November 2011
I have been writing 'I Want to Bake Free' since June 2010. Some of you are new to the story and many of you have been following since the early days; either way thanks for taking part.
This post is a quick guide to everything that has happened so far for to bring you up to speed. I have taken the introduction to each post so that you can decide for yourself if you are interested in that part of the tale.
Ideally you should be able to read this one post and have an idea on the story so far...
Contents:
1. An Introduction
2. An Apology
3. How I Source Things
4. Business in Focus Business Support
5. Writing my Business Plan
6. Projects
7. Leasing a Commercial Property
8. Loving & Losing a Property
9. Learning About Coffee
10. What Makes a Great Tearoom
11. Finding a Fabulous Secret Venue
12. Videos of our Baking
13. My Personal Re-cap of the Story so Far
14. Why I Loved the Great British Bake Off
15. My Ethics My Passion
16. The Results of My Poll
17. My first Radio Interview
18. Finding a Coffee Supplier
19. Finding a Tea Supplier
20. A Great Radio Interview with Jamie Owen
1. An Introduction
Sunday, 25 July 2010 Somewhere in the Middle - Part One
Like all stories you have an introduction, conflict and resolution. This is a simple story being written in real time. Today is the introduction, to come is the conflict and fingers crossed for the rest...
For my sanity and yours, here are some intro facts; last time I wrote any kind of story was over 12 years ago, I have done no research into writing methods. This will be spell checked, read once then published so if you spot any SPAG errors turn your rage inwards and keep it. For my part I will keep to short sharp points (where possible) to keep it brief and punchy, with at least weekly updates. This is an open forum so comment away I won't edit you if you don't edit me!
Read More...
2. An Apology
Thursday, 14 April 2011 To a Mouse ... about that weekly update ...
For the more observant of you, my last post was 263 days ago.
I certainly remember feeling, as I was composing my introduction to this story, that it was something best communicated live as a weekly Blog and despite the effort involved that this was indeed an interesting enough life gamble which merited documentation in my own bungling, bumbling, this, that and the other way.
I did not however write my story weekly. Looking back I can not think of an excuse although I do have an explanation for why I missed the first week. Upon finishing the introduction and hitting PUBLISH POST, I realised that in telling you what I was going to do I also risked telling my employer my plans before time. After flamboyantly venting my intentions in a blog I had a vision of my story going a bit too public a bit too quickly. It was then very easy to not write, with the thought in the back of my thinking space *blog? yes very important, must prioritise this, no wait, time not right, besides time better spent writing business plan/eating/sleeping/distracted ooh a pretty flower*. Missing week 2 meant missing week 3 and I could go on, but promised not to, you get the picture?
Read More...
3. How I Source Things
Thursday, 14 April 2011 Procurement Fun - 1. The Welsh Dresser
This little beauty came courtesy of Anthemion Auctions of Cardiff who provide a rather fantastic general auction on every 1st Wednesday of the month. This is a traditional Welsh Dresser. There are two things I was determined to have in my tea room which I was prepared to splash out on. A beautiful Oak Welsh Dresser was one and now I own it.
Read More...
4. Business in Focus Business Support
Saturday, 16 April 2011 Captain Janeway Lives in Wales
I realise that a blessay about Star Trek is likely enough to make one half of you beam with joy while the other half leap to force close your browser. This is about my story and nothing to do with increasing power to the pattern buffer, inverting your tachyon beam through the deflector array or ejecting the warp core.
This is not a picture of Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Intrepid-class USS Voyager. The devout amongst you will know that this is a photo from the filming of the pilot episode of Voyager featuring the actress who got the gig before Kate Mulgrew made the role her own and that this character played by the French Canadian actress Genevieve Bujold was named Captain Nicole Janeway. Luckily for the series she walked out after day one of filming.
16 years later I took it as a sign of divine providence that my newly assigned Welsh Assembly Government business adviser is named Jane and that this Jane married a gentleman named Way.
Read More...
5. Writing my Business Plan
Monday, 18 April 2011 How to Right a Business Plan Wrong - 10 Top Tips
For the regulars visiting this blog you will know that I am in the process of setting up a traditional tea room business in Cardiff, South Wales, that celebrates home made, fair trade, fabulous cake, coffee and loose leaf teas. I started this mission in June last year (2010) and am focussing the next few weeks on bringing you up to date on the story so far as I build up to open at the end of 2011.
