Blog

I’ve posted previously about Fairtrade and why it was a no-brainer from day 1 that New Kings Coffee would be Fairtrade (and Organic). But given it’s Fairtrade Fortnight (26 February to 11 March), it feels appropriate to write again about what Fairtrade means, both to us and to the people who grow and produce our coffee. As Fairtrade say on their website, “It's a shocking fact that millions of farmers and workers who produce the food we love still don’t earn enough to feed their own families”. When I stop and think about that for a second, it’s crazy, right?...

I’m a member of Enterprise Nation, a fantastic organisation that helps tens of thousands of people start and grow their businesses. Over the last year, I’ve attended many of their monthly meetups and weekly online masterclasses, listened to their member podcast series, attended several of their meet the buyer/expert events, and even travelled to Paris with them on an export trade mission. Plus they’ve become one of my customers, buying my coffee for one of their own events. So when I received an email from them inviting me to Number 10 (Downing Street, that is), I was genuinely thrilled at...

(12 things I’ve learnt about starting a startup - part 2) In part 1 of the twelve things I’ve learnt since leaving corporate life and starting my own business, I wrote about the excitement, the flexibility and the amazing people I’ve met since venturing out on my own. In this second part, I continue my observations about the differences between corporate life and startup life, with another six ups and downs on this rollercoaster ride. Hold on tight… 1.     You have to make all the decisionsSome more irony for me here as when I used to manage a relatively large...

(12 things I’ve learnt about starting a startup - part 1) Corporate life had its moments; good and bad, more bad towards the end. But I didn’t appreciate how comfortable it really was until after I’d left: the guaranteed monthly paycheque; the free office with all the mod-cons; the multi-million pound budgets (of someone else’s money); the relatively little consequence when anything went wrong etc etc. Of course, all of these things become irrelevant on a day to day basis, when you’re battling with corporate politics, or someone’s over-bearing ego, or feeling unvalued for the meaningless work you’re slaving over,...