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| Business Chick Jane Milton |
Jane Milton is the founder of yummy brownie delivery company www.cocoamoi.com  1. Jane, tell us what you do and how the business has grown. I run a web-based mail order chocolate brownie business. We started in 2005 and the business has grown steadily in the last 18 months though this year we are set for major growth as we expand into a number of overseas markets starting with a presence in Singapore. 2.What made you start the business and why brownies? I run a food consultancy business, helping other people to develop, launch and market food products and just felt I would like to do one of my own…so I could do all the things I could never convince other people to try! We used to send all our clients from the consultancy chocolate brownies we made for Christmas- they complained they never got enough an always begged us to sell them …so when I decided to do something of my own and wondered what…I very quickly realised what it should be.  3. Are they some long handed down family recipe or all your own work? I am Scottish….i say therefore I have a genetic predisposition to have a sweet tooth – my Mum has always baked and we always had lots of tins of amazing things in the house. I can’t remember when I first started my brownie obsession but I have always sampled them whenever I saw them on sale and made loads of different recipes and gradually developed my Ultimate recipe over 7 years of tweaking, adjusting trying different makes of ingredients etc 4. can you run through a typical day for us? The great thing for me is that with 2 businesses to run there are rarely ever 2 days the same and that is just how I like it. I am up just before 6am most days – in the summer I walk the dog in the winter I often skip that bit. My working day usually starts at 7am checking emails and checking to see the orders for the day ….when the rest of the team come in around 9am I have sorted out what I will be doing for the day and in the passed on notes to the others about anything they need to know. We all have coffee and a chat- there are 1-2 other people in the office each day. Monday’s are sales and marketing days so I may be working on text for the web, e newsletters, contacting potential customers, networking with other web sites who will take our product, planning new products or creating PR interest in our products. Tuesdays tend to be meeting days - I have a whole day in the week when I just have meetings so I will be in town and meet people in different nice cafés and restaurants or they will come to our office where we have a lovely garden and of course good chocolate brownies. I often pop down to our bakery on a Tuesday too just to catch up with the team there or to take them things which I have been experimenting on and want to share with them. Every second Tuesday I have 2 hours with Adrian my business coach- I find that invaluable because it stops me being complacent, makes me quantify targets and goals and keeps me pushing forward. Wednesday’s and Thursdays my early morning routine is as normal but then most of my day is spent working for the consultancy so can be out seeing clients , in people’s food factories or on trips to find out about new things, new ingredients, new food processes or packaging- I am fortunate that because I do a lot of writing for magazines and some radio work too I get the opportunity to learn about a lot of great things. On a Friday I like to be in the office all week to round off my week with a clear desk and an empty inbox if possible. I divide the day between accounts and admin and a 2-3 hour block working on things to develop either myself or my businesses. The rest of the week I try to leave the office or finish work by 6pm on a Friday I like to be out by 5pm. It’s just as important I get evenings to catch up with friends, housework, my garden which I love working on, or sometimes to go to networking events and weekends are similarly jam packed with catching up with friends, household jobs and doing a little work supporting a few prisoners/ ex-offenders. 5. What, apart from money, do you get out of it? I love what I do – I love the people I work with, the variety of work I do and I love the opportunity to try so many different things. I have always said I would never do the lottery because it would change my life and I love my life just as it is- I realise I am very, very fortunate to feel like this 6. What's been the most difficult part of the business? Finding the right baker was hard- I think I did trials with 11 or 12 before I found someone who understood the ethos of my product and could produce it exactly as I do and consistently too 7. Was there anything that has been surprisingly easy? Getting our first publicity- I hand delivered product round several journalists and 3 weeks later the Mail on Sunday ran a tiny piece for us which generated several hundred orders…it just started from there. 8. What advice might you have for someone setting up their own online gift/food business, or indeed, any business? I think women particularly are very intuitive and have a real sixth sense- whenever I have ignored that intuition I usually have regretted it and so my advice would be to go with your gut instinct every time…because men don’t have that same instinct they will often try to belittle it and make you feel like you are being less business like by acting on a hunch…but in fact it is a huge business advantage and should be used as a real strength. 9. Anything you wish you'd done differently? Not really – if it were my only business I realise I could have got a lot further in this first 2 years but then if it were the only business I was running there would have been other things I would not have been able to achieve so on the whole I am very happy. 10. Who do you most admire business-wise and do you have a role model you follow? I have had the great fortune to have had some great bosses in my life – 2 men in particular Ken Middleton and Peter Rossi at Greggs Plc , in my early career taught me a lot about getting balance right in my life, getting perspective on things, running a people-centred business and using people’s skills and playing to their strengths. I hope that over the years I have developed some of their skills in myself too. I also greatly admire Thomas Estes who owns the Café Pacifico and La Perla Mexican restaurant groups- he is one of the most generous people I have met in business and his great relationship with people shines through in all his staff, the atmosphere in his restaurants and bars and in all aspects of his life. 11. Finally, what's your favourite chocolate? My friend Amanda McGabhahn started a business in Ballinskellig in Kerry in Ireland called Skelligs her chocolate coated prunes in armagnac are like velvet…Amanda is now living in Italy and about to open a chocolate cookery school …I’m hoping she will be making the prunes again. |
| Posted: 14/01/2007 13:52:51 Last Updated: 15/02/2007 14:25:30 |
Chick Lit > Business Chicks :: Business Chick Jane Milton