Introduction:
Hi, I'm Phillip - I run Pips Real Hot Chocolate Co; it provides an artisan made, all handmade luxury hot chocolate. It's made of real chocolate and there are many different natural flavours, it's good for allergens etc. I sell to gift shops, the public and café's so it can bought to make at home or to drink when you're out. I also do wedding favours, party favours things like that. I can customise branding, I can white label the product for anyone who is interested in doing something under their own name that's possible. For everything.
How did you get started in the hot chocolate world?
I got really tired of hot chocolate you could buy quite honestly; the powered hot chocolate isn't really that nice. You might be used to it and it might be kind of a thing that you have because that's what hot chocolate is but once you've actually tried melting real chocolate into milk and that's what I did, literally grated chocolate and melted it into milk. It's just so much nicer and it feels different and it tastes better and it's healthier. I've been making it for myself for probably over 10 years now and a couple of years ago I thought why not just try and sell it. I figured out a way to package it and put it all together and I did a couple of testers and when on to Cardiff Christmas Market, I went there in 2014, I made a really nice amount in the week that I was there and I continued it as a part time thing in the evening while I had a full time job. Last August it got to a point where I couldn't concentrate on it enough so I left the job and now I'm full time making hot chocolate.
How many people are involved in your business?
In Pip's Real Hot Chocolate Co it's literally just me, I've got my suppliers, I've got my customers and I've got a fabulous community around me on Facebook as well who are really involved but I am a one man band.
How has the Real Hot Chocolate Co changed over the years?
It actually started out as Pips Chocolate for Milk, I was using pre-bought chocolate and packaging it differently in dry packaging and from there I've moved on, added the name as an umbrella company Real Hot Chocolate Co in November, December 2014. I've transitioned everything to that branding now instead over the years and I've been able to move ahead, redefine the product a little better, crate my own moulds and do things right really. I had vision in the first place and I've taken feedback from various café's that I've been serving in and I've been able to incorporate that really quickly because it's just me, there's no one to go through. We get to test things and find out what works, it's always evolving.
What are the next steps for your business?
I've got some new products that I'm testing at the moment with café's instead of using the hot chocolate coins I'm using a crumb chocolate instead which is like granulated chocolate, it's the nearest thing to powder you'll find. It's been tested fairly successfully in café's, its moving on now to the retail side so very soon you should see it sold by the gram on pipsformilk.co.uk rather than buying a set size coin you can actually measure your own amount of hot chocolate but they will all be the same flavours.
How do customers find you?
Customers find me mainly through word of mouth, I've done a lot of work on market stalls, Christmas fairs, vegan fairs because all the dark chocolate ones are vegan friendly as well and everything is nut free so the communities who have to rely on these things they talk to each other so there is a lot of word of mouth. People find the website very easily because it's linked on all my social media and I've got a good community on Facebook and then there is footfall as well. I go out to my big wholesale customers, the café's and shops that retail me as well I've got to go to them. I visit them, we try the chocolate together I talk to them and we see what happens.
How do you mainly sell to your customers?
The website, I try to get everyone online because I hate doing paperwork. The ecommerce solutions I can get through Heart Internet are absolutely fantastic because all the invoicing is built in so at the end of my financial year I just press a button and I've got the entire report ready. Obviously some customer doesn't like to do that, if it's someone buying from home it's all through the website. If it's a wholesale customer or a café or a gift shop then they'll often phone me but I will still put their invoices together on the website, I put the order in physically myself so everything is done online through the Heart Internet website.
How important do you find you website for your business?
Incredibly, obviously the pipsformil.co.uk is incredibly important to me because it's such a nice clean accessible format, its easily put together I can pop up temporary notices if I'm working away for a few days and orders may be delayed. If I need to try a new product up in the background I can create something on there and just see how it goes and test everything properly and for the wholesale side all my invoicing is done through the website nothing is done on the computer, it is all online.
Are there any particular clients that you're proud to have worked with?
My biggest customer at the moment is Cardiff and Vale College, they've got a coffee shop called Bae Coffee which is my biggest customer at the moment but from there I am so happy work with Rob in Bae because he has referred me, he knows so many people around Cardiff and he doesn't want to keep this to himself. He loves the product so much he's telling all the other Café's about me so from him I've gone into a Portuguese bakery who's got 3 locations in Cardiff and I'm in the 2 major ones. A brand new on in the city centre and one down Cardiff Bay, they're called Nutter and Co and I'm happy to work with all these people. They love my product, their customers love my product and everything goes nicely, not exactly working with them but the biggest thing that's happening at the moment is that I've entered one of my hot chocolates into the Great Taste Awards which is being judged this week but I don't get to hear about that for possibly for another month or two. I'm on tenterhooks, do I even have a star and if I do that's going to be the biggest thing and that really going to help boost everything I think.
What services do you use with Heart Internet?