August - October 2010
Anyone can start a business, you see that happening every day. I notice usually when I think that someone is doing a bad job of running a business particularly bad tea rooms, café's and coffee shops. When you sit down to a sticky table, or get told to clear your own tray, or people there to provide a service to you are plain rude, I just think how do you people make any money? I could do that better! Have you ever had the same thought?
Read More...
6. Projects
Tuesday, 19 April 2011 Procurement Fun 2. Pretty Tables
I have two main methods of acquiring furniture for my tea room at the moment. As I have the luxury of time and a spare room to cram full of goodies, I am trawling two main sites;
1. Free Cycle - Cardiff
2. Gumtree
Each of these sites have their pro's and cons but used together they can be a powerful tool for finding the greatest bargains on Earth! I will be giving my top tips to navigating such free ad sites at a later date. This occasional table came to me from Free Cycle - Cardiff. Yes someone was chucking this out...
Read More...
7. Leasing a Commercial Property
Sunday, 1 May 2011 How to Find and Lease the Perfect Commercial Property - 10 Top Tips
Yes this is one of the most exciting titles for any Blog post. I toyed with punning my way into this subject, but it is just too important to make the subject line any more exciting. I shall endeavour to make the content a little more interesting than the title!
Just Looking I am Not Buying
I have been looking for a commercial property to lease in South Wales of the UK for the past ten months, to become the perfect home for my Tea Room Business. The writing of my business plan was one of the first steps in creating my venue requirement brief. You probably have a pre-conception in your head for what a traditional tea room looks like. I am coming at this from a different angle, I can picture several types of buildings that may suit, but actually it is the content and subsequent functionality that helps me stay open minded to a venue. Jane Way advised me that it may easily take over a year to find a venue, when we met in July 2010 and here I am ten months on with no signed lease agreement. It may be very easy to find the venue you want, but the majority of small business' rely to a crucial extent on finding a venue that is actually quite unique. To me it feels like finding a needle in a haystack.
Read More...
8. Loving and Losing a Property
Sunday, 8 May 2011 Diary Excerpt – The Birth and Death of the Old Coach House Tea Rooms
27th August 2010 – Business in Focus Advice
“Today I met with Jane Way at her offices in Cardiff Bay. Amongst several of the things that we discussed were how to go about finding the perfect venue for my new business. I have quite a specific idea in my head for what sort of shop I want for my tea room, this is based on good places I have been to in the past and also what shops I think are in Cardiff in areas that I think will work. For my first tea room and indeed my first business, I have decided to rent a property to minimise the risk involved and also keep my start up costs down. I figure that a good street facing unit on a busy shopping street area is the way to go. With this in mind I am targeting Wellfield Road, Albany Road, Roath, Pontcanna, Penarth, Whitchurch Village, Llandaff Village, Cyn Coed and Cardiff City Centre to start with. I will need A3 planning consent to operate my tea room, however getting this kind of planning consent where it does not already exist is really tough. It turns out that in the recent past Cardiff has been very free with handing out A3 consent, so takeaway outlets and restaurants have popped up all over the city. As a result Cardiff has now developed the opposite attitude and won’t hand out A3 easily. Scarily Jane also pointed out that it could take over a year to find a venue, she has had some clients where it has taken several years to find the right place…”
Read More...
9. Learning About Coffee
Wednesday, 17 August 2011 How Starbucks make the Bigbucks
This post is about working for Starbucks, judging them, learning to love coffee and working out to what extent I need coffee to have a successful tea room business in 2011/12. Here is the next instalment in my journey.
The chances are that you are reading this segment of my tea room journey, while drinking a lovely hot beverage. I can confidently make this statement because 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day and with the Worlds population currently estimated at 6.94 billion, that's a lot of coffee!*. As I haven't drunk my quota for the past decade and quite a few people on the globe don't own kettles I feel quite confident that you people out there must be guzzling coffee all day.
Read More...
