Jessica Mooney, founder and baker at Bread For Life, explains why the business should win the home business category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition.
Fed up of soggy, bland, additive, preservative rich plastic-covered supermarket bread I decided to start my own real bread enterprise, Bread For Life. Wanting a more family-friendly work-life balance following a close encounter with meningitis, I turned my hobby into a business so that I could spend more time at home with my then 18-month-old son and also share my love of making strong, freshly baked bread using locally milled flour and natural ingredients with my local community.
Using my experience in marketing and advertising I set up and built the website and social media platforms using my PC at home. I attended local markets and networking groups to get the word out.
Within three months of setting up my home-based enterprise I had a small and growing number of subscribers and regular customers. After three months I had been featured in the local paper. The last 12 months has seen the business grow and evolve in ways I never would have dreamt. From working with local schools, charities, guest baking at pop-up stalls at local heritage sites and cultural events, to now offering popular breadmaking workshops from my adapted kitchen at home, I’m truly learning what it means to run a home-based business, using creative ways to share my love of fresh bread.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the top three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
