Eureka moment
The
Eureka moment for Chocolate Treat Club was at a consumer show late in 2015.
During the event, numerous people had expressed delight at the chocolates they
had tried and asked where they could buy them. I'd seen the rapid growth of
subscription businesses such as Graze, and believed that a tailored chocolate
subscription service - delivered regularly in a letterbox friendly format - had
massive potential.
Financing
To
date, James Chocolates has been financed through traditional bank lending and
peer to peer lending such
as Funding Circle. Chocolate Treat Club however has huge scalable potential for
growth, and would be limited by debt finance. To grow this type of business
quickly requires a different approach, and equity crowdfunding will allow it to
reach its potential.
Regrets
I
try not to regret too much, as what's in the past is in the past. Instead, I've
always tried to learn quickly from mistakes, change things, and move on.
What would you have changed?
If I could change anything, I'd have spotted an area where we were growing 50% year-on-year (without any effort) sooner, and focused resource on it. On stepping back for a global review we saw the pattern and are now benefiting. Sometimes you need to challenge things and look at them differently.
