Recipe for Greatness
Recipe for Greatness
Building The Scottish Bee Company's Empire & Saving 27 Million Bees | Suzie Millar
Suzie Millar shares the inspiring journey of growing The Scottish Bee Company from a purpose-driven venture into a thriving business while introducing over 27 million bees to Scotland and establishing a charity to support pollinators' habitats.
• From lawyer to chiropractor to honey entrepreneur, connecting analytical skills with empathy and health interests
• Starting a bee company while pregnant and building a family alongside the business
• Raising investment to buy beehives for Scottish beekeepers and developing apprenticeships
• The stark difference between imported, artificially-matured honey and authentic hive-matured honey
• Building a brand on transparency, including publishing pesticide and GMO testing results
• Creating the Repollinate charity to build wildflower spaces and support natural pollinators
• Diversifying from honey to vinegars and salad dressings made with bee-pollinated fruits
• Acquiring complementary food brands to create the Natural Larder Collective
• Balancing family life with business ambitions, including flexible 28-hour work weeks for staff
• The importance of establishing boundaries when running a business with your spouse
Visit our website to explore our range of authentic Scottish honey products and learn more about our environmental initiatives. Use discount code RECIPE for a special listener offer.
Three, two, one zero and liftoff, liftoff, liftoff.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to the Recipe for Greatness podcast. I'm your host, jay Greenwood. We're in this podcast to meet the founders behind some of the best food and drink brands to find out the knowledge and skills that they've used to grow their business. Today's guest is Susie Miller, former lawyer, chiropractor and now co-founder of the Scottish Bee Company. In 2017, susie and her husband, ian, launched a purpose-driven venture to combat the UK's declining bee population. Since then, they've introduced over 27 million bees to Scotland, developed award-winning honey products, established Repollinate charity to support pollinators' habitats. Susie, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2:So I wanted to jump in and start by asking you about you studying law. You then became a chiropractor and now a co-founder of a bee company. When you look back on those chapters, are there any internal threads that sort of connect them together? And I also heard I think it was your husband, ian, say on a podcast that it's climbing ladders against. The right wall is the. You know, you gotta decide which is the right wall for you. So when you sort of reflect on those chapters, is there like a moment where you realize what the wrong wall was and where the right wall would be?
Speaker 3:yeah. So I think, um. So I mean, one way you could look at it is that I just get bored easily. But uh, if there's a nicer way to put it, I just find lots of things very, very interesting.
Speaker 3:So I obviously did law in the beginning because I'm quite I am quite analytical and that then. But I'm also incredibly empathetic and I really feel things for people, and so that kind of led me into that path of doing chiropractic. I just really wanted to help people and look after people. And then when I got into that world, I basically realized that there was just so much to the body and that what you put into your body is just as important as anything else, and so food that you eat is just as important as having chiropractic adjustments, for instance, or having a massage or making sure that you exercise and all those sorts of things. So I just really really delved into that.
Speaker 3:And then I have to say chiropractic is a very I found it quite lonely and I'm a big people person, and yet I was always just like only with somebody for half an hour and then then it was another person type thing, and then you really don't work with a lot of people in your clinic and things. So it was just quite isolating and lonely and I guess I just really decided that I wanted to do something, just that there wasn't that. Actually, I made the decision to step away from that and at that point I really wasn't sure what that was going to be. Um, and then Ian and I just kept talking about the environment and how we just really wanted to have a purpose, uh, a profits with purpose business, and you know we didn't know what that looked like, but that's what we wanted to do.
Speaker 3:Um, and then suddenly bees appeared and then actually now I look it all makes complete sense because the analytical side, the empathetic side, the interest in health and looking after your body I now produce food that is kind of encompasses all of that, and then I get to be creative as well. So I don't know, there's a bit of a. It's a bit random really there's a bit of a.
