Currently...

Building a natural confectionery brand from scratch. We launched http://www.peppersmith.co.uk/" rel="nofollow">Peppersmith in January and have been doing pretty well; getting our products into some prestigious retail chains such as Waitrose, Wholefoods, Booths and Planet Organic. We are also lucky enough to be sold by some of the nicest independent cafes, delis, coffee shops and wholefood stores around.

Our launch product was the world’s first all-natural, tooth-friendly chewing gum. Our journey has just begun; we have more products in the pipeline ready to launch at the start of next year and we’ve also just started to export to the rest of Europe and beyond.

Before I escaped...

Before Peppersmith we both served our entrepreneurial apprenticeships at innocent drinks. Mike joined in 2001 to head up their Supply Chain and later went off to Scandinavia to launch the brand in the lands of the northern lights. Joining in 2003, Dan started as a Finance Manager before metamorphosing into innocent’s Marketing and Communications Manager.

Being in such a fast growing business and being able to get involved across a wide range of business disciplines really put us in good stead for the challenges in front of us now.

My moment of truth...

After a year or more doing market research, learning about confectionery and finding people that could help, we had a major breakthrough. We found a set of suppliers who both understood what we were trying to do and shared our belief in the opportunity. In the beginning of 2009 following some production trials we had a prototype product in our hands.

We had done our homework, had the basis of a product we knew we could sell and had suppliers willing to provide us with what we needed. The problem was there was still plenty to do, the economy was crashing down around our ears and we both had good jobs. There were plenty of reasons to hold fire but we figured we had what we needed and it was now or never. We set up as a limited business in April 2009 and have not looked back since.

Planning for it...

We really believed in planning and acquired market reports on the industry, surveyed our friends, attended tradeshows, spoke to the retailers, took some holiday time to visit suppliers, read business planning books and importantly wrote the draft of our business plan.

The business plan was not about raising investment (that came later) but was to give us the sanity check to show we had the fundamentals in place before we set out on our mission.

The worst and best bits...

Thankfully far more good things to report than bad. Our proudest moment had to be when our products finally hit the shelves in January. It is so rewarding when after months and months of hard work you have something tangible to show off. After that there are good things to be savoured all the time; whether it is the biggest ever sales week, an important new customer or a lovely email from one of our chewers.

There have also been challenges; our personal bank accounts have been empty for a long time and sometimes our suppliers seem like they are doing everything possible to sabotage our dreams. This though is all par for the course and we would not have it any other way.

Best advice...

To have a clear vision and a set of values and stick to them.

Useful resources and information...

• The http://www.bl.uk/" rel="nofollow">British Library was great for market info and a quiet place to work.
• http://www.surveymonkey.com/" rel="nofollow">Survey Monkey was a very useful free resource to do some consumer research.
• http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/home" rel="nofollow">Business Link did not have loads of insights but did set us up as a Limited company for a grand total of £20. Well worth the bus fare to Brixton.
• Other than that, talking to other small brand owners who had done it