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Fraser McIntyre: Baking Success in the Startup World with the Biscuit Baron Story
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Ever found yourself spiraling in the chaos of a new year, grappling with the art of staying afloat amidst the frenzy? Jeremy and I sure have, which is why we're serving up a hearty dish of raw anecdotes and survival strategies in our latest chat. We kick things off by sharing our own experiences with stress and the pursuit of mental clarity, even as I venture into the uncharted waters of LinkedIn videos. There's a sense of triumph too, as we tease an exciting opportunity at an event in London, a milestone that has us buzzing with anticipation.
Enter Fraser of the Biscuit Baron, a beacon of entrepreneurial determination who joins us to recount his transformative journey. From a precocious supervisor in a local store to the mastermind behind the biscuit subscription box that's taking taste buds by storm, Fraser's narrative is steeped in the lessons of his 'why.' He candidly offers the lowdown on the leap from employee to entrepreneur, and how embracing the hustle during university illuminated his path. His tale is one of ingenuity, complete with a plunge into the Dragon's Den and the adrenaline of navigating the logistics of warehouse fulfillment.
Wrapping up this rollercoaster, we delve into the heady days from Black Friday to Christmas, revealing the strategies that saw us through our busiest season to date. Fraser's insights on redefining success, forged in the fires of entrepreneurship, resonate with anyone chasing their own version of making a difference. And as we hint at our upcoming guest from the hospitality sector, we're reminded of the richness of the journey and the shared thrill of discovery that brings us all together, episode after episode. So tune in, get inspired, and maybe find a nugget or two that'll see you through your own bustling start to the year.
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Welcome to the next episode of Insert Busward. Delighted to be here with my good friend Jeremy. So, jeremy, kick us off. How's your week been?
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, I'm going first Throw the ball over, I'll catch it. Yeah, no, it's been a tense. It has been a tense, busy, big things going on. As per, I guess you're trying to manage those stress levels in the core of solar through a system, aware of what's going on, and hey, I try to hold on to the rocker ship as it reaches orbit, right, but no, it's been a grand week, grand old week, and it's only Wednesday. What about you, tristan?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Same same same. Basically, it has been a fast start to the year. I was grateful and glad to have pretty much the first week of January of work Come back in motivated submission goals. A lot of personal goals have started doing videos on LinkedIn, which was something I was apprehensive about, but kind of through guidance of others and you in particular, you know, kind of reassured and new New ultimately, you know I wasn't worried really, but you've got that kind of either feel of failure or that vulnerability that kind of makes you apprehensive. So I was glad to do that.
Speaker 1:It's going well. I've got a goal to do one a week this year, so that's a needs consistency and a hard one to do, but I'm motivated. This year has been very good so far and I think there will naturally be, you know, difficult, each other, difficult things, but I think this year mine's better than it's ever been and lots of things taking magnesium, taking some unwinded new tropics that are helping me sleep from pure sport, shout out to pure sport. And so some lion's mane mushrooms from Marble's mythology they are helping me get that mental clarity and focus.
Speaker 2:Big, big, big use. Since we last recorded a podcast, you're part of the business now.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'm in Helping and supporting. Yeah, well dressed, yeah, yeah, and we're doing exciting things. So what I haven't told you, jeremy, we'll do it live on. The podcast is secured, or stand at the? Oh, I don't get it. Footspect in London in April oh goodness. Oh goodness, we're H51, frame out there. Look at the floor plan, we're there.
Speaker 2:Oh, that was the nice spot as well, so yeah, that's the premium premium one.
Speaker 1:It's cost us money, but we're hopeful, hmm.
Speaker 2:Everyone's going to see it. Everyone's going to see it. That's amazing. Air 5's Tristan, nice one.
Speaker 1:Oh, Smashing this year. We're what Two and a half weeks in halfway through January, In terms of the goals we've been setting. We're absolutely, you know, I know, in this episode or this intro, to be just, you know us congratulating ourselves a bit, you get to go, but we genuinely have smashed the cramp. You know, let's celebrate while we can, because there'll be a week or a month where we're like, no, we didn't do that. We did do that. No.
Speaker 2:So let's enjoy it. What we equally as crushing is the euphoric, the hyzer at the moment. Yeah, not nice Nice that's nice, because my parent thought it was like this afternoon it's horrible.
Speaker 1:Go for it. Sorry, talk, no big deal. I was going to say the horrible thing is actually the weather, and tomorrow I'm driving to earth and petlockry. I meant to be minus seven. You know that'll be interesting. I'm actually going to do a video or a vlog vlog not of me driving I'd say I'd be dangerous, but you know of my day and so I'm keen to see what temperature is when I get in the car and before I set off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, make sure you got a tank of fuel, a blanket and a thermos flask if you've got one, just in case.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll have thermos and some little snacks and worn jackets and it was off keep me safe.
Speaker 2:It was minus three when I got back tonight already.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's articles that's called in there.
Speaker 2:My parents says, before we get our guest on part, two sets was. I said this afternoon I need to speak to the wife about all this travel I've got going on. I was rolling it off. It's like it's only the second week in January and look at all my travel. It was every month. Every month there was like trips, yeah.
Speaker 1:Which is so have you got approval for a Canada?
Speaker 2:Well, yes, I think in theory it was. Oh well, it would be a shame if you didn't go.
Speaker 1:Wow, what a considerate and caring wife. I don't know your wife.
Speaker 2:She's long suffering Tristan. But no, I think I want to take it away from that A whole thing. The travel is. It is only the second week. It means that things are happening, exciting things are happening, the calls are exciting, people want to see what we're up to, people want to see what powers up to. But I guess, yeah, just mindful of the impact that it will have at home. And with that said, shall we segue into our guest?
