Posted: 27th October 2015
WIRE member Trish MacCurrach from Outdoor-Kitchen is a late starter in the entrepreneur field. She has plenty of ideas but not enough energy to implement them all. So she turned to a friend (with an extremely successful card business) and said “Give me one tip for building my business”.
Read about his reply and how the business has grown and changed over the last 5 years.
His reply “Identify your best selling range and add to it each year”.
Well….. he sells cards…how was she to transfer that idea over to enamel, outdoor cooking equipment.
Trish says “At that stage, my obvious best selling range was my enamel hanging cooking pots, Kotlich, and 120cm tripod. So what could I add to it? Over the next 4 years we have added a new product each year, a 160cm tripod, an enamel hanging grill, an enamel hanging paella pan and a 20lt Kotlich. All the new stock has proved very popular”. What brilliant advice.
Her next query involved trying to simplify her way of marketing. As an older person, how could she make life easier without actually stopping going to fairs, talking to people and being where it’s all happening. She says “I am less and less inclined to carry loads of kit to and from fairs, setting up, loading and unloading is heavy work. Fairs consist of 8hrs standing around and a 30mins of excitement each day. It doesn’t seem cost effective especially as I often find that people
So, this year, having reviewed what she is good at and what “she is rubbish at”, she decided to do cooking demonstrations at carefully chosen festivals. Trish says “Each demo takes a focused one hour of real energy during which I use my cooking experience, talking skills and humour, with an hour each end setting up and clearing away. I am at last doing something I love. Much simpler and way more fun”.
So, what about next year? She’d love to identify venues, within a couple of hours drive of Kington, Herefordshire, that hold training/activity days that fit her ethos. She would offer a days outdoor cooking, it would include lunch, and probably something to take away. It would be seasonal, local and maybe foraged.
If you have or know of a suitable venue, do let Trish know. trish@maccurrach.com
To go shopping www.outdoor-kitchen.biz