10. What Makes a Great Tearoom
Tuesday, 6 September 2011 AAA Business Rating -‘A’ View, ‘A’ Brew & ‘A’ Loo
This blog post is rather exciting for me as it finally brings you up to date with where my tea room plans are at right now! From writing my first entry well over a year ago it has taken me this long to fill you in on the trials and tribulations of the past 18 months. I am now inching closer to achieving my dream and this blog paves the way for the radical news that I may have found the venue of my dreams.
This is bittersweet news for you as I need to remain rather cryptic about the details, but read on and in the coming weeks I promise it will become clear.
Read More...
11. Finding a Fabulous Secret Venue
Tuesday, 13 September 2011 Bring Back Don't Ask Don't Tell
Project X - Venue 2012
Welcome to all my new readers as well as you regulars. After last weeks lightning bolt revelation that I may have found a venue for my tea room, which is available in Spring 2012, I feel it is only fair to give you some background. I will intentionally remain cryptic because this venue is SO very good I cannot risk someone else swooping in and gazumping me. When I reveal all on the 1st December take a look back through these words and reminisce but for now as long as you don't ask I won't be tempted to tell all. On with the story...
Read More...
12. Videos of our Baking
Sunday, 18 September 2011 Bake the Menu - Video Blog
Early in a start up business you need to decide what to deliver to your customers and the most cost effective way to do that. This decision making process is crucial and must take into account, consistency of delivery, quality and pricing to name but a few. I will deliver a high quality product in a comfortable and classically vintage tea room.
There are three excellent reasons to 'Bake the Menu'. Firstly for quality control; to ensure that menu items are of the best quality and recipes can be tweaked where necessary. Sadly this also means that i'll have to eat the menu too. Secondly I need to work out the exact costings of each menu item, to set a fair price and identify the cost of sale for each menu item. The third reason to 'Bake the Menu' is so that I can keep a video log to update the website with all the mouth watering and delicious home baking that my tea room will serve.
Read More...
13. My Personal Re-cap of the Story so Far
Thursday, 22 September 2011 Somewhere in the Middle – Part Two
I wrote my first blog entry on Sunday 25th July 2010 in order to chart the progress of change in my life through leaving my career to starting my own business. Now 15 months later it's time to recap, review and update you.
I wanted to feel free. This feeling lurked in the pit of my stomach nagging at me particularly when I took a break from work. The nagging would get even stronger as the creeping dread of going back to work became real. This was often brought into sharp focus when spending time with successful friends and family who from my perspective managed to incorporate their genuine interests into their careers.
The nagging voice would ask a simple question; you are successful and hard working, so why can’t you apply the same work ethic to something you enjoy and make a living from it? We all face self doubt and fear, but the simple answer to this question is that there is no reason not to try. For me the tipping point came from asking another question, if I don’t do this now will I regret it for ever?
Read More...
14. Why I Loved the Great British Bake Off
Wednesday, 5 October 2011 BBC Great British Bake Off - Who Cares?
There is an important clichéd rule to writing which I have decided to invoke today. I am using this loop hole to veer away from my scheduled plans to write about Business Ethics in Baking (new Blog to follow soon).
They say ‘write about what you know’ and I know about #GBBO @BritishBakeOff (The Great British Bake Off for those not on Twitter).
Read More...
15. My Ethics My Passion
Thursday, 13 October 2011 How to be Ethical in Business
I need you. One of the big challenges in starting this venture is decision making. It is like taking a journey and knowing the destination that you want, but not knowing if the path you pick will take you anywhere near. One of the big decisions from the outset is reconciling what you care about, what I care about and what is commercially viable; in other words business ethics.
So this post is a musing on all things ethical in business, DON'T tune out! I need your input. I promise you a little discussion, a space disaster and some questions to get your thoughts flowing.
Read More...
16. The Results - What You Said
Tuesday, 25 October 2011 Ethics - The Results!
Not all of this starting your own business lark is a barrel of laughs. But the majority is!
I make the choices, I have written about how hard it can be to make an informed choice and the fear of committing to a course of action. At some point though, decisions have to be made to get the business going.
My last post touched on the importance of ingredients, quality and delivery as I was mulling over the ethical considerations. I am delighted to share with you the results of my 7 question survey [if you haven't taken it yet click HERE].
Read More...
