There comes a moment when you can't do it all yourself. The orders are piling up, you're working every evening, and you know it's time to hire. It's also a moment that scares a lot of small business owners. Before I ran my own shop, I worked in HR, ...

The words "HACCP plan" make most small food makers want to close the laptop. It sounds like something for factories, written in a language nobody speaks. It isn't. At its heart, HACCP is a simple idea: know what could make your food unsafe, stop it ...

Seeing your product on a shop shelf is one of the best feelings in a maker's life. It's also where many small businesses quietly start losing money. When I worked in chocolate retail, I saw how shops buy from suppliers. When I ran my own shop, I sat...

When I took on my own chocolate shop in Edinburgh, signing the lease felt like the moment the dream became real. It was also the moment I took on obligations I didn't fully understand. A commercial lease is not like renting a flat. Scotland has its ...

Sunday evening. The dread arrives on schedule. You sit at a desk all week, staring at a screen, doing work that doesn't feel like yours, and you keep thinking about the thing you'd rather be making. I know that feeling well. I've sold chocolate at L...

You make something people love. Friends ask for your tablet at Christmas, your brownies sell out at the school fair, and someone has finally said it: "You should sell these." The good news is that you can start a food business from your own ...