Enterprise Nation

I’m hearing from lots of people who are starting food related businesses at home. One of them is Gill Levett who runs 1click2cook.com – on online service offering recipes and a weekly shopping list. Find out the business tips that Gill’s cooking up in her kitchen.

It’s all in the preparation

Gill has started and run a number of businesses. She was the founder of a sandwich manufacturing business that was sold on to a larger catering company. She then devoted her time to bringing up a young family before launching back into the business world as a sales adviser, a pilates teacher and co-founder with her husband of a children’s indoor playcentre in Crawley. That’s quite some CV!

My compliments to the chef

When asked how she came up with the idea for 1click2cook, Gill says

“It was in November 2005 and I had just watched a celebrity chef in an advert..he was telling me not to be boring next time I went shopping and to buy something new.
I found myself thinking what a great idea it would be to create a website that would take all the effort out of the boring bits of cooking - choosing what to eat week after week and making the shopping list. The day after I started the business!”

A recipe for PR success

Gill has since dedicated herself to building a website that is easy on the eye and easy to use. She’s also worked hard to promote the business and says:

We have done well in attracting media attention because we have a very good and interesting product that is newsworthy!!

I have spent many years developing my ‘cold calling’ skills and have used these with 1click2cook.com, to identify potentially interested magazines / websites etc and then have worked very hard to keep in regular contact with a journalist on each one. I make sure that I update them regularly with anything they may deem interesting enough to write about. A PR told me that I had to ask myself ‘so what?’ every time I was about to contact someone. If you cannot make the ‘pitch’ compelling, they won’t be interested.

The right ingredients

Gill’s advice to others who are starting a business at home is to be disciplined, shut the door and turn the computer off at the end of the working day. And also to know what time of day you make the best decisions and try to work then. If its first thing in the morning, then head into the home office early.

Which to be honest will leave you plenty of time at night to cook up a treat with one of Gill’s tasty recipes! – Emma Jones

• 1click2cook.com

If you would like to start a food related business at home, have you thought about:

• Hosting tasting parties – check out My Secret Kitchen
• Outside catering – see our feature on Project Delicious
• Or, if you have one, turning your farm into a potato chip production house – read our piece on the wildly successful Tyrells Chips.