17. My first Radio Interview
Thursday, 3 November 2011 BBC Radio Interview
I randomly ended up on BBC Radio Gloucestershire this week. I am still not entirely sure how this happened, it was great fun though. I am now available for weddings, funerals and Bah Mitzvah's
Read More...
18. Finding a Coffee Supplier
Tuesday, 8 November 2011 Coffee Controversy - A Matter of Taste and Trust
The Man from Del Monte, was from Bolton
Today I want to share with you how I am sourcing suppliers. I have given a lot of thought as to how I want to do business and who I should partner with. I don't believe that you have to travel around the World to personally inspect suppliers unless you actually are the man from Del Monte. As I do not have a panama hat or white suit I have decided to find suppliers who can do the job for me. The people that I am dealing with work very hard to source their ingredients from the best suppliers, for me they must also be...
Read More...
19. Finding a Tea Supplier
Wednesday, 16 November 2011 Tea to WI For
The Great Tea Taste Test - First and Foremost a Tea Room
At the point of conception, the idea for this business was the the combination of tea and cake. This is a very simple and very crucial point. As you read this and follow my journey around all the nitty gritty in setting up a business, it will all be for naught if you and I cannot sit around a table in March next year and enjoy a hot cup of your favourite tea with a stunning slice of fabulous cake. [Yes I am that deluded that I still believe I will have time to sit around and take tea at leisure, where as in reality I will be doing my headless chicken impression]
Read More...
20. A Great Radio Interview with Jamie Owen
Sunday, 20 November 2011 BBC Radio Wales Interview - Friday 18th November 2011
On Friday I was lucky enough to be interviewed by the lovely Jamie Owen on his and Louise Elliotts' week day magazine show. Listen along by clicking the play button below.
Read More...
To say that the pace of this project has taken me by surprise would an understatement! I love the Blog to share my ideas and explore thoughts, I love Twitter to chat with people daily, however I wanted to document more daily facts as they happen which is where my new micro blog 'Dear Diary' comes in. If you want a daily fix then go read my diary HERE.
As ever thank YOU for your interest, topical comment and support.
See you for tea... ...soon
David x
I have been writing 'I Want to Bake Free' since June 2010. Some of you are new to the story and many of you have been following since the early days; either way thanks for taking part.
This post is a quick guide to everything that has happened so far for to bring you up to speed. I have taken the introduction to each post so that you can decide for yourself if you are interested in that part of the tale.
Ideally you should be able to read this one post and have an idea on the story so far...
Contents:
1. An Introduction
2. An Apology
3. How I Source Things
4. Business in Focus Business Support
5. Writing my Business Plan
6. Projects
7. Leasing a Commercial Property
8. Loving & Losing a Property
9. Learning About Coffee
10. What Makes a Great Tearoom
11. Finding a Fabulous Secret Venue
12. Videos of our Baking
13. My Personal Re-cap of the Story so Far
14. Why I Loved the Great British Bake Off
15. My Ethics My Passion
16. The Results of My Poll
17. My first Radio Interview
18. Finding a Coffee Supplier
19. Finding a Tea Supplier
20. A Great Radio Interview with Jamie Owen
1. An Introduction
Sunday, 25 July 2010 Somewhere in the Middle - Part One
Like all stories you have an introduction, conflict and resolution. This is a simple story being written in real time. Today is the introduction, to come is the conflict and fingers crossed for the rest...
For my sanity and yours, here are some intro facts; last time I wrote any kind of story was over 12 years ago, I have done no research into writing methods. This will be spell checked, read once then published so if you spot any SPAG errors turn your rage inwards and keep it. For my part I will keep to short sharp points (where possible) to keep it brief and punchy, with at least weekly updates. This is an open forum so comment away I won't edit you if you don't edit me!
Read More...
2. An Apology
Thursday, 14 April 2011 To a Mouse ... about that weekly update ...
For the more observant of you, my last post was 263 days ago.
I certainly remember feeling, as I was composing my introduction to this story, that it was something best communicated live as a weekly Blog and despite the effort involved that this was indeed an interesting enough life gamble which merited documentation in my own bungling, bumbling, this, that and the other way.