Speaker 2:It's a bit random, really, but um, yeah, and one thing that I found interesting. It's like you know, you decide to launch the scottish bee company and a lot of people, you know, they do it when they don't have any responsibilities or you know, there's a bit of time, but you had it when you, uh, you had a toddler and another baby on the way. So, um, because what decided what? What was the thought process? We thought right now's the right time to start a company. What was the decision making process like around that time?
Speaker 3:So I actually was pregnant with my first baby when we started it. Yeah, so I was pregnant with my first baby when we started it and I honestly don't know. I honestly don't know why we did that, because it makes no sense whatsoever, and that's what makes me think it was just a real drive. You know, it was just this kind of like. It just had to be.
Speaker 3:Um, and also I was working with my uncle at the time. My uncle had set up a few businesses and he was very inspiring and he was sort of at the end of his career and we were just having lots and lots of conversations about like business and how you could do it better and how you could just not, you know, you could do something good and then still make a profit, and we just, I don't know, there was just a lot of inspiration happening and, maybe because I was pregnant, there's a lot of creativity happening as well. Um, so, yeah, I'm not entirely sure why I've made that decision, but, um, I think it was the right one, so that's good and when you were sort of deciding what, what to focus your time and energy on.
Speaker 2:Well, there are many ideas that sort of came up and sort of the b1 sorry well bees sort of was the sort of sticking point that made you stay on it. And also I guess one thing through all my research that was like the common thread was like profits for like uh, for purpose. So there was always had to be a real purpose behind the business. Was that always just core from the very beginning to help help guests simplify the choice of where to direct your energy?
Speaker 3:absolutely like. For me, that was just like we are not setting up a business unless we are doing the right thing, unless we're doing what I feel to be the right thing, which obviously other people interpret differently but I felt like we had to give back and we had to look after people and we had to look after the environment, and that was really, really a strong drive, um, for me. So when we were looking at lots of ideas actually the honey one so we went to america and we were in america and we walked past this really amazing honey shop which I'd never seen before because it didn't exist in the uk, really like that, and there was just like walls filled with different types of honey and they were all really beautifully presented and I was like that is absolutely amazing, I really love that. So I came back, I said to my uncle I would really like to do something similar, you know, for Scotland.
Speaker 3:And he said that's the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard. There's no way you can transport honey around the world. Um, you just just it's nonsense. So we just sort of like put it to one side. And then about two months later, he sent me a WhatsApp at two in the morning, because he lived in Thailand and he was like, yeah, I think we could do it. Actually, I think you could do it, I think you should try it. And then, I don't know, we just came from there, amazing.
Speaker 2:And one thing I found really interesting in my research was you weren't just launching a hunting brand. You know you were rebuilding a population of bees in Scotland. How did you go about solving that sort of technical issue without sort of the training in the background, because you know it's quite a big task to take on, and how did you learn the skills needed to actually take on that challenge?
Speaker 3:So I think from the outset, what we always knew is that we were not going to be beekeepers. So we started networking with the beekeepers across Scotland and we found out there were very few, and one person in particular, john Mellis, was wonderful with us and he basically, but he could see what we were trying to give back, which was that you know, there was a sort of scope at the time. There was an article written that said there was space for about another 180 000 hives across the country and all the beekeepers were in their 60s, so there wasn't any like younger people coming through to sort of continue this on. And so what we did was we raised investment to be able to buy beehives to give to other beekeepers in Scotland so that they could do the management of the hives for us. It facilitated them being able to get into business and they didn't have to have the ridiculous expenses because they also couldn't access any of the funding that farmers could access from the EU because they didn't technically own land. So it meant that they actually couldn't. There was no way for them to buy hives and there's 300 pounds a hive, you know it's expensive.
