Ride the Wave: Building your food and drink business

Charles Nyereyegona, Private Caterer and Food Journalist from Charlie’s Kitchen recently attended our Ride the Wave workshop 'Building your food and drink business' led by Paula Seager of Natural PR.

Nothing these days is free especially not in business. The Ride the Wave “Building your Food and Drink Business” event” held by the Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce and the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership was totally free and well worth attending.

From the moment I arrived, there was a buzz in the room and a lot of smiling faces (well with the added bonus of a welcoming cup of tea or coffee, who wouldn’t smile)! The room filled up very quickly and soon every table was full -80 or so people with a variety of food interests. At my table was a mixture of businesses from coffee shops to pub cooking and theatre!

Paula Seager, P.R. Guru from Natural P.R. took to the floor and started us off by giving us some Marketing Top Tips:

• Proritise P.R. – use it to get the best market advantage and clearly identify your business to your customers in the cheapest, most cost effective way.
• Get Your Message Straight – “repetition and consistency of your messages matched by the product and service you offer”
• Understand Your Customers – Make sure you talk to them, get feedback and build on that
• Create News – Take advantage of what is already going on around you – be part of national moments like Pancake Day or city events, like the Brighton and Hove Food Festival
• Use the Right Communications Channels for Your Customers – Discover what works for them and experiment with a variety of methods from signage to social media to flyers

We then started on a lively exercise, creating a marketing and p.r. plan for one of the businesses on our table. We picked Eamon Nawal from Clumps with his new 4% fat, Vegan energy snack. First of all we all had a taste –delicious and then a very lively discussion began. It was like a swarm of hornets in the room but without the sting!

Eamon had no marketing budget so using the basic principles outlined by Paula, we decided that he should capitalise on what he already had in order to get the message out.

• His own website
• The promotional table that he had been offered at Infinity foods
• Knocking on the doors of suitable delis and cafes
• Capitalising on an event like the Marathon
• Sharing a market stall with another interested party
• Telling his story in the local press (e.g. “Argus” food section) or on local radio –e.g. Reverb or Juice FM)

It was a clever exercise that made us all think about our own businesses and whether we were marketing and promoting them in the correct way.

Over the next hour we heard guest speakers talk about different aspects of building a food or drink business.

 Nigel Lamb of Velo Café and Small Batch talked about the importance of picking the right investors and investment for your business.

The most important point being to ensure that any investors’ interests in your business match your own mission statement and business plan.

Helen Wilkinson from 1930’s Parisian –Style Tea Salon, Metrodeco spoke about the use of Social Media in particular Twitter and Facebook. Both of these mediums had helped her and her business partner to regrow their business with a firm following: changing it’s focus from Antiques and Tea to Tea and Antiques!

The main message coming out of this being that social media requires dedication and for you to interest and engage your audience. If you haven’t got the time get your staff involved!

The session ended with a short address from John Carmichael of Visit Brighton, who re –iterated that the amazing collection of food and drink businesses in Brighton and Hove is a magnet for tourists. We should make sure that we use this free advantage to woo them to spend in and support our businesses. Visit Brighton has an open door to help us achieve that.

Over a free glass of wine we were able to network with other people at the event. I certainly came away with some sound encouragement and advice, future business partners and even a few new friends!

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk