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In
the best possible taste
Richard
Davies, 31 years and a divorcee went from
being
a bored
fishing gillie
to finding
love and setting
up his
own
beef jerky
business in the Outer Hebrides.
How
did he do it?
Read on…..
 Five
years ago,
Richard's
friend brought
him some beef jerky back from the US as a present. Quickly
hooked on the taste, and unable to find his favourite snack,
he came to the conclusion there was a market for jerky in
the UK. Using the free internet services at his local enterprise
council, 30 miles away, he set up his own business, Wild West
Foods www.wildwestjerky.co.uk
This
was only possible with the personal help and assistance of
the then LEC marketing adviser, Gillian. Chatting via email,
their conversations soon moved from business matters to far
more intimate exchanges. You've guessed it - Richard and Gillian
became much more than friends. They fell in love and now live
together on the idyllic island of Lewis. Richard, who ran
the business alongside his full time job for a year has since
given up his day job and runs his business full-time, from
an office using BT Openworld's Anytime service. All orders
can be placed on his site or by email. He and his biggest
customer have never spoken - they do all transactions via
email.
Richard
ploughed £5000 of his own money into starting the business
and it is now growing quickly with a monthly turnover of £5000.
Richard's jerky recently received a Bronze Award in the Good
Taste Awards. Asked if there was anything he would have done
differently, Richard said: "With hindsight, I would have
started off bigger, but starting small and building gave me
the hindsight!! I now have to change everything, as I have
grown, such as packaging and storage space. If I'd done that
to begin with I would now be more widespread and would not
have the extra cost of redesigning the packaging etc."
For
the future, Richard hopes to expand his business into Europe
and grow his product range - including meat-free products
- since Gillian is vegetarian!
For
more information about BT Openworld visit: www.btopenworld.com/broadbandoffer
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