Speaker 3:So we basically raised investment to give them hives, um, and I have to say, you know, that didn't necessarily work. Actually that wasn't that successful. Um, it was successful with a couple and then it just, I don't know, it just didn't really work. Um, I think beekeepers some beekeepers really like to be involved in the whole thing. They like to show their branding on the jars and you know, I don't, I don't know, maybe it didn't work the way we thought it would work. But what did happen was we ended up setting up an apprenticeship for um sort of a younger female to come in and do beekeeping and she then ended up coming and working for us in-house managing our bees and now this year she's actually just gone and set up her own thing as well, which is lovely. Um, so we have someone else managing our bees. So it's very much changed now into that. We work with beekeepers across scotland, not by giving them hives but by buying their honey, and we make sure that all the honey that we source is of a certain standard.
Speaker 2:Basically, um, and that's kind of the way that it's developed um over time I think would be really interesting is now we sort of speak about honey because I am a huge honey fan. Your honey is incredible. But there are so many people who don't quite understand honey because I explain to them you know the different flavors. It's almost like like any sort of ingredient, where there's a process and the craft and making it that you can actually taste the difference. But a lot of people just maybe go to a supermarket and might buy a honey that is x amount of price paid, maybe buy a own brand in the store or something. But it might be really handy just to explain the difference between honey and actually the benefits of, I guess, real honey or however you want to call it so I guess what we're kind of pushing for within the UK is that 80% of the honey that we consume is imported, probably from China or Mexico.
Speaker 3:Out of that, so what, what they're allowed to do within the UK is they're basically allowed to have a situation where they have the bees come into the hives and then they take the honey out every single day, which is actually, some would say, still nectar and not hasn't been transformed into honey yet and then they artificially mature it in a in a machine. What we're looking to say is that's fine, people can consume that. If they want to consume it, there's nothing wrong with it. You know, it's not like it's it's sugar syrup or anything like that. There's nothing wrong with it and it is much cheaper because they can, you know, extract it every single day.
Speaker 3:But it is fundamentally different from a honey that you have spent the whole season maturing in a hive and that the bees have done the full maturing. It doesn't have any of the beneficial enzymes in there. You know, it's just. It's just a different product. So it'd be like your battery farmed chicken versus your free range and organic chicken. Of course there's a place for that on the shelves, because people can't necessarily afford organic, but we would like to sort of develop a two-tier system, that sort of distinguishes, so that we're not competing against supermarket prices. Um, because, because it is more beneficial and and also the craft really of having, like you know, the bee farmers taking that time to look after those hives and the bees have taken that time to develop that honey um, just justifies a higher price point yeah, I think it's.
Speaker 2:It's almost. I was trying to think of a comparison, but it's like wine, almost, where it the the beauty of the craft, and I feel people just completely miss out on this opportunity to taste amazing honey because you have, you know, you can try different bits on, like I don't know toast or whatever you want, and you can just taste the different like inputs that come in from these bees or whatever the pollinators have been, and you just think, oh, my goodness, it's just such an incredible thing. So people are really missing out if they haven't had that chance to taste this. In the UK, I'm right thinking that only 14% of the honey it consumes. So how did you start to check your business ambition early on and how do you start thinking how the company can sort of evolve and grow within that sort of guest niche that's been carved out?
Speaker 3:So I think, firstly, we targeted honey right and we were like, ok, there's clearly a space for more honey to be produced, given that they potentially could add 150,000 hives or whatever to the whole of the UK. But as we started to get involved in it more, there was a big sort of campaign about is it really right to have hives in urban areas? Are they over farming in those those areas, which we never did because we always went to very rural places and for the heather honey, you know, there's nothing for miles and miles and miles around. So we felt like that was, that was good. But we kind of realized that there was a space then for um, a pollination project, to make sure that, you know, there was enough food.
Speaker 3:If we were going to be putting out hives that were, some people would say, taking honey, taking food away from natural pollinators, then what we need to do is replace that and replenish with.