Speaker 1:Yes, why don't you do a little pre-intro for a guest? So a little teaser. Okay, tell us about our guest. Who have we got?
Speaker 2:Perfect for me to do it. So, fraser, he thinks I've got this like natural ability or some sort of skill where I can be like no, this person do this, they do this, this, this, this, this and this, and I'm at the here, here, here and here. So, fraser, I met RBS incubator. I overheard him preparing his pitch for Lions Den and immediately subscribed to his product during the pitch. So when he came out from his pitch practice he obviously checked his phone, knew the name was like, came over and introduced himself. So Fraser is the founder of the Biscuit Baron.
Speaker 2:The Biscuit Baron sell a monthly subscription box of biscuits from around the world. If you are a biscuit lover, it is the subscription box for you. Covid obviously happened, fell out of touch, a little bit caught up with them at a Scottish Edge competition where Paralyze had a stand Soon. After that, became a logistics customer come client. That was towards the end of 2022. And I've got to know him really really well over 2023. And I guess he's sort of part of the team with what we're doing for both of our businesses Paralyze and MMEs the logistics guru and hopefully it's going to be part of some big things to move forward as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've obviously met Fraser once or twice. Now I'm excited to hear more about his story and because I'm sure there's lots of, from what I know about him, lots of untold things that he keeps. Keeps a secret, but not secret, keeps himself Well cards close to his chest. But final thing, before we get into the episode of me, fraser if you were to describe Fraser three words, what three words would you use?
Speaker 2:Cool under pressure, and we'll hopefully get him to explain why, because I think it's really interesting.
Speaker 1:Okay, really, thank you very much. Right, let's get straight into it.
Speaker 2:That's who we are, joined by Fraser. Fraser, I've already done somewhat of an intro about you, but it'd be interesting to hear how you would describe yourself, please. Who are you? What do you do?
Speaker 3:This is strange because I've not heard what you've got to say yet, so this could be a. I could be bigger myself, up better than you have or worse than you have. My name's Fraser. I'm owner of the Biscuit Baron, but also offer fulfillment services to predominantly start-up businesses, businesses across e-commerce, in a range of different kind of sectors and niches.
Speaker 2:Amazing. Okay, yeah, to the point.
Speaker 1:How would you describe yourself in three words without saying the Biscuit Baron?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I am the Biscuit, Baron. Love and breathe it.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 3:I generally do not know. That's probably the toughest question you'll ask and ask me tonight is probably to describe myself in three words I think I'll have others to do that for me Generally as a pretty good summer day, also with people.
Speaker 2:So I might just part that one to the episode.
Speaker 3:Okay, what was that?
Speaker 2:Mine was cool under pressure. That one to the end of the episode. Take that one. So, fraser, what were some of your like early influences or inspirations getting into business?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think growing up I came from a. I grew up in a small town. There wasn't much in terms of entrepreneurship. Most of the people who had their own business it was family run businesses that they took over and I kind of gave your success. For someone from the precinct alleyway that's where I grew up was you went to university and you worked in big business that was our or you worked for. You got a job in industry, whatever it was you decided to do at university. There wasn't really much of a career path. There wasn't much anything. Nothing was ever mentioned. You could set up your own business or you could do your own thing.
Speaker 3:And growing up, I think when I went to university, I moved to Stirling. I think initially it was kind of around that time. I always want, I always was working, even while it's the university. But I kind of got the bug for wanting to do my own things with various side hustles. I would do the odd buying and reselling, even when I was a student, to earn some extra money and I think that kind of lit the fire in terms of I wanted to be my own person or I wanted to be self-employed or I wanted to be. You can control my own income.
Speaker 3:But I think from growing up it's hard coming from a small place because there is no real entrepreneurship. It's not a thing that people mention. I think our school just got a kind of entrepreneur thing. In the final year of my year at school there was a kind of entrepreneur club. There was kind of business challenges that he got set in kind of six year. But apart from that that was never a gateway for people. It was still very much of. You had a left school at fourth year and went into a traineeship or an apprenticeship or if you were clever enough, you stayed on to six year and then you went to university and then that was your career. Your business as self-employed wasn't really an option unless you opened a trade or you had a trade. That was the only kind of business we knew.
Speaker 2:That's really interesting. Personally, I hadn't reflected on that, but now that you're saying, like, who in secondary school did we know? Well, there was people that knew whose parents owned businesses, so it always felt like it would be possible because so and so dad or mum was doing it. That's very interesting, tristan.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm just keen, because there's been such, I guess, a big focus on on being your own boss. What, what are you actually like as an employee?
Speaker 3:Me as an employee. Sorry, I caught up just slightly there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. What are you like as an employee? Are you difficult to manage?
Speaker 3:No, I think I was. I think I was the opposite. I think I was. I was the dream person that I would have loved because I was keen to learn. I was like I really was a sponge around, no matter who I worked with. I actually had, quite think, probably this kind of shaped me into the person that I am now. But I had a little bit of a success when I was younger.
Speaker 3:In terms of when I was, I was working from the age of 11. And then, first, as I turned 18, it was like an opportunity arose in the kind of small convenience shop that I was working at to become a supervisor. So I was a supervisor in our convenience shop at the age of 18. I think I look back then and it was like who gave the keys to? Who would give? Who in the right mind would give the keys to shop this responsible? Quite a decent turnover of the keys to shop for the 18 year old just seems. It seems bonkers, but they did. And then from whilst I was at university I worked. I was still working as a supervisor, and then I graduated and became manager role. So I think that was kind of proof of the kind of person that I was.
Speaker 3:But as an employee I like to think I was the dream employee because I was keen to learn.