I did not however write my story weekly. Looking back I can not think of an excuse although I do have an explanation for why I missed the first week. Upon finishing the introduction and hitting PUBLISH POST, I realised that in telling you what I was going to do I also risked telling my employer my plans before time. After flamboyantly venting my intentions in a blog I had a vision of my story going a bit too public a bit too quickly. It was then very easy to not write, with the thought in the back of my thinking space *blog? yes very important, must prioritise this, no wait, time not right, besides time better spent writing business plan/eating/sleeping/distracted ooh a pretty flower*. Missing week 2 meant missing week 3 and I could go on, but promised not to, you get the picture?
Read More...
3. How I Source Things
Thursday, 14 April 2011 Procurement Fun - 1. The Welsh Dresser
This little beauty came courtesy of Anthemion Auctions of Cardiff who provide a rather fantastic general auction on every 1st Wednesday of the month. This is a traditional Welsh Dresser. There are two things I was determined to have in my tea room which I was prepared to splash out on. A beautiful Oak Welsh Dresser was one and now I own it.
Read More...
4. Business in Focus Business Support
Saturday, 16 April 2011 Captain Janeway Lives in Wales
I realise that a blessay about Star Trek is likely enough to make one half of you beam with joy while the other half leap to force close your browser. This is about my story and nothing to do with increasing power to the pattern buffer, inverting your tachyon beam through the deflector array or ejecting the warp core.
This is not a picture of Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Intrepid-class USS Voyager. The devout amongst you will know that this is a photo from the filming of the pilot episode of Voyager featuring the actress who got the gig before Kate Mulgrew made the role her own and that this character played by the French Canadian actress Genevieve Bujold was named Captain Nicole Janeway. Luckily for the series she walked out after day one of filming.
16 years later I took it as a sign of divine providence that my newly assigned Welsh Assembly Government business adviser is named Jane and that this Jane married a gentleman named Way.
Read More...
5. Writing my Business Plan
Monday, 18 April 2011 How to Right a Business Plan Wrong - 10 Top Tips
For the regulars visiting this blog you will know that I am in the process of setting up a traditional tea room business in Cardiff, South Wales, that celebrates home made, fair trade, fabulous cake, coffee and loose leaf teas. I started this mission in June last year (2010) and am focussing the next few weeks on bringing you up to date on the story so far as I build up to open at the end of 2011.
August - October 2010
Anyone can start a business, you see that happening every day. I notice usually when I think that someone is doing a bad job of running a business particularly bad tea rooms, café's and coffee shops. When you sit down to a sticky table, or get told to clear your own tray, or people there to provide a service to you are plain rude, I just think how do you people make any money? I could do that better! Have you ever had the same thought?
Read More...
6. Projects
Tuesday, 19 April 2011 Procurement Fun 2. Pretty Tables
I have two main methods of acquiring furniture for my tea room at the moment. As I have the luxury of time and a spare room to cram full of goodies, I am trawling two main sites;
1. Free Cycle - Cardiff
2. Gumtree
Each of these sites have their pro's and cons but used together they can be a powerful tool for finding the greatest bargains on Earth! I will be giving my top tips to navigating such free ad sites at a later date. This occasional table came to me from Free Cycle - Cardiff. Yes someone was chucking this out...
Read More...
7. Leasing a Commercial Property
Sunday, 1 May 2011 How to Find and Lease the Perfect Commercial Property - 10 Top Tips
Yes this is one of the most exciting titles for any Blog post. I toyed with punning my way into this subject, but it is just too important to make the subject line any more exciting. I shall endeavour to make the content a little more interesting than the title!
Just Looking I am Not Buying
I have been looking for a commercial property to lease in South Wales of the UK for the past ten months, to become the perfect home for my Tea Room Business. The writing of my business plan was one of the first steps in creating my venue requirement brief. You probably have a pre-conception in your head for what a traditional tea room looks like. I am coming at this from a different angle, I can picture several types of buildings that may suit, but actually it is the content and subsequent functionality that helps me stay open minded to a venue. Jane Way advised me that it may easily take over a year to find a venue, when we met in July 2010 and here I am ten months on with no signed lease agreement. It may be very easy to find the venue you want, but the majority of small business' rely to a crucial extent on finding a venue that is actually quite unique. To me it feels like finding a needle in a haystack.