Speaker 3:So that's when we started the charity we pollinate to make sure that we were building wildflower spaces. But then at some point I sort of sort of thought to myself we can keep expanding, we can keep growing more and more hives, but to get to the level of ambition that I wanted to get to. I felt like there was at some point and it's not there, anywhere near there yet, but at some point there might be an ethical question around that and should we be putting as many hives out as, as you know, I would like to get to in terms of revenue. So that's when we then started to diversify and look at other products really that we could add into our range. So we started adding in um vinegars, so that's made with fruits that are pollinated by bees, and the salad dressings, um, again always using british products and organic where possible, and then we've just kind of diversified the range um over time I want to.
Speaker 2:I'll dig into that because I find that super interesting, super interesting sort of how you diversify the products. One thing I wanted to do now is reflect. Obviously scottish bee company is a consumer brand. How has that been sort of reflecting the journey from building a clinical practice to building a consumer product? What's the what's the difference been and what are the challenges or anything surprised you about the difference between them?
Speaker 3:so I think definitely there was less pressure with a consumer brand for me, because I felt like when I was a chiropractor I was it was always like I had to sell myself as an individual and I really I don't know whether I just wasn't confident then or what, but I just I felt like there was just so much pressure and I also then, you know, if something went wrong as maybe somebody who had a bit of pain after you treated them or something I just couldn't help thinking about it for hours afterwards, whereas the consumer brand, you know, like if someone didn't like the honey or whatever, they didn't like the product, I just wasn't as personally upset about that.
Speaker 3:Really, um, but I also think that the the consumer side, I just so creative and I don't really feel like I could be that creative when I was, when I was a chiropractor. I felt like, you know, developing brands, the brand itself, the advertising campaign, the marketing campaign, looking at social media and all your assets, and even just the brand itself, the advertising campaign, the marketing campaign, looking at social media and all your assets, and even just the product itself and product development. I mean, there's just a mass of of creativity there, um, and and so yeah, I found, I found that much better and I want to dig into now the sort of the creative side that we were touching on a minute ago.
Speaker 2:So one thing I found amazing was like the hot honey made from the waste, kimchi brine and things. Those like big creative leaps. Where do those ideas come from? And, I guess, do you have any like brainworks in place to discover these new potential ideas? How do you go about creating these amazing concepts?
Speaker 3:So I think I so I really love food, so I'll just like go around and look at things and try things and think, oh, I quite like that idea, maybe I could do that with that. But what I'm also really good at is networking. So I have a really good like team of people who have who I can go to think I'm thinking about doing this sort of thing. Could you create that for me?
Speaker 2:um, and so I'm maybe the ideas person quite often, but not necessarily the the person that physically does, um, but I'm I think I've got a really nice network of people that can can help me with that and one thing as well I found really interesting was, you know, um, obviously the creative side, but also just the, the care and attention that goes into not only the product but the sort of accountability product like the spot checks on honey for pesticides and gmos, and then you publish those results online. How big a challenge is that adding to the process of creating a product, because I imagine that's taking time and energy to do that, away from maybe just focusing on just the profits, right?
Speaker 3:Yes, that definitely is. But then I felt like the profits would come if you did the right thing. So you know, we do spend more money probably than the average honey producer just because we spend money on testing and those sorts of things. But I just felt like I wanted the consumer to know that I'd gone above and beyond for this product, with every product that I put out, and that I had tested it and made sure that it was fine. And of course now you know it's quite big now so we can't test every single batch, but we do spot analysis, which is good enough. And, yeah, I just think that it adds to the story of that. These people can be trusted when you buy honey from them, and there's a lot of people that cannot be trusted so, or that people feel they can't trust. I wouldn't want to make comments on other brands, but I felt like our brand would want to be, would want to be one that you could trust.
Speaker 2:And one thing I found really amazing was the charity. You repollinate, that's such an amazing course, but how do you balance the commercial with the charitable? And have there been any tensions where the charity's putting you one way but the commercial side of the b company's putting you another?
Speaker 3:um, is there any time that that happens? And only really in terms of time? I don't think that they conflict with each other because, um, no, they don't conflict at all. There's not really any time where they there's a sort of conflict or whatever.
Speaker 3:But in terms of time management, yes, obviously, like taking on a charity as well as a business at the same time is nuts, and maybe I would have done it in a slightly different way, and actually we're moving to.
Speaker 3:So the reason that we set the charity up is because we were always doing these things as a business, but I just felt like the consumer or the customer didn't understand that that's what we were doing, and so then that's why we then developed it into an official charity, so that people would know that it is, you know, like regulated and we are definitely doing these things and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3:So that's why I moved it into a charity, although at the moment we are in the process of potentially moving it into a social enterprise as well, because that is kind of where it's sitting. Um, you know, it really very much has turned into like a community project thing. We we do sort of like seed to plate projects with schools now. Um, so we go into schools and we like, plant up, we give them a lesson program for the whole year and then every single year group then gets to like, plant the seeds and then follow it throughout the year and then harvest it at the end. So it's trying to like and then we'll talk about pollinators during that and everything and there's like lesson plans and whatnot.
Speaker 2:So that's very community-based and it's not just going and digging something up and planting plants, it's really trying to engage social groups that's amazing and I guess one based on that point now is the sort of difference between maybe people understand about bees and pollinators. Can you sort of give a bit of context around sort of the difference between them and also how they're the same, I guess as well?
Speaker 3:yeah, so they're all pollinators, but we're um, so honeybees are obviously recognized a lot more because they produce honey, and that's what we would consume, um, but there's all sorts of, like you know, other types of bees and butterflies and I mean birds and any of the bugs that you see will be pollinators as well.
Speaker 3:They all have the same job of basically making sure that that plants grow um, and so I think I think honeybees get a lot of attention. But I kind of think that that's a good thing, because sometimes you do need a hook for people to be able to go oh, wait a minute. So I've heard about bees and I know about bees because I eat honey and it's a really lovely, warm story for people. But it then is the bit it's the bit of a hook to be like yeah, but wait a minute, there's all these other types of pollinators that we need to look after, um, and and then then the sort of attention moves, which is nice and now I want to we sort of mentioned about sort of the creative side of the products.
Speaker 2:I want to move into sort of maybe some of the more direct development of the scottish bee company, and one thing I found really interesting was the acquisition of nuisance drinks, I think that's what they call, and then you then launched an actual uh larder collective, which I think is amazing. So what was the the mind shift change of going on? Oh, maybe let's not diversify our products, but let's literally take brands that we can actually see what we can then add value to and create a whole new product range from so that came because, um, again, we were looking to diversify and quite a lot of the time, like the scottish fee company we were thinking about, do we change the name?
Speaker 3:because there's certain parts of like, so we sell really well in scotland and the south of england, but in between there scottish isn't that interesting because they're very local in the sort of north as well, um, and so then it's good for export. But we just couldn't work out like, is there another way to do things? And then we started chatting to so many brands, because we go to lots and lots of trade shows and you'll talk to other brands and a lot of brands are kind of at the point where they don't don't want their brands to stop, but they're exhausted, you know, and they don't really want. They don't want to give up everything that they've done, but they also want to give up everything they've done. So that kind of gave us a sort of opportunity.
Speaker 3:In nuisance was the first opportunity that appeared. We're actually just in the middle of another acquisition right now, but the because these brands have already been established. You don't have to start it from scratch, they're already and it's just about then applying all the other things that we've done and to help them then grow bigger as well, and also that then diversifies our range as well. So we're going to have the Natural Larder Collective as almost like the umbrella brand, and we're just in the middle of developing the website, so it will be an online platform for all of our products and other people's products as well, um, and then underneath that, we'll set multiple different brands that we own and nurture amazing.
Speaker 2:That's incredible. And what about these brands? Sort of qualities do you look for that makes it feel like it aligns with what you're doing with scottish bee company, and all the other things that make sure you're right. This is the right place for us to invest our time, money in, because of the values, the audience or what are you looking for that makes you think right, this is going to be the right person to talk to and acquire.
Speaker 3:So we all have to have the same ethos, which is real food, no added ingredients that are not food, um. No chemicals, no pesticides, um. And then the other key factor is making sure that they give back to the environment.
Speaker 2:But when they come into our portfolio, we do that anyway, so we do like either one percent or a certain number per unit goes to repollinate, and so, yeah, it's that idea of always giving back as well and when you look at sort of like the ecosystem of, I guess, challenger brands or food brands, whatever you want to call them, do you think maybe they should look at more of this kind of approach to expanding their offerings? Or do you think, you know, it's only a certain type of setup that could do this? Or how do you think that maybe it's an opportunity people are missing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I think it's collaboration for me, because I mean I keep looking at like this concept of collectives, you know, and that's what we kind of called ourselves in the end, but there's a group of people, they're all trying to achieve the same thing and it means that you know everybody is struggling trying to get sales, so you can have a person who's going to the same trade show and meeting with multiple different buyers for two or three brands, so that so the network is then being built for for you, um, and then everyone's struggling with marketing and social media.
Speaker 3:Again, having you know one person rather than four different people, if there's four brands, um, makes things easier, um, and then it's just kind of like the cross-selling that also exists between the brands, because obviously we can advertise with nuisance about scottish b and scottish b can advertise news. You know the kind of the ability to build that way. I think honestly, think it's like I really think that we've. I love what we've done in the last year and it has been really challenging because acquisitions are hard work, um, but I think it's. I think it's a really cool way to expand all of your different brands and your sort of diversification.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and with sort of building the social speed and having such value-based sort of ethos behind it. Has there been any sort of reflection, as you look back, on sort of maybe not having such strong values to sort of form the brand, or do you think that's always been like the best way this kind of helps you grow and make decisions along the way?
Speaker 3:I think it has been the best way. I think it's definitely meant that we've um been slower to reach profitability, because what we could have done is bought chinese honey and put it in there and made a massive profit on everything. I mean you can buy Chinese honey for like £1.50 a kilo whereas you know our honey is £9.70.
Speaker 3:So you know we would have. It would have been much faster to get profitability and we would have made bigger profits. But I just, I just couldn't ever really compromise on that internally and I think ultimately it will be the right thing, although the journey's maybe just a bit harder. But then at least I know if I feel, I feel like I can really govern the business and run the business, if I'm true to that within me and I want to dig in sort of like the sales side of the business.
Speaker 2:So can you remember sort of like the sales side of the business. So can you remember sort of when you first, like, created the first product, where you first sold it, and then how you've gone from sort of that first sale to expanding out even further, how that journey's been for you yeah.
Speaker 3:So we started off and well, we originally wanted to be an e-commerce business and it's bizarre because that is now one of the biggest parts of our business. But in the very beginning we set up as a as an e-com business, and then we really, really struggled to do that. Um, we didn't have a shopify account, which did change things ultimately for us, but we really struggled with it. So everyone said, oh, you've got to build your brand by going to farmers markets and those sorts of things. And we were like, no, we'll just start selling on on website and it'll be fine. And it was nonsense because we really did need to do that. So we basically ended up setting up.
Speaker 3:In the first place that ever sold our product was a place called IJ Mellis, which is a cheesemonger in Edinburgh.
Speaker 3:And then we got into House of Brewer very quickly, which is another big place in Scotland, a big premium outlet in Scotland, and then we just sort of built our network then because we could say we were in House of Brewery, then got interest from Selfridges and then, because we'd said Selfridges, we then got interest from all those sorts of places and then Covid hit and all of our retailers disappeared like 70% of them.
Speaker 3:But that's when we just like immediately got onto Shopify. Someone said you need to go on Shopify and then our sales went really really well online, and so then it's just been a kind of we do a lot of premium farm shops and delis. We then got a listing in a Caddo um, and then we've just been listed in Sainsbury's. So it's just been a gradual, and then we've got we've got export contracts to Canada and Japan. So it's just a gradual kind of like well, let's try this area, let's try that area and and and it's just sort of expanded naturally from there and why do you say the shopify was such a game changer for you?