I'm actually a reseller with Heart Internet; I've been a reseller all the time I've been with you since before I moved so over 10 years. I was previously with another company and had a lot of problems with their technical support and some of their fees so I looked around for a different solution. One thing a lot of people who own their own business and this kind of venture find is that we're all quiet innovative and I've had a lot of ideas in the past and is been really nice to go in to my reseller account and try stuff out. I've got no limits on space, no limits on broadband width no nothing; it's all there for me. As a reseller it's fantastic and I can actually use the Host pay services on top on that to supplement my income.
How important do you find the Shared Hosting platform for your business?
If I wasn't using a Shared Hosting platform then I would be paying through the nose for servers or I would have to set up my own. The local internet not being the best in the world, I wouldn't want to do that, I have the ability to set up the server, I've got spare computers to set something up no problems at all but I don't have the reliability that I do with Heart. Yes there was a huge problem months ago where everything went down for a few hours but Heart has learnt really well from that and in the amount of time that I've been with them I have never seen that problem before and they've learnt from it. They added triple safeguard and there's nothing more I can say about it. The reliability and the customer support, the technical support they're absolutely beyond perfect.
What do you need from your website hosting and how does Heart Internet meet these needs?
I need to know that the website is there, I need to know if something goes horribly wrong with the website I can get help with it. I can't code, I can't do that myself. I can do little bits and bobs and do a little PHP if I sit down and figure it out but I can't do massively technical stuff so the technical support is very important to me, the fact that it's there is very important to me. It's the presence as well, the fact that I can get a good domain name, I can get my .co.uk, my .co, a .com, I can get a .xyz if I want. I can get anything that I need from them and if I can think of it online Heart can help me with it.
What role do you think Heart has played in the evolution of your business?
I that that Heart providing all the scripts that they do, the automatic installs and the huge library of those scripts that they've got has been really useful for me because I've been able to try out Vanilla Forums, various different ecommerce solutions and PHP buddypress and wordpress obviously. I've been able to try out all these things and find out what's best for me, if something doesn't go quite right then I can ask for technical help. If I want to do something that I think will help boost the business then if I can't figure it out, I know that technical support even though they're not technically there for that they can usually point me in the right direction and I don't abuse the tickets because I know that it can get a bit overboard. It's been able to support my inspiration.
Can you tell us your overall experience with Heart Internet?
I've never had a problem with Heart Internet, there's been a billing query once which was mostly my fault and they were able to help me with it and the big technical issue back in February. If you know the other channels, Heart Internet isn't just HeartInternet.uk its Facebook, its Twitter it's a social media platform so if you know where to contact them if one thing's not working you can find them somewhere else. If you keep yourself informed then that's the best way they're going to help you.
What do you think the best thing is when running your own business?
It's got to be the hours; it's definitely not the money, that's not anywhere near where I was when I was in a full time job. It's getting there defiantly but it's being able to be responsible to myself, its being able to keep my own hours and it smells of chocolate all day.
And the cons?
One of the worst things that happened sadly quite recently I got sick, I got quiet badly sick over Christmas and the beginning of December in my peak time for hot chocolate. I got Vertigo, for over a month I couldn't do anything, I couldn't look at a screen for over a week. If I was in a full time job with an employer I would have sick pay. Myself I'm lying in bed no being able to do anything and the money is just seeping out and seeping out. Security is gone when you've got your own business unless you've really got the money behind you but as soon as something like that happens then you've really got to hope that you've got support.
Where there any particular problem when you first set up your business?
There weren't really any real problems when I set up my business; it was a fairly simple thing to do. The worst thing I had to figure out is how to package things, that's actually evolved from the beginning anyway. It's gone from biodegradable plastic bags to a greaseproof wrap more like soap. That was my biggest concern in the first place, it was easy to get a food certification certificate, it was easy to get the council to come along and inspect the premises. It was easy to do all of these things and setting up the website again which was very easy. I didn't have any official training but I could just go and do it myself.
Have you got any tips you would like to share with anyone who is thinking of starting up a business?
I would suggest to anyone who wants to set up a business should defiantly have money, not a huge amount of money but make sure you have something to fall back on. If they don't have to leave their job then don't until they're earning enough to be able to. Make sure you don't tread on any toes, I'm very good friends with a local chocolatier. We both make hot chocolate; we do it in a very different way. I was recommended to a café in his local town and for manners I went up and said hi I've been recommended to you, I'm coming because they ask if I came up but I don't want to do anything with you because you've got the competitor just around the corner and he probably already sells to you. Just be friendly and don't tread on any toes it's not going to help you in the future.
How is Heart helping to evolve your business?
Through Heart Internet I can happily, easily trial new flavours, I can keep my statistics for my sales and do all of these things that help me realise which ways to go. I've pulled a couple of flavours, I've added a couple of flavours, there's a direct results in what I've seen through the website.
Why is having a shop on your shared platform important?
Being able to host a secure shop on my shared platform is absolutely fantastic, it's something people expect to see to go out and buy something online. To have the tools in front of me through heart just to be able to knock that together myself is absolutely fantastic.