Read More...
8. Loving and Losing a Property
Sunday, 8 May 2011 Diary Excerpt – The Birth and Death of the Old Coach House Tea Rooms
27th August 2010 – Business in Focus Advice
“Today I met with Jane Way at her offices in Cardiff Bay. Amongst several of the things that we discussed were how to go about finding the perfect venue for my new business. I have quite a specific idea in my head for what sort of shop I want for my tea room, this is based on good places I have been to in the past and also what shops I think are in Cardiff in areas that I think will work. For my first tea room and indeed my first business, I have decided to rent a property to minimise the risk involved and also keep my start up costs down. I figure that a good street facing unit on a busy shopping street area is the way to go. With this in mind I am targeting Wellfield Road, Albany Road, Roath, Pontcanna, Penarth, Whitchurch Village, Llandaff Village, Cyn Coed and Cardiff City Centre to start with. I will need A3 planning consent to operate my tea room, however getting this kind of planning consent where it does not already exist is really tough. It turns out that in the recent past Cardiff has been very free with handing out A3 consent, so takeaway outlets and restaurants have popped up all over the city. As a result Cardiff has now developed the opposite attitude and won’t hand out A3 easily. Scarily Jane also pointed out that it could take over a year to find a venue, she has had some clients where it has taken several years to find the right place…”
Read More...
9. Learning About Coffee
Wednesday, 17 August 2011 How Starbucks make the Bigbucks
This post is about working for Starbucks, judging them, learning to love coffee and working out to what extent I need coffee to have a successful tea room business in 2011/12. Here is the next instalment in my journey.
The chances are that you are reading this segment of my tea room journey, while drinking a lovely hot beverage. I can confidently make this statement because 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day and with the Worlds population currently estimated at 6.94 billion, that's a lot of coffee!*. As I haven't drunk my quota for the past decade and quite a few people on the globe don't own kettles I feel quite confident that you people out there must be guzzling coffee all day.
Read More...
10. What Makes a Great Tearoom
Tuesday, 6 September 2011 AAA Business Rating -‘A’ View, ‘A’ Brew & ‘A’ Loo
This blog post is rather exciting for me as it finally brings you up to date with where my tea room plans are at right now! From writing my first entry well over a year ago it has taken me this long to fill you in on the trials and tribulations of the past 18 months. I am now inching closer to achieving my dream and this blog paves the way for the radical news that I may have found the venue of my dreams.
This is bittersweet news for you as I need to remain rather cryptic about the details, but read on and in the coming weeks I promise it will become clear.
Read More...
11. Finding a Fabulous Secret Venue
Tuesday, 13 September 2011 Bring Back Don't Ask Don't Tell
Project X - Venue 2012
Welcome to all my new readers as well as you regulars. After last weeks lightning bolt revelation that I may have found a venue for my tea room, which is available in Spring 2012, I feel it is only fair to give you some background. I will intentionally remain cryptic because this venue is SO very good I cannot risk someone else swooping in and gazumping me. When I reveal all on the 1st December take a look back through these words and reminisce but for now as long as you don't ask I won't be tempted to tell all. On with the story...
Read More...
12. Videos of our Baking
Sunday, 18 September 2011 Bake the Menu - Video Blog
Early in a start up business you need to decide what to deliver to your customers and the most cost effective way to do that. This decision making process is crucial and must take into account, consistency of delivery, quality and pricing to name but a few. I will deliver a high quality product in a comfortable and classically vintage tea room.
There are three excellent reasons to 'Bake the Menu'. Firstly for quality control; to ensure that menu items are of the best quality and recipes can be tweaked where necessary. Sadly this also means that i'll have to eat the menu too. Secondly I need to work out the exact costings of each menu item, to set a fair price and identify the cost of sale for each menu item. The third reason to 'Bake the Menu' is so that I can keep a video log to update the website with all the mouth watering and delicious home baking that my tea room will serve.
Read More...
13. My Personal Re-cap of the Story so Far
Thursday, 22 September 2011 Somewhere in the Middle – Part Two
I wrote my first blog entry on Sunday 25th July 2010 in order to chart the progress of change in my life through leaving my career to starting my own business. Now 15 months later it's time to recap, review and update you.