Speaker 2:what was it about, sort of the?
Speaker 3:was it just the technology that just made it such a game changer for you, or I actually don't know what it, what it is, but shopify overnight, I mean, we went to like 10 times sales. We weren't doing that many sales so it wasn't that hard to achieve, but you know it was a huge amount. I mean we went from doing I don't know like anyway a lot more. Um, so I I think it's just the technology. It is is a shopping platform. People are going there to shop, so they just know how to get people to the basket and how to convert sales and all those sorts of things that you just don't have in any of the other ones. We were with WordPress before. So I don't know what it is, but it's genius.
Speaker 2:And with your products right, because obviously you're now dealing with sort of online, but now you're also offline in like these big supermarkets and stuff. How do you balance the sort of one getting across the amazing product that it is but then also the backstory behind it about everything else you're doing? How do you sort of mix that sort of like the marketing with the brand and then also the values? How do you get that all sort of together?
Speaker 3:so I would say this year is where we're really really focusing on that. We've had this amazing marketing person come in and I I felt I felt like we were really struggling to. It was fine online because you can talk about everything online and people can see what your product is. You can talk about your whole story see the website. But as soon as we got onto a shelf in sainsbury's so how on earth are we gonna like, how are they gonna know what we do? So we changed all the branding on the jars for one and then made sure that the message really was there, um, on the jar. What we were doing that was different from all the other honeys that were on on the shelf. But we'd never had to really consider that before, because people were going to premium farm shops and delis because they wanted to buy a premium product, so we didn't need to necessarily say you know what we were about, um.
Speaker 3:But this is our year really on focusing on advertising and marketing and making sure that we get our stories right. And things have changed since we started seven years ago. Things have changed online so much I actually cannot keep up with it all you know like a certain way that you used to do social media well. This year, I'm looking at my social media, thinking this is not good, like we need to change and evolve here, and there's a lot of evolution happening, I think, um trying to play catch up with all the systems that have changed, um. So, yeah, I think that that's. That's actually our focus for this year is to try to make that better and you mentioned that.
Speaker 2:So how much things have changed. I was reflecting back on just listening to you and all this conversation. So you started working in chiropractic and then set up this company and now we're talking about M&A deals and stuff. When you reflect back on your journey, how much do you think how much has changed? But also, I guess maybe how you think success. The definition of success has changed for you, I guess as well, because you obviously have children sort of in the arc of growing the Scottish Bee Company as well yeah.
Speaker 3:So I think Ian and I were always really, really ambitious, and we still are super ambitious, but then, obviously, the kids come along and then they just like distract you and you can't think straight and you don't know what day it is, all that sort of stuff, um, but I still think, though, that having like the ability to we have the warehouse we had the warehouse in our house for a long time not the warehouse, sorry office in our house, and then we've moved it out of our house up to just at the top of the street and that's been a big game changer because we can like refocus now so we can have family time and we can have work time, and I think that's really important.
Speaker 3:But running your own business, although you work all the time, you can be there for school drop-offs, you can be there for pickups. You don't have to work nine to five. In fact, none of our staff do. We have them all in 28 hour weeks for that reason, because I suddenly thought I don't really want my staff to, I don't want them to have to be worrying about child care. I'd rather just facilitate that for them because I want to do that. So, um, so I think probably like the business, and it's changed in terms of like we're still just as ambitious, um, but we do things to make sure that we can still see our kids as much as we can as well and do you try sort of involve the kids at all in the business side to try to see because I get for me it's one of those things that just never gets spoken about at school and through education.
Speaker 2:But then you have that ability now to directly show them what's going on. Do you try to educate them in the ways you can.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we do try and involve them quite a lot. So probably child labour, but they would come into the warehouse and, uh, like Rory would help us pack a couple of boxes, just so that he would see what was happening. And then, um, we went, he, we took him out to the beads and he was only four in his little bee suits. That was quite cute as well.
