Management School student turns passion into business venture
Jamie Welsby is a final year BA Accounting and Finance student. He recently turned his passion for making sauces and flavourings into a business venture and has seen it go from strength to strength.
Read Jamie’s story:
Growing up, food has always been a passion of mine and moving to study at the University of Liverpool allowed me to delve further into this and improve my skills. I was now not just helping my mum around the kitchen, I was making my own dishes and beginning to add new things and create new recipes. This, however, now means I am our house chef every night and have friends asking to cook for them every night of the week.
This interest led to me experimenting and I started to make different flavoured hot sauces and a range of BBQ sauces - everyone who tried them seemed to love them! I also enjoy putting my own twist on dishes through a range of different herbs and spices, so I also created my own range of hand ground seasoning mixes. Over the last 6 months everyone was enjoying them that much and telling people about them, I was getting requests from people daily as to when I could make them some. Due to the demand being there I set up my own business named “Jay’s” and I produce homemade small batch sauces and hand ground seasoning mixes, using all fresh, locally sourced ingredients!
Running my business alongside my degree has made my final year at university a very busy one! We have continued to grow at a rapid pace, now stocking several butcher’s shops, farm shops, local village convenience shops and many more! It is however, something that I love doing and being so busy must mean I am doing something right!
I’d say the most important thing I have learnt from this experience is how a business operates (which I am still learning as I’m going) and most definitely time management and organisational skills! Ensuring I stay on top of the numerous orders we are getting daily whilst still studying and staying on top of my university work has proved a challenge, one I am staying on top of at the moment. Studying my degree alongside running my business I have found many skills to be transferable, I have been able to prepare my own accounts and ensure correct tax guidelines have been followed.
Over the next 12-18 months I am hoping to continue to grow my business and try to push into many more stores and shops as I feel this is a key area for us if we want to reach the next level. I am also going to invest a lot more time into social media marketing to try and push my products online and reach a wider audience.
Hopefully one day you’ll see us on the shelves at your local supermarket!
Follow Jay's Sauces on social media:
Instagram: jays.sauce
Facebook: Jay’s Sauces & Seasonings