I wanted to feel free. This feeling lurked in the pit of my stomach nagging at me particularly when I took a break from work. The nagging would get even stronger as the creeping dread of going back to work became real. This was often brought into sharp focus when spending time with successful friends and family who from my perspective managed to incorporate their genuine interests into their careers.
The nagging voice would ask a simple question; you are successful and hard working, so why can’t you apply the same work ethic to something you enjoy and make a living from it? We all face self doubt and fear, but the simple answer to this question is that there is no reason not to try. For me the tipping point came from asking another question, if I don’t do this now will I regret it for ever?
Read More...
14. Why I Loved the Great British Bake Off
Wednesday, 5 October 2011 BBC Great British Bake Off - Who Cares?
There is an important clichéd rule to writing which I have decided to invoke today. I am using this loop hole to veer away from my scheduled plans to write about Business Ethics in Baking (new Blog to follow soon).
They say ‘write about what you know’ and I know about #GBBO @BritishBakeOff (The Great British Bake Off for those not on Twitter).
Read More...
15. My Ethics My Passion
Thursday, 13 October 2011 How to be Ethical in Business
I need you. One of the big challenges in starting this venture is decision making. It is like taking a journey and knowing the destination that you want, but not knowing if the path you pick will take you anywhere near. One of the big decisions from the outset is reconciling what you care about, what I care about and what is commercially viable; in other words business ethics.
So this post is a musing on all things ethical in business, DON'T tune out! I need your input. I promise you a little discussion, a space disaster and some questions to get your thoughts flowing.
Read More...
16. The Results - What You Said
Tuesday, 25 October 2011 Ethics - The Results!
Not all of this starting your own business lark is a barrel of laughs. But the majority is!
I make the choices, I have written about how hard it can be to make an informed choice and the fear of committing to a course of action. At some point though, decisions have to be made to get the business going.
My last post touched on the importance of ingredients, quality and delivery as I was mulling over the ethical considerations. I am delighted to share with you the results of my 7 question survey [if you haven't taken it yet click HERE].
Read More...
17. My first Radio Interview
Thursday, 3 November 2011 BBC Radio Interview
I randomly ended up on BBC Radio Gloucestershire this week. I am still not entirely sure how this happened, it was great fun though. I am now available for weddings, funerals and Bah Mitzvah's
Read More...
18. Finding a Coffee Supplier
Tuesday, 8 November 2011 Coffee Controversy - A Matter of Taste and Trust
The Man from Del Monte, was from Bolton
Today I want to share with you how I am sourcing suppliers. I have given a lot of thought as to how I want to do business and who I should partner with. I don't believe that you have to travel around the World to personally inspect suppliers unless you actually are the man from Del Monte. As I do not have a panama hat or white suit I have decided to find suppliers who can do the job for me. The people that I am dealing with work very hard to source their ingredients from the best suppliers, for me they must also be...
Read More...
19. Finding a Tea Supplier
Wednesday, 16 November 2011 Tea to WI For
The Great Tea Taste Test - First and Foremost a Tea Room
At the point of conception, the idea for this business was the the combination of tea and cake. This is a very simple and very crucial point. As you read this and follow my journey around all the nitty gritty in setting up a business, it will all be for naught if you and I cannot sit around a table in March next year and enjoy a hot cup of your favourite tea with a stunning slice of fabulous cake. [Yes I am that deluded that I still believe I will have time to sit around and take tea at leisure, where as in reality I will be doing my headless chicken impression]
Read More...
Sunday, 20 November 2011 BBC Radio Wales Interview - Friday 18th November 2011
On Friday I was lucky enough to be interviewed by the lovely Jamie Owen on his and Louise Elliotts' week day magazine show. Listen along by clicking the play button below.
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To say that the pace of this project has taken me by surprise would an understatement! I love the Blog to share my ideas and explore thoughts, I love Twitter to chat with people daily, however I wanted to document more daily facts as they happen which is where my new micro blog 'Dear Diary' comes in. If you want a daily fix then go read my diary HERE.
As ever thank YOU for your interest, topical comment and support.
See you for tea... ...soon
David x
It's really a great deal when you visit a shop and everything you need is there. Not just you will save on gas but also and the most valuable, which is time.
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