Speaker 3:I didn't really I wanted to learn more. I was always and I use this analogy quite often with my employees now but I like people that get the why, because I think employees is great having an employee that that does as you say and does it by the book. But it's a lot easier to explain to someone if they get the why, and that's so if you're doing a task is something as simple as understanding what the main output of why am I doing this? When I'm just doing this, I'm just clocking in to the function, go away at the end of the day, do my time and move on. But I was always the one that got the why, or if I didn't, I asked why so that I could learn. Or then I think any task you know, then you're putting the real kind of effort into it. You're you're understanding the reason why you're actually doing this and it's not just a case of you know, I'm just doing my bit, I'm a colleague in the giant wheel, kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Perfect and I am. I always, having worked in a variety of businesses. I think it's like really important on what drives the business, that people obviously get the why and and have a bit of ambition to just learn or to know and understand and that ability to kind of think about a how they should improve things, really more than anything you know. But you, I think, depending on time of this issue, I'll say those people are just want to do a job. It might not drive the excess there. Just as critical. You need that diversity of a role really, but everyone has a different value or role to add depending on on what they want in life. Against, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So our under this jump straight into. So what are some of the kind of struggles you faced? We kind of heard about some of your early success and some of your early influences, but yeah, some. Of those proposals are challenges.
Speaker 3:No, I think in employed life I think I was. I think because I got given authority a young age, I didn't know how to necessarily ask for, why I asked for help, or I think that was maybe a bit of an I don't know whether it was an insecurity. Being young I didn't want to feel like I didn't know something or I didn't. I didn't need help or was self sufficient. I would. My my work hard attitude would get me through any struggles that I might have had. I think, looking back now, there are certainly times that you know that I wish I'd put my hand up and say the guys, look, I'm struggling with this. I could, I could do with a hand, but instead I would kind of persevere and try and get through it just from hard work alone. I don't think you can necessarily just need to know when when that point is. I think looking back now and obviously hindsight is wonderful, but I think, looking back now, there's certainly a couple of times where I wish I had said you know, like this, this is a bit too much. And I think one of the one of the main ones was whenever, given a pharmacy manager's job and after being a kind of supervisor and in the area, given a pharmacy manager role in an area that I didn't know, and the way that it worked was you had your regions for your pharmacy chain and all the shops in one area knew each other. You would go to managers forums, you would. You would know everyone by personal name. If you had a problem you'd pick up the phone and you could phone Manager in the next shop, for example.
Speaker 3:But when I got given my first manager's role and it was in the area that I'd never worked in before and, to be honest, it was in the West, it was in the the not the best part of Glasgow and I was in a young manager and I was in amongst Other managers from the shops I didn't know, and I think my first weekend I had a member of staff come in under the influence and I had to deal with and you know, I was a young manager at that point with no, no one around, no one around me that I felt comfortable enough to reach out and I felt like I had this is my moment that had to kind of prove myself and I think, looking back now, that was something that definitely could have or should have handled a little bit better and and that was, that was the example I was a little bit kind of raw and a bit kind of naive and I thought I could, I could maybe handle it or I didn't need to ask for help, because that was a sign of weakness.
Speaker 3:When you know, on hindsight, looking back, it wasn't and I generally don't think anyone would have thought that. But You're in that motion and you're going through it, then live. You don't think clearly, as you probably would now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I've had similar experience. I'm sure most, most people, if they've had any sort of responsibility at a young age, you know I think majority would have similar experiences, if not the same, and I can certainly relate to that. I know the way I look at it now is more like if, if. If I look back on it now and I was like, and then differently, I wish I was more comfortable to ask for feedback. Like it's not even like, you know, in situations where you need direct help. It's like just being open and seeking feedback. But because you know you have to learn by making mistakes. But you can learn so much from other people around you. Like when you're young, you don't appreciate the knowledge or the experience around you and don't value it. Necessarily because you've got either filled with ambition or you're excited about what you're doing, can have almost wrapped up in your own, your own importance. You forget, forget what's around you, maybe the bigger purpose of the why, like we've said already, yeah, yep.
Speaker 3:I agree with that. So, how about?
Speaker 1:you is there.
Speaker 2:So, like the pharmacy career, going to uni doing pharmacy studies. Why did you jump ship? What was the? What was the reason that you jumped ship? To start up the biscuit ban?
Speaker 3:I think it was a kind of burning desire. It was a little bit of where I always wanted to be, like I said, self employed, always wanted to be kind of responsible for my own thing. And you know, pharmacy is very strict and regimented in terms of processing, in terms of what you can and can't do, especially when you work for a, for a big chain. They've got standard operating procedures for a reason, and I totally agree with that. But there was the odd time where you think you could improve a process or you think you want to change more, you would like to be able to see things better, and when you're working for a big business like that, they have to make sure that what works works across every shop. But there's the odd way nuances where obviously things would would be different and I think I would wanted to be able to make wider changes. And you know, I always knew that was never going to be possible in pharmacy and so I think that was the kind of burning desire. I knew that wasn't getting the freedom or the kind of free reign that I kind of needed or I wanted to make, and always had that burning desire to do something on my own. And then it was more a case of the right idea, the right kind of timing. I knew that I wanted to do something when I was still being young. I was still felt young and I think at the time, to be honest, I came out of university and my overheads were still pretty low. So I thought, if there's the time to start start a business, it's now. And I think we just bought our house In terms of I didn't have to put myself itself employed on the mortgage application and I'd get you done that. I'd already got the keys. So it was the case of our overheads from being a student was still pretty low, but our security were pretty secure in terms of our. So at the time, that was the less risk or the risk case, risk, less risk time to kind of do it. So between that and then there was obviously there was pharmacy was going through changes. At the time I think there was a lot of change within the pharmacy chain that I worked for. So it kind of all came together and a kind of nice time I thought, no, this, if I'm going to do it, this is, this is now. Why biscuits this is where it was actually subscription box first. It was always going to be a subscription box and I think at the time of partner Sophie was getting them like all these subscription boxes glossy box kind of makeup ones delivered in. The subscription box industry was was booming in the States and it was slowly coming to the UK. You can see there was like glossy box was doing extremely well.