Speaker 3:We do try and involve them as much as we can, but this is where I feel like when the office was in our house, it was not a nice feeling for them, you know, like they didn, like they didn't really want to be interested in the business. I mean, they were smaller, obviously, but I felt like when it moved out of our home and into a separate office, I just felt like that meant that they could then see it as it's not all consuming. I wasn't on my phone all the time in the house and distracted from them, so they don't really like me doing that, but they don't mind coming up and visiting me in the office, um, so, yeah, we do try to involve them, but they're still quite weak. So I think over time we will involve them a lot more amazing.
Speaker 2:I have one final question. It's about sort of the balancing with a uni, balancing business, then life together, because I was just thinking about on this podcast I've actually had quite a lot now of uh, partner sort of founders and this works so well for them, but then it's contrarian to like most advice being like oh, never mix, does it? So how have you and Ian basically developed you know a good working way to you know do business successfully together and then sort of like family life and kids all together?
Speaker 3:well, it's been a journey. I would say that what's really nice about working with your husband or your partner, or whoever it is, is that you always know that the other one is going to be wanting the same as what you want. So if you're kind of working long hours, they're like that's fine, because you're building the same thing for me, and then vice versa, I know that, like if I don't, really, if I can't do a trade show, for whatever reason, I can send him and he'll do it and we'll both do it in exactly the same way, you know. So the sort of trust is there, um, but I do also think, though, that it's hard, because you know there's sometimes you're just you'll sit at eight o'clock at night and you'll start talking about the business.
Speaker 3:So we've actually this year had to start putting boundaries in place and absolute ban of talking about the business after six o'clock at night, and we just watch comedy shows now instead, because because we'd end up sometimes it would be really good conversations, you know, really positive. But when it's not a positive conversation, you're then just like super stressed, trying to go to bed at night and and he, he sort of keeps saying like no other business, no other place would you have your, your boss or your business partner quizzing you at eight o'clock. It's not right, um so, um, so. Yeah, we've had to set boundaries now, which I think is definitely better for for the family and the business actually, because making decisions at nine o'clock at night on a business is that's not really going to be good for anyone, is it?
Speaker 2:well, that's an amazing place to finish up the interview and I want to say one thank you so much for coming on the podcast, but also just the amazing stuff you're doing with the squash company. But then also repollinate and I would implore anyone to go and try the product, because I love honey and your honey is absolutely amazing. So, yeah, I would definitely um implore anyone. And guess, you mentioned pretty much everywhere where people can get it right yes, yes, on the website.
Speaker 3:Happy to do a discount code as well for your listeners.
Speaker 2:I don't know if that yeah, we could, we could, we could work something out as well, yeah, so, um, we've had, we've had that once, paul with um, who was it? Um, why has my mind gone blank? Peanut company. Um, manny life. Yeah, we did that and that worked quite well for them. So, yeah, we could definitely work something like that. But, um, yeah, we'll put that in the show notes or something at the end yeah, that sounds good.
Speaker 3:Um, okay, so what did you just say? You said what did I need to answer there?
Speaker 3:oh, just uh mentioning where people you've got online, but then also just list out where people could get it from yep, so you can get it from um a caddo, uh, if you're south of the border and then sainsbury's north of the border, um, and then pretty much most farm shops and delis were in as well, um, so yeah, and thank you so much for having me on. I honestly love talking about this sort of stuff. It's great, amazing, absolute privilege. Well, thank you so much for having me on. I honestly love talking about this sort of stuff. It's great.
Speaker 2:Amazing, absolute privilege. Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:As always, guys, thank you so much for listening, really appreciate the support and if you guys like it and you're enjoying what you're listening to, please like and subscribe and write a review. We'd really'd really appreciate it again. We'll be back doing this weekly and, yeah, if you want to know more about starting a food business, head to wwwjgreenwoodcom. But, guys, as always, thank you and be great.