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Louise Denton, Elizabeth Histed, Kerri Barrett, Heather Morrison and Sam Hemlin


The challenges of starting a business


It’s always fascinating to hear how entrepreneurs overcome initial challenges when building their business, and Harriet Hastings’ story of balancing motherhood and a career chimed with many women in the room. Back in 2007, she was juggling being a mother of four children, running the Women’s Prize for Fiction and working part-time for her husband’s event company when she came up with the concept for Biscuiteers, which now sells three million hand-iced biscuits a year across consumer and corporate gifting. “I felt that food gifting was


an open space and ecommerce was new. The product is flexible, interesting and can go in the post,” she said. Armed with a wealth of


marketing expertise, she quickly proved the concept and by December had recouped the initial investment. But she first had to overcome the fact that she had no experience of manufacturing, production – or how to ice biscuits. “It was a lot harder than how to sell them – we were making it up as we went along. We started by employing artists to ice the biscuits because we were located near art colleges, and we’ve now got a manufacturing model.” Scaling up has been another


challenge for Hastings, who now oversees the planning, technical, wholesale, audit, finance and customer service departments. “These are departments we


didn’t think we would need, but it just grows,” says Hastings. “As a person running a business it is about recognising what you are good at and what you are not


28 | The Caterer | 22 March 2024


good at. My husband has designed the manufacturing side, so finding your strengths and bringing the right people in to support you is crucial, especially as you upscale.” Her daughter Holly Congdon has


clearly taken this on board, telling the audience that identifying her own weaknesses and preparing accordingly has been key to success. She took over her father’s business Lettice Events, which was effectively being wound down just before the pandemic hit, and since then it has grown from three employees to 20 and is listed with 40 major venues. Congdon recognised that her


finance skills were weak so she took a course at the London School of Economics, and to hone her management skills she hired a business coach. As the business has grown, her managers have benefited from being coached, helping them to understand different perspectives across the team. “Communication is crucial because


challenges happen at different times – the kitchen is always under the cosh, the operations team are tired because they are out late, and sales feels misunderstood and so on… everyone thinks they are working harder than everyone else,” said Congdon. As well as setting out with a


commitment that all decisions would be based on three core values – kindness, sustainability and integrity – Congdon ensured Lettice earned certified B Corp status, which crucially has helped her to create a good work-life balance for employees. “Nobody expects hospitality to be easy, so you need to convince


Lucy Stewart and Gemma Banks


recruits that it is not a sacrifice. We talk about wishing hospitality was seen as a vocation and not something you fall into, so how do you bring work-life balance into it? We offer flexible hours that they can pick and choose from, and those working in operations must allow 12 hours between finishing work and coming back. We have a young team, so we have round table discussions about how we can improve social responsibility to the team.”


Hastings has tried to create


a wholesome culture for the Biscuiteers’ team, too, bringing everyone together in its first headquarters in 2019 and turning the car park into a garden. “One of the big challenges is not


having ‘us and them’ between the manufacturing staff, office staff and retail teams,” Hastings said. “We try to work on ways the business can do things together such as


socials and so on. We want to show that everyone is equally valued regardless of their role.” Hastings has also brought the


recruitment process inhouse, which helps the company hire the right employees. At Christmas, for instance, demand scales up with about 150 extra staff between September and December, and the inhouse team has identified that these roles typically suit gap year students. “It was about profiling the right


people to be employed,” says Hastings. “Training is a big cost, so we don’t want them to leave after a month. We looked at who would benefit from working with us for four months from their point of view and how we would sell it to them – obviously they can earn money for travelling, but we can also offer them experience at an interesting company and the chance to learn new skills.”


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