As I prepare to celebrate 4 years as Managing Director of Red Loom, I thought I'd take the time to reflect on the successes and the challenges I’ve faced since it all started in 2018. The purpose behind my move away from the corporate life was driven by the need to “own my time”, an especially important goal since my son was born 7 years ago. Today being #IWD, I echo all’s that’s being said about the need for more work flexibility for any gender. In my case, the only way to achieve the right work/life balance was to start my own company.
I couldn’t have predicted how useful owning my time was going to turn out, as Covid swept in and jeopardised so many of what we all took for granted. In particular having to become my son’s teacher for a few months, a traumatic experience for us both! My clients were obviously also impacted by the pandemic, which actually helped as work slowed down in key periods when home-schooling was required. Long-term cash flow management skills proved to be absolutely invaluable, especially when corporate tax hits after a particularly dry period!
As if life wasn’t complicated enough, I decided to create another company - a food start-up – that celebrates now its first year anniversary and aims to provide more sustainable options for convenience food. The Carenivor brand was born to enable carnivores who care to make better choices. The gap in this market jumped out at me as I became one of these mums forced to shop for convenience food and found it staggering how little choice we have – almost none of it sustainable. As animal welfare and climate change become ever more pressing global issues, I felt I had to try to make a difference and I’m currently focusing on producing free-range chicken nuggets as the flagship product in the Carenivor range.
Despite a 25-year career in marketing, solid management expertise and comprehensive knowledge in the digital and customer experience world, I knew I faced a steep learning curve with this new venture. It has been a while since I’ve been out of my comfort zone… Going from B2B SaaS marketing expert to B2C F&B innovator is definitely not without its challenges. I’ve been working with food consultants to help me with all this - female-led organisations that have given me precious advice over the past few months. After all being a consultant myself, I’m more than open to receiving the guidance of industry experts and learning from them.
It turns out even these experts are struggling with market forces that keep delaying the Carenivor launch plan. The food manufacturing world and poultry industry are heavily impacted by factors such as:
Brexit: burdening their import/export activities with additional procedures, and impacting labour
Avian flu: affecting supply and demand
Covid-19: causing difficulties in staffing requirements (hopefully not for much longer)
CO2 shortages: impacting poultry manufacturing in several ways
A more predictable challenge is that as a start-up, the quantities required at the beginning would be modest, scaling up with time. But in the convenience sector, smaller minimum order quantities are not exactly the norm, and so I’m looking for a manufacturing partner who believes in the mission I’ve set out for Carenivor. A partner who shares our conviction that although busy people and families will continue to eat convenience food, they are more and more concerned with animal welfare and their impact on the environment.
In the meantime I’ve been developing the Carenivor brand by collating content around easy-to-cook recipes, news about sustainability, as well as blogs and preferred suppliers. Don’t hesitate to join the community if you’re interested in the journey, the product range, or just to support the initiative.
And of course as Red Loom’s principal marketing and CX consultant, I continue to serve my clients in their efforts to set strategic goals, build campaigns and content, and reach new markets. Which lies more squarely within my comfort zone. I’m so grateful to my clients for their trust and partnership over the past 4 years. Helping them with their growth objectives is my true passion – and Red Loom is here to stay!
So that’s where I am with my business ventures. My journey as a female entrepreneur is definitely challenging but oh so interesting! And as I also celebrate my 7th year anniversary as a Mum, I'm reminded every day that I'm lucky to be able to own my time and give so much of it to my family.
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