Seeking out and listening to business advice from a good mentor was among the top tips for success Scottish entrepreneur Fraser Doherty MBE shared with delegates at the National Enterprise Network’s Annual Conference 2023.
“Seek out advice and listen,” he told business delegates at the event. “I’ve done that all my life and listened to a lot of people who knew a lot more than I did. Never be afraid to ask and try things.”
Fraser, who hit the headlines as a teenager with his Superjam brand, is also the founder of Envelope Coffee, and co-founder of Beer52. He is also director of the registered Scottish charity, The SuperJam Tea Parties.
His journey to success started with a back garden chicken farm at the age of 10 after hatching some eggs incubated by the warmth of a Sky TV box. Although a fox eventually put a stop to his egg-selling business, by the age of 14 he was back in business after realising his grandmother’s secret jam recipe could be his next business adventure.
Thanks to a pitch to Waitrose at one of their ‘Meet the Buyer’ days and some sound advice from his school business studies teacher, Fraser started his journey to entrepreneur, slowing scaling up his business, creating a more appropriate brand look than his initial ‘comic strip’ concept, and learning the economic lessons of a sound profit and loss.
It wasn’t long before he became a major exporter to South Korea, collaborated in a K-Pop video, and then his brand went global, with Fraser leveraging his success to create new enterprises in beer, wine and coffee while also putting his energies into his charity The SuperJam Tea Parties which supports elderly people socialise.
Speaking to delegates at NEN’s Conference – A Manifesto for Change in Enterprise Support – Fraser praised the enterprise agencies at the event for the work they carry out supporting start-ups, micro and small businesses
“The UK is a great place to start a business. There is a great entrepreneurial community and whenever I have asked for support I have found people who were generous with their time and advice,” he said.
“There must be so many people out there who have an idea and are unsure of where to turn, but when I come here and hear about the some of the work people are doing , I realise there is an amazing amount of support available.
“I started young but there are people starting at older ages, from disadvantaged communities and other walks of life and they have an idea. I think finding those entrepreneurs wherever they are and giving them support they need is vital.”
Fraser listed his top tops as:
1. Find a good mentor and listen – “I was given a mentor by my business studies teacher who gave me lots of advice, and here was a lot of support and grants from Business Gateway at Scottish Enterprise. Plus my first ‘prospective’ customer at Waitrose was a mentor too; he was kind, and gave me good advice. I didn’t follow it quite right the first time, but I learned and at the third pitch, I got the deal.”
2. Listen to your customers – you get lots of useful feedback, plus they love it
3. Collaborate with other businesses – from sharing production facilities at the outset, to building relationships with exporters, importers and marketing companies enabling offers to be shared between customers, and saving all-important costs
4. Stay passionate – and work with other people and companies who are equally passionate about the products you make
5. Measures of success don’t have to be just about profit – a simple idea in a kitchen can growth into something more than money; it can create a career, jobs and give back to the community