Speaker 3:And then we thought I quite like the idea of a subscription box, that recurring revenue model, the kind of you could create your own product every month. It wouldn't be plug in a dead horse in terms of you don't have to put all your thing into one product. It's just an idea and the product changes every month and you can kind of tweak and change as you go to find something that worked in the market. And then it was to try and find a product that we'd both all enjoy. And both me and my partner are quite foodies. We like our food, we like our snacks. So it was kind of narrowing down then what we kind of liked, what we thought the British public would like in terms of what what we could offer. And and biscuits was the one we settled on. It helped that, I'll be honest, it helped. The biscuits are are zero rated for tax, so our sales didn't have any tax on them, so there was no nasty tax money to come along and take some iron later on.
Speaker 2:So he was on my door this afternoon and, tristan, I need to tell you after.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that the biscuits was was brought about because that was the one that had a nice little tax advantage to it as well.
Speaker 2:And, like those first few subscribers, like at what point were you? And so feel like we've clearly got something that's working here after this sort of friends and family and the initial launch.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it was. It wasn't necessarily when the numbers started coming through or we saw a boost in terms of sales. It was more when the feedback started coming in and when we got someone saying we enjoyed our box or they bought it for their son, and it was actually the real stories that we heard from them initial customers. So I think it was the first time we started to get the the reviews come in, and or it was someone, I think quite early on, one of our probably one of our first 20 subscribers happened to have a small YouTube channel and it was a case of suddenly this person was unboxing. We didn't even think about influencers at this point, but this person had a YouTube channel, happened to subscribe and then all of a sudden it was seeing your product on YouTube and it was like this is it? We made it on YouTube and several we had night everywhere at that time in terms of how easy it was to be to be seen on on a platform like that.
Speaker 3:But I think that was the kind of key point.
Speaker 3:It was like it doesn't really matter if you kind of goes anywhere or not, you know fine, well, you're making not a difference in terms of it's not a product that's changing lives, but in terms of in that happiness, you're giving someone something that they're felt they went out of their way to post positive feedback about.
Speaker 3:And just as a side point, sophie, my partner was a psychology graduate and she did a study into the kind of if you have a bad experience, you can have one experience. You know going the negative bias of leaving negative reviews but actually to have a positive review. It takes a lot for someone to go out of their way to leave a positive review, especially when it's not garnered in terms of never sent out an email to say I'm going to leave us a positive review on this. It was. This is someone had received our product and then naturally went out of their way to leave feedback somewhere. So you know that it must have been a good experience for them to have gone out and done that and I think that was that was a key thing that really saw people are enjoying it. It's worth continuing to do.
Speaker 2:I guess I was saying to Tristan first I heard of the biscuit bar, and was you practicing your Dragon's Den pitch? What was that?
Speaker 3:That was a weird one. So that actually came about pretty early on into doing the biscuit bar. And it's funny. You look at moments and you think you know, would we be standing here having this conversation just now if certain things hadn't happened along the way? And I look back and I think we got an invitation to an award final, for I think it was start-up online business of the year or something like that, and we happened to win it and we got a little bit of press coverage out of it and I think we were in kind of remember what paper it was nowadays now, but I think we got a lot of press coverage from it.
Speaker 3:And it just so happened that one of the researchers from the Dragon's Den or for the BBC that was working on the Dragon's Den with Scottish and he had a bit of a preference to look for Scottish businesses and it just so happened again, you're looking at random moments but the researcher from the Dragon's Den was visiting his parents in Glasgow and he happened to pick up their paper and he was looking through the business awards section and he saw the biscuit bar and he thought that that might play well on the TV. So he reached out to us. It's always that thing to reapply. We never filled in an application form. They do reach out to brands and businesses that they come across and you know it's that way. You've just jacked in your job, your full-time employed running the business, and I think I was even sat where I'm sitting right now in our office and my phone rang and it was not number.
Speaker 2:And, jeremy, you know me, I'll not pick up a so you'd say I'd call the phone calls, I'd take all of them. You never know who's on the end of it.
Speaker 3:Well, I've passed this call, I've passed this private number and they left a voicemail and I thought what the hell is this? Listen to the voicemail and it's hi, we are a Dragon's Den researcher. We're keen to have you on the show. And I thought, yeah right, this is one of my mates on the wind up, put the phone down and, can you know, I've just started a business. That's what they find. That's the kind of humor that some of my friends would have. They genuinely thought it was a wind up. And then they sent an email and had the official BBC signature at the bottom. I was like this actually might be something.
Speaker 3:And again, the whole application. It was a case of they put various hurdles in front of you in terms of there's a screen test you've got to do or at least this is the process when we did it. It was a. There was a screen test in Manchester with an interview. There was then a pitch. They then went through your whole paperwork. There was a whole legal check to make sure there was nothing that was going to make the BBC look bad. And then there's a case of it goes to a panel and an editor. I think it is of the show and it's a case of we'll give you the. You'll hear from them.
Speaker 3:And it was the case of it. It's always two weeks, it's always two weeks. The next step was two weeks and I remember we were in, I was in the RBS accelerator office when I got an email to say hey, just to let you know that you're you're pitching in the Dragon's Den on two weeks time or three weeks time or something like that, and let us know how many people will be traveling, what hotel requirements you need and if you get any allergies for your meal. And it was literally as simple as that. It was a case of we thought there'd be a hurdle, come in at some point.
Speaker 3:Something that came and said, nah, it's not going to happen, but it never. We just, we just kept getting through, we just kept getting through. So, yeah, the first time you heard us was when and the thing is, we took the whole secrecy to heart that you can't tell anyone. You can't tell anyone, you're not allowed to inform anyone. You're on the show. We were dead secretive, never told anyone, apart from our business advisor at the Royal Bank, and that was us practicing the pitch for the first time in front of her and she brought down. One of our colleagues from from commercial banking came down and you just happened to be in the in the hub at the same time and you just drop in.
Speaker 2:It's like what's good on here? Yeah, nice, nice, I'll give it one more question and I'm firing it back to you. Tristan Pickin' Packers, so obviously, biscuit barring going great guns. How come the diversification and fulfillment more generally?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think when, to be honest, we grew quite quickly during COVID, I think everyone was stuck at home with nothing to do. Everyone was online shopping. So we grew exponentially during COVID, so much so that we're kind of faced with the decision whether we went to a fulfillment center ourselves or whether we took the overheads and, you know, opened our own warehouse and did it ourselves in house. And I think at the time I reached out, there was a lot of ecom fulfillment companies who didn't have space because they were growing during COVID. They weren't. They were doing a lot more. They didn't want to take on new clients, or the one that's, or the ones that did. The pricing model just didn't work for us in terms of how how that worked with our profit margin, with our boxes and stuff. So I felt like it was a little bit aimed against small businesses. Some of their pricing. They were only really interested in those big contracts.
Speaker 3:So we did the, did the numbers and we thought we would actually be better off opening our own warehouse.
Speaker 3:So we did that. We opened our own warehouse with fulfilling our own items and more or less to protect ourselves against, you know, our business failing or numbers dropping or whatever it was. We decided to offer fulfillment services because we had the warehouse and we had the space. We decided to offer fulfillment services to other kind of brands who were seen growth during COVID as well, as a way to help us with the overheads of the rent and the rates and the electricity and the heating and staffing, but also to the canine and share the risk across the new warehouse but also to kind of offer a service that I thought was lacking because there was nothing out there for us at the time and certainly we found that other businesses at the time either didn't know that our services existed or couldn't find one that would entertain them due to their volumes that they were doing at the time. So we had the warehouse space, we had the staff capable of packing orders, so we thought we might as well.
Speaker 2:Class Tristan.
Speaker 1:Wow, how did you go about getting customers initially? Was it an easy process? Did you just reach out to companies you do, or did you? Yeah, it's like trust.
Speaker 3:I know Companies we knew to be honest, we were in the we'd done a little bit of shortly from our own kind of growth for our own business. We'd been a part of Facebook groups and kind of business networking stuff for a while and we'd be on a few of the pages and we knew there were people who were looking for the best way to ship parcels. There was constantly questions in Facebook groups that was like who do you ship with? What's their rates for this size parcel and things like that. So we knew that there was a kind of demand and I think initially as well, there was a lot of kind of local people who had either we'd shared the RBS accelerator space with or there was people in our network who we knew had e-commerce businesses as well. So the initial kind of customers were definitely within our circle and then new clients since then have either came on through the same kind of Facebook groups and business posts or there's been referrals from our current clients.
Speaker 1:Perfect. What would you describe as your greatest achievement or success so far?
Speaker 3:Ought Ought. I think it's probably surviving this Black Friday period, as Jeremy was then. Jeremy was then our witness that.
Speaker 2:They were all survived without Fraser.
Speaker 3:Anyway, that was our first Black Friday where we've had as many orders as we've had in terms of Black Friday running into Christmas. So it kind of six weeks from Black Friday into Christmas, because that was our first Christmas where we've had clients with significant volume. It's the first time we've had the biscuit bar and doing a decent number of boxes because we're kind of focused on commercial or B2B sales for this Christmas period. So we had a significant number of them. So generally putting the processes in place and having staffing and the kind of where all to be able to get through this Black Friday to Christmas periods is definitely from my biggest achievement. At least it's still freshest in my memory right now.
Speaker 2:You'll still be recovering from this. No.
Speaker 1:Sure, that is a great achievement and a very big humble braggers of. To be fair, the latest achievement is just being far too busy and busy with it all.
Speaker 3:I think. Well, funnily enough, you say that, though it was a case of. I was moaning at one point in terms of we were busy and how we were going to cope, and actually one of our clients, I think Jeremy, was in our warehouse on this day. One of our other clients was in the warehouse and he was like billable income, billable income, and that's all he came was like, because that was a morning, we were too busy, and he was like think about it, billable income is billable income and it was his billable income. Funnily enough, the way we're doing it, yeah, I can't really complain.
Speaker 2:What would you do differently for the next time?
Speaker 1:Sorry, trust me Sorry. Jeremy, I'm still running with the success.
Speaker 2:So yeah, how are we going to make an even bigger success next year, Fraser? What would we do different?
Speaker 3:I think, yeah, I think there's definitely learnings from it in terms of we there's certain things I would do again. There's things that we know that definitely worked. I think, to be honest, when we're back against the wall in terms of I know what's overcapable of, there was certainly the odd day and I think, unfortunately, they were probably the odd day where, you know, everyone was seamless in terms of what we looked at, how many orders we could get out and we could handle during one of our busiest days. So I think we just need to have more of them. And there's certain things we can do that worked on that day in terms of the way the staffing was broken up, in terms of how many pickers and packers, how many people were doing certain functions within the warehouse, and I think there's certain things that we can do leading into Black Friday, in the busy period, that we could have done better in terms of even if it's just space allocation, just to have room.
