’ your concept to a complete stranger, and listen to possible objections.
Don’t be like the gold miner who bought all the expensive mining gear and finally gave up when he was but an inch from hitting a deep seam. You never know what is around the corner.
• What is working well at the moment? What do you need to do more of?
• What would a good lead look like to you, and have you told others too?
• Have you precisely focused on what it is you wish to achieve?
• What do you need to get there?
• How long are you prepared to give it?
• How can you change your attitude and energy to make this work?
• You head says... but your heart says...?
We have all encountered down days, disappointments, naysayers and frustrations. Even highly successful people. But the difference between the successful and those who fail is that the former don’t let the negative hold them back.
Your choice.