A young entrepreneur's story
Fraser Doherty - Putting Jam on it.
When I was 14 I started selling bacon door-to-door around my neighbourhood. I made a bit more money than I would have done with a paper round, and it was really good fun.
Fraser and his products.
I loved jam as a kid, especially my gran's homemade. I'd always liked cooking too, and one day gran taught me how to make jam. As I was pouring my jam into the jars I had a Eureka moment - selling jam was no different from selling bacon!
I started selling a few jars of my jam to family and friends. I went to dozens of houses and sales were good. People liked it. I was making between £10- £20 a week. I really enjoyed the sense of responsibility and independence it gave me.
I realised that if my family and friends liked my jam, maybe other people would too. So I made loads more and started selling into farmers markets and local fetes. It was going really well so I just kept making more and more and looking for new customers. Poor Mum and Dad; their kitchen became a mini-factory.
The one thing I don't like about jam is that it's usually crammed full of sugar. So I started experimenting with different kinds of natural sweeteners. Grape juice worked well, but red grape juice left a taste I wasn't happy with.
I tried literally hundreds of different recipes using super fruits like blueberry and cranberry sweetened with white grape juice until I found the right combinations. I called it 'SuperJam'.
SuperJam appears in the super market.
My big moment came when I went to a supermarket and they agreed to take a few jars of SuperJam' to see if they sold. It was really satisfying to see my own product on the shelves.
SuperJam is now on sale in 176 Waitrose stores nationwide. I'm already talking to other supermarkets and promoting SuperJam as hard as I can. The fact that Waitrose sends out press releases about my product is an enormous help.
I think I always knew my enterprise would go far, but I was really chuffed to win the Enterprising Young Brit Award when I was 15. Gordon Brown presented me with the award which of course was brilliant publicity. From then on I received orders for my jam from all over the place.
Fraser taste tests his products.
Demand is now so high that I rent a factory space to produce the jam and employ people to help me. I'm studying accountancy at Strathclyde University so I have to balance my business with my degree course.
If you have a Eureka moment and think you've got a great idea for a business, my advice is simple – give it a shot and keep trying new things until you find something that works. There's not really any big secret. The most important thing is to have a 'can do' attitude. Good luck!