Speaker 3:You know, you know my partner, sophie, is the biggest advocate of just having space and I'm not in a person that if space is just spaces pointless, it has to have a function that has to do something. But in terms of just having that blowout space where we could have had space to organize stuff. They would not wouldn't necessarily have been quicker or better or whatever, but actually just for sanity's sake, just be able to put something to the side and forget about it for a bit. We didn't have so always felt like it was a bit on top of you.
Speaker 1:I want to ask you, purely because it's something I've reflected on, I guess, recently or as you, as you get older, but what do you, I guess, define as success, or what do you view as success, and has it, has it, changed over time, from when you were, maybe, younger?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think when you're young and naive it's money. Well, at least for me, it was always a case of success is how much money you've got in your bank account, and that was one of the motivation of being self employed. My idea was, if I can control the business decisions, I can make a business that can make more money, and that was the be all and end all. But I think, jen it sounds a bit salty now but generally think that kind of changed a little bit during during COVID, because this is still something I say that I struggle with now. But we did well out of COVID and I mean there's that's a pandemic that impacted so many people's lives and change people's lives and people lost their lives. But yet we did well out of it and I struggled to say that because it felt like you were, you were dirty or you were bad, saying you you benefited from a pandemic, felt like you were the name name or not to name names, but the conservative party and their donations and where contracts were going during COVID and things. You felt like you were in amongst that mix because you were benefiting from a pandemic. But someone pointed out to me was like it was a change of buyer's behavior. You just happen to be in an area or in a sector that benefits from it.
Speaker 3:But actually, looking at that kind of time, when we were shipping people's boxes out to people and this is just obviously for the biscuit bar and this is not even thinking about success for the picking packer side of things, but for the biscuit bar and we were sending people's boxes out and we we got these sound modules that you can record voices onto, so we were recording personal sentiments on these voice recorders so that when people got their box and opened it it spoke to the person's voice. It was a gift message that played their voice. What we didn't really realized the impact of that during COVID, because there was people who were hearing their grandkids voice for the first time because they hadn't seen them during COVID, because the grandparent was saying was isolating and the hunts met their grandchildren yet physically and they might have seen them on FaceTime or whatever, but actually having that sentiment of albeit beside biscuits that then they could enjoy, there was this things like, there was these gift notes, that suddenly you were having a bigger impact than you realized in just sending biscuits through the post.
Speaker 3:And then there was other ones where there was families who would get together on a Friday night. They would all buy a subscription on the Friday that they delivered. They would all have a family zoom, they'd put themselves up on their tellies and they would all do a biscuit like taste along and stuff. And I was like suddenly you it's not necessarily money motivated, but you're actually making a difference to these people like. These are people who are giving you feedback and it's real kind of tangible stuff over nice stuff to hear it and it kind of changed your focus that you know not everything's money motivated. There's there's nice things, there's nice things about having a business as well, and I think they're worth their weight in the money as well.
Speaker 2:That's really interesting, fraser, because the biscuit bar, like I, was a subscriber for a long time. I am. We're doing a health kick though, so we're not eating biscuits though. But I mean, my head again is a bit like that with power. I'm so focused on the sales, I forget the impact with the biscuit bar and I just see them as pallets of biscuits in the warehouse. Yeah, forget that. It is as people, people having nice moments with their family, you know especially making memories.
Speaker 3:Yeah, covid was the resetter on that, I think, because I think it was a case of. For us it was pallets and biscuit and it was a business and we provided a product. And it was a product at that time and people bought it, but actually it was. It became a service because it became that family activity that they could do and they you know COVID took so much away from everyone. This was the one thing that we provided. Something wasn't a product, it was the family get together on the Friday night or it was the you know, meeting your grandson or granddaughter, hearing their voice, or whatever it was. It was that touch point that they've kept on. And there's a lot of people who have got subscriptions and there are people who have left us since COVID, who have left messages and it's been a case of. You know, we'll always be thankful for what you gave us during that time because we did have. We don't need three boxes amongst the family now, but we did at the time because we were in three different locations and couldn't see each other.
Speaker 2:You should have them printed on the wall in the warehouse. Yeah, I have no idea that. That was the feedback. Was coming in again and you see the boxes in the way that we're climbing over. Yeah, that's really cool. What qualities? So? This leads on the next one, right? So what qualities or habits do you think contributed to your success, fraser, bearing in mind that when Tristan asked me what three words best describes you, I said cool, under pressure, and hopefully we'll find out why.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't think I'm someone that gets stressed very much. I don't think stress helps. I think I use it as a motivation. Can I like being busy? So I think I'm quite comfortable around when there is that noise going on. I can quite kind of focus and clear and I think I suppose I never ever knew why, but we've just found out recently what this might be.
Speaker 3:But Sophie recently was watching a TikTok and it was one of these things. She saw a TikTok and she was like you know that there's people that don't have an internal voice. And I was like that's weird. And then she's like I'm like you imagine not being able to have thoughts? And I was like yeah, that's strange and I'll go along with it. And I was like agreeing with it.
Speaker 3:And then she said something else or they don't see pictures in their heads. And I was like wait, what? And she's like they don't, visually, don't see pictures in their heads. And I was like I don't have pictures in my head. And she's like what do you mean? I was like I don't have pictures in my head. And then she was like do you have an internal voice? And I was like, well, what do you mean internal voice, like I have thoughts. And she's like, do you have a voice? I was like I can't hear myself. And then she's like, what is, if this was the strangest thing in the world? And I was like I can't hear soup voice and I can't hear myself. And then I was like, can you actually? Yeah, this is what this TikTok is. And it turns out this is this aphantasia.
