Phil Fraser speaks to Lisa Shepherd and Saskia Roskam about their north Leeds business, The Biskery; a business built on ‘the power of kindness’. Lisa and Saskia tell us how their hobby turned into a real business following a cold email from Penguin books, how Covid drove, rather than killed, their business and how their ethos and values drive everything. They also teach us how to harness the power of working mums…. Something you might want to do in your business.
INTRODUCING THE BISKERY
The Biskery is an online bakery specialising in personalised and branded biscuits. They make gifting impressive, spread kindness, and make the world a bit sweeter, one biscuit at a time.
Friends Lisa and Saskia started The Biskery as a little project in 2016, whilst caring for their young children full time. They initially set out to sell treats from their home countries (Germany & The Netherlands) at local farmers markets. Their digital marketing background quickly opened new doors and opportunities for them, and allowed them to grow and shape the business into what it is today: A six figure business creating bespoke biscuits for the likes of Meta, The BBC, and Fendi, as well as consumers of all backgrounds and ages.
The Biskery pride themselves in using the best ingredients and eco-friendly packaging. Their personalised jam sandwich biscuits are unique, fun and nostalgic and until this day, every biscuit is made by hand by their in-house team of working mothers.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
[00.01.00] How The Biskery started
[00.06.30] Launching a proper business
[00:09:25] Free biscuits
[00.12.35] The birth of the company ethos and GratiTuesday
[00:17:00] The growth of the business when everything changed
[00:24:30] LinkedIn and how it fits with being an introvert
[00:28:00] Lessons from boot-strapping
[00:33:40] Winning awards and plans for the future
[00:38:15] The power behind employing working mums
[00.43.30] How to bring more female values into the world of work
KEY TAKEAWAYS & BUSINESS LEARNINGS
* When problems arrive, ask what CAN we do, not what can’t we do
* When ethos & values come from a place that is real, it means that you can sustain it
* Figure out the basics in running a business – it’s not that complicated
* Clarity comes from action, not thoughts
* There is so much satisfaction and joy from providing employment to other people
* Women don’t lose their skills or brains just because they’ve had children
* Your business can only grow and develop if you grow and develop as a person
* Trust your intuition in business
BEST MOMENTS
“We were very risk averse. When we could afford it we took the next step”
“We weren’t baking any biscuits for anyone else so we thought why don’t we just give them away free”
“We reached out the employer that we used to work for and asked to use their kitchen”
“We had three interviewees we liked so instead of giving one of them one full-time role, we gave all three part-time roles”
“We baked 27,000 biscuits in six weeks in our new premises”
“For the first three years we didn’t pay ourselves anything, apart from a cup of coffee”
VALUABLE RESOURCES FOR YOU
Website: www.leedsbusinesspodcast.com
Website: https://www.thebiskery.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saskia-roskam-cofounder-director/ www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-shepherd-leeds https://www.linkedin.com/company/thebiskery/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebiskery/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thebiskery
Shout outs: https://wildcraftbakery.com/
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ABOUT YOUR HOST
Phil Fraser went from an accidental kitchen table start up, with no investment, all the way to multi-million pound sale to a PLC 18 years later. He’s travelled the full SME business journey of launch, growth, scale and exit.
As well as hosting the Leeds Business Podcast, Phil now works with ambitious SME-owners as a Business Sounding Board (think somewhere between Business Coach and Business Mentor). In simple terms, he’s ‘a pair of ears and an extra pair eyes’ for SME Owners helping them to be better at what they do. Phil’s mantra is It doesn’t need to be ‘lonely at the top’. He helps Business Owners to be better business owners, by helping with their clarity and focus.
As a Business Sounding Board, he gives SME Owners the time & space to regularly discuss their challenges and opportunities, with no sense of judgement or bias, and in complete confidence. This allows them to explore their options in full, culminating with a list of issues to address/clarify, a clear target in mind, a roadmap to success, and a renewed enthusiasm and confidence for the challenges ahead.
Phil has appeared as a guest on over 60 podcasts, webinars and interviews, from around the whole globe, talking on a variety of business subjects. You can view them all at https://philfraser.co.uk/watch-hear-phil/.
LEEDS BUSINESS PODCAST
Bloom Bakers, Saskia and Lisa, bespoke personalised biscuits, Thank you biscuits, branded biscuits, Leeds, Leeds Business, Business in Leeds, Nous of Fraser, Business Sounding Board, Business Coach, Business Mentor,
Email: phil@leedsbusinesspodcast.com