Speaker 3:And there's like a kind of a spectrum on where you are between people who have no internal thought, can't think for themselves, are very, very on one side, and then there's the people who are dead creatives and see pictures vividly and have wild dreams and stuff. Well, I don't have that and I don't have a voice in my head that I can have thoughts and I can have private thoughts in my own head, but I don't hear them as a voice and I don't really see pictures. Any pictures that I do see are from a memory, so I can remember how something looks by memory, but I can't think of something new. And it was only really.
Speaker 3:When I was thinking about that, I was like, yeah, I don't dream, I don't really, or at least I just thought. I don't remember my dreams, but actually I don't dream at all. That must be like. I just thought it was a case of I didn't remember them and the odd time I thought I've had a dream. It's not really. It's been a case of I kind of been just half a week and I've been thinking about something and you know, in that kind of semi-a week state but it's the. I just thought that was the norm. I didn't know I was any different.
Speaker 2:I think it's wild. I think it's wild, it's a superpower. It is a superpower, tristan. Do you have any questions before I dive into this link?
Speaker 1:I've just yeah, yeah, I'm just, I guess it's. Maybe you can't answer, but he's doing any different. But do you think it's a positive or a negative thing? I think Jeremy calls it a superpower.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think, because I don't know any different to me. I've got to look at the benefits of it and I think it helped me understand in terms of why I can enjoy that stress or I can thrive off of that thing, because I can quite clearly see a plan and I think for my line of works probably why I went into this line of work but I like processes, I like putting plans in place, I like, you know, yeah, process or job driven type things. So I think that's helped. I think the flip side of that is there's certain things that I struggle with and I think I've put it down to this now, and any of my staff members will tell you this that if I am trying to explain something or if I show someone something, I have to explain it as I would do it or as I would say it.
Speaker 3:So quite often I have to like draw it out in terms of physically on a picture, and I've realized now that's probably because I can't form that picture in my head. So, for example, if I'm talking you through a process, I'd be like step one goes into step B, which goes into step three, step C, step D, whatever it is, for that I would want to stand, sit beside the person I'm explaining that to and actually draw the step one, step two of how I think obviously other people would visualize that in their head and use their in their head to talk through it. I don't have that. So, yeah, any of my staff members will tell you anytime we're trying to explain something. But yeah, if he's always draws it in a bit of paper.
Speaker 2:I think it's amazing. So, tristan, we did the tests when these. Obviously the next day, fraser came in and was like this tip, this is so fissure. So the test is like if you were to close your eyes, for instance, and I was to say, yeah, can you imagine yourself on a beach? Can you picture the beach? Well, I'm assuming you probably can, because this thing's relatively rare. And if I say, yeah, can you imagine a bird flying across the sky? Can you now picture the cliffs and imagine the birds wearing a pair of purple Wellies, like they will come up point where it becomes hard for you to continue to construct that picture in your head. Fraser can't even get himself on the beach.
Speaker 2:So when it comes to things like this is why, for me, the beauty of working with Fraser on the logistics the logistics proper stressed me out. Before Fraser kindly started to help. The head of my voice is like what if really, on this order, that customer is going to be really annoyed. What's the customer going to say? What if the logistics come? Fraser is very matter of fact. The logistics update is saying this. Therefore, this is the email that needs to be sent. There's no, and I'm speaking on your behalf. A lot with Fraser, but it's what I've observed, which I think is a superpower, just like yeah, cool, under pressure, because you've not called that voice in your head, creating these scenarios that are never going to happen.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, there's no that kind of. I suppose the only the only doubt ever have is one that comes in. It's not an unrealistic doubt, it's not one just because you're feeling having a bad day in terms of people will not feel on form today. Therefore, that impacts their mood and impacts their. The likelihood of a situation arise and it's that you imagine the worst case, or you, you think about the worst case. The worst case is more likely to happen. For me, I don't have that because I don't imagine, I don't have that imagination to think like that. It's a case of. This is the likelihood. I saw someone describe it as everything could be a percentage gain in terms of well, your, your delivery today is saying that it's reached the thing. That means that 75% likelihood it'll go out there for an run and I'm going down that path. There's no this, yeah, but what if that's? That's my, that's where I'm going, angus, amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, angus class, yes, yes, Now that, now that we understand why you're cool under pressure, what advice would you give to someone starting out in your field, just starting out? What would that be for us?
Speaker 3:And entrepreneurship overall or in specific to this business. Let's do entrepreneurship first. I think it's have that conviction to go for it. I think my my thing's always been um risk it, and we've always had that that phrase would risk it for a chocolate biscuit. We used to use that as um was that tiny template song, risk it for a chocolate biscuit, and we use that as our motto when we're starting out. Because it was the case of when I left the pharmacy.
Speaker 3:We took a risk to go full time with the biscuit bar and but the way that I saw it was if in a year's time or if in six months time the biscuit bar doesn't exist and it's a flop and I have to go back with my hands in my hat begging for a job somewhere. My opinion of it is that my CV richer for having been a self-employed person for that period doesn't matter whether it was six months or a year, because you know fine well that you've had to have built a website in that time. You'll have bootstrapped it from the start. You'll have had to have learned about um import regulations, in our case for biscuits, and the tax, uh status of biscuits and all these kind of things and uh, the drive that I had to be self-employed in terms of there was no alarm clock every morning, you just had to get up whenever you wanted to get up and it was a case of well, that drive, that learning, that behavior, my CV is richer for it. So therefore, my opinion was that if it was a flop, in six years time I could probably apply for a better job than what I was doing beforehand. So there was that risk go for it.
Speaker 3:What's the worst that can happen, your CV's better and I think, as long as you know that line in terms of you're not remortgaging the house, you're not spending the kids college fund, you're not refinancing your car, taking financial risks that could have a long-term impact, it's not where your limits are. But if you've got an S-tec that's doing nothing and you want to, you've always had a dream of being self-employed and you know, you think, that if worse came to the worst and that went away and you had to go back, would you be richer for the experience than go for it Like. I don't think it's.
Speaker 3:I think people can get pulled back by, especially parents or other people who are like oh no, just do the status quo, go to university, get the degree, get the job, be safe, pay into your pension and you know, we don't even know if our pensions are going to be here by the time we reach pension age. So, like, have something around you that you know you can. You've got some kind of legs and something or something that you enjoy and you know there's that old attitude to you know, do something you enjoy. You never work a day in your life, type thing. But to be to be like cheesy on that there is if you enjoy your jobs and you're much happier in terms of your personal life and whatnot. So yeah, go for it, take the risk.
Speaker 2:Love it, tristan.
Speaker 1:I guess, to kind of close things off, what are some future plans or projects you're working on? Is there anything you can share with us about what the future looks like for the biscuit baron?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think, coming into the kind of Christmas period we were, a little bit we didn't really know where we sat. We were in a bit of a kind of crossroads in terms of the biscuit baron was doing one thing and the fulfillment side of the thing was doing another. We had a bit of a decision to make in terms of what we're going to do. To speak openly, we had a good Christmas period. We made a decent amount of money.
Speaker 3:We might seem happy, but it was a case of do we go again or do we stick where we are and just kind of be happy with where we are? So that kind of growth ambition, the burning ambition, is like do we put that to the gas and go again and grow again From that that becomes? Do we need a new, bigger warehouse? Do we need what? Does the hiring decision of that look like? And we started to have some kind of early conversations on that with some of our kind of key partners and stakeholders and stuff and seeing how that would work in terms of if we did go again and we did look to that next step in terms of a bigger warehouse, which three years ago looked crazy to think that it would be in a warehouse At the start of the year.
Speaker 2:the one that we are in just now was empty. Now it's bursting at the scene.
Speaker 3:I've got a before and after picture in the space of a year. That's quite interesting to look back on. So, yeah, where will we be in a year's time? Hopefully we'll fill out that next warehouse. That's the dream the biscuit baron squared. Well, we're into. This will be a 3.0. This will be version three. Well, we're shipping boxes out of our house to start off with a spare bedroom in the lemon room and we're packing boxes there to start off with. This would be warehouse number four, including it.
Speaker 2:Nice. Do you miss these?
Speaker 3:are packing boxes. I cannot do because it was nuts and bolts. It was the grind to start off with and it's quite nice and saying that the kind of the stage for that now and how efficient we are with it is a win swapper for the world.
Speaker 2:Nice. So I guess you have final thoughts or messages for our listeners, for us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, harper, back to that. Take a risk. If you're in that, if you've got that burning desire to be your own person or you're kind of want to start your own business, and go for it. Take that risk and you've only got one life, do what you want with it, and if it happens to be an e-commerce product, then you know where to come to for any fulfillment advice. What's the website for this? Wwwthepickingpackerscouk? Amazing.
Speaker 2:And I almost forgot. I don't think you would have forgotten Tristan. I will jump in with it. Favorite business buzzwords for either or phrase.
Speaker 3:Accountability. How come? Why?
Speaker 2:accountability for that.
Speaker 3:I think, as a kind of young manager starting out when I was self-employed, when I was working in the pharmacy or the convenience store, that was something that was always big. You know you had your tasks, you had what you need to do, be accountable for it. But also then, as yourself employed, you're accountable. You're accountable for various things, whether it's your business or your family life or the mortgage payments. So I think accountability is a big thing, knowing what you're accountable for. And also that's the biggest thing when we then hire staff, it's what are they accountable for? And as long as you're managing what's expected of you, then everyone's happier. Everyone can hit business goals, personal goals. So, yeah, accountability is a big thing. So yeah, accountability is a big one for me. Nice.
Speaker 1:I agree, a big fan of accountability. Well, thank you so much, fraser. It's been enlightening. I will certainly met you a couple of times, so it's been great to hear a bit more about your journey, and thank you for giving your time For anyone listening. You can obviously get the links to Fraser's multiple business Social media links in the comments, and we look forward to seeing you and sharing another journey with you in the next episode. Wasn't that interesting? Yeah, why are we? What a man. That was really cool. What's the link? Yeah?
Speaker 1:I thought it was really interesting and like hearing I guess hearing it from his perspective, obviously but it was interesting how you were able to get a lot of people interested in hearing it and I think it was interesting how big a conviction he has for taking risks. I mean, I really like it and got a lot of respect for it. It's not, it's not your usual. I would overthink everything and I like to think I'm quite risk pro risk. I think we wouldn't be doing what we're doing if we weren't. But it was interesting hearing it from his perspective.
Speaker 2:Calculated risks. I enjoy. I enjoy Fraser chat about not getting stressed. Oh my goodness. Yeah, not letting that inner voice gets you, not letting those inner pictures mess with your mind, breaking it down into probabilities and stats. What is the most likely outcome? It's not likely to be the worst, but that's where your mind often goes to. Yeah, and of course, the conversation after the fact has taken us to 10 to 11.
Speaker 1:The conversation yeah, that was a long, long conversation. I wonder whether the conversation after the recording was longer than the actual podcast. I think it better than it might have been.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you see it in my eyes, red and bloodshot, and tongue.
Speaker 1:Watch this space. Lots of cool things happening and I guess a little teaser for for the next guest we'll have on. I'm not going to early, there is, but it is my turn to bring one of my pals on the show, so that's going to be fun. From the world of hospitality and hotels, can't wait. Questions ready, special questions about that. Thank you very much to everyone who's listening. It's been a pleasure, jeremy, as always, and we look forward to the next episode. Actually, guys later See ya.
