Millionaire Entrepreneur Facebook Q & A (Richard Reed)...

santa · Oct 4, 2012

Richard Reed is one of the cofounders of Innocent Smoothies who turnover about 200m a year. They're a big brand in the UK and parts of europe.

He's doing a series for BBC where he's investing up to a million pounds of his own money into British businesses.It's been an interesting series to watch (it's on iplayer for my fellow Brits), I don't like the way the show is edited but there's been some real nuggets in there that show why he's managed to build such a massive scaled business and it's interesting to see some of his advice to entrepreneurs. Two takeaways for me from the show are his way of looking at scalability and his systematic approach into how they got their product into retailers.

He did a facebook Q and A (Wall Photos | Facebook ) that had some insights that may interest people here and give you some takeaways + reinforce fastlane principles
And yes he is a definate self made millionaire....

Here's some selected quotes;

..... said:
at what point should you give up your day job to follow your dream of being your own boss? Lycheegirl
After you've raised the money and started the business and shown it works – until then use weekends, evenings, holidays and moments when the boss isn''t looking to get your thing up and running

..... said:
one simple short question - Why innnocent?
To help people be healthy

..... said:
what criteria did you use to choose the businesses to make seed investment in on BYOB, from Katrina atBelleBelly
Two things – did we get excited by the idea, and did we believe in and trust the team? We need two yeses to invest.

..... said:
With innocent being a "high-end" food brand, do you think that innocent can continue to hold market share as more and more focus is placed on the cottage industry and small brand competitors?
We're only as good as our last smoothie, so winning long term is about making sure we continue to make better drinks and look after our customers better than the competition. If we don't do that we don't deserve to keep our number one position.

..... said:
I've been wanting to ask this question for a while. At what stage did you realize you was ready to expand (investment Â£250,000), and what where the challenges you faced. Thanks
We need the money to launch the business so that came early, and the single biggest challenge we faced was raising it, that took over 12 months.

..... said:
How important is it that your employees understand and live your business's brand values?
We only recruit people that have personal values that chime with innocent's

..... said:
How do you know if you're the guy who should keep trying or the one who should give up and go home (or try again)?
It is ultimately about your consumer. Have you got evidence there is demand for your idea? Do small scale trials to test that they want what you've got. If they do, keep going. If they don't, rethink.

..... said:
what marketing growth strategies do you use to come up with new flavours and why do you find this method effective
We look for hot new ingredients and test out recipes on willing guineapigs and launch the most popular.

..... said:
We are looking to launch a new product and would like to now the best way to be able to pitch to larger businesses such as B&Q,
We knew no one we just kept hassling the supermarkets –eventually we got a meeting.

..... said:
My Question: Where did the idea for innocent come from and how did u come up with such wonderful flovours?!!!
It came from wanting to make it easy to do ourselves some good and the recipes came from a love of food and experimenting in our kitchen in our shared house at the time

..... said:
What is more important in business; experience or qualifications?
Experience. But being smart, honest and hard working beats that.

..... said:
do you have a wealthy background and did this help with your success or did you start off with next to nothing and worked very hard to
Mum was a nurse, Dad worked for the local bus company so not from a wealthy background. It has been mainly handwork, getting the big decisions right (i.e. Product, brand, supply chain etc) and then a boat load of luck.

..... said:
What type of idea/business would you really like to invest in, which you haven't done already?
Things that make the world a little better, run by smart, interesting, altruistic people

..... said:
If you had Â£10m to spend on the business, what would you do with it and why?
Develop a load of new products – it is after all what people buy

..... said:
If you weren't doing this now, what do you think you'd be doing?
Sitting on a beach in Ibiza watching the sun set

..... said:
What skills do you think are important for a young person with aspirations to be their own boss to obtain and do you think we cater for these skills sufficiently in the UK education system?
Taking the initiative, persistence, creative thinking, people management, financial numeracy. No.

..... said:
Richard, congratulations on an excellent TV show - you're a true inspiration! I wonder if you please have any advice for a driving school that is suffering in these tough times and an overly saturated market?
Find an ownable point of difference that is relevant to your consumer and amplify it. Can you restructure your pricing – so it is cheaper per lesson if you buy a course rather than individual lesson, charge differently in peak vs off peak times (like Ryanair), are there additional services you can add on to increase revenue e.g. Evening classes on theory, advanced driving lessons etc

..... said:
- Hey guys, so how and where to get investment - investors only want to invest if their money is going to transform the business, so have a clear plan for what the money would be used for. Investors don't want to put money into businesses just to pay the bills, it really has to be spent on things that will dramatically improve the performance of the business. In terms of where there are the normal routes – friends and family; banks; private investors etc butthere are also new ways such as crowd sourcing websites and getting cash advances against your invoices to explore. Best of all, start a business where you get the money in from your consumers before you pay it out to your suppliers.

..... said:
Hello all, so why did we decide to sell shares to Coke. Firstly, we didn't 'sell out': they bought in. We needed funds to further the business so we sold some shares to Coke, but myself adam and Jon have kept full control of innocent and the businesses are entirely separate. The cash has allowed us to do more of things that innocent has always promised to do i.e. Get natural healthy drinks to more people and places, push forward on sustainable business practices and raise money for charity. I'd ask you all to judge us by the things we do as a company, and not who our investors are. At the end of the day, we are not Coke, we are innocent, a completely separate business. If you see us changing by all means give us hell but we have no plans to change our approach to business.

..... said:
our drinks cost what they cost due to the price of fruit and our refusal to cut corners. Trust me, charging an unfair price isn't our style. We know they're not cheap but getting the best fruit from all over the world isn't cheap either.

..... said:
what would be the best road to take, if u have designed something that could potentially be quite big but dont have the financial backing for a patent without running the risk of the idea being taken, thanks.
Patents are hard to get and over rated – there's more to lose by not moving ahead

..... said:
Do you undertake Market Research? If so, is it in-house?
Yes and yes. FB and Twitter are useful tools to do things quickly and cheaply but we don't think of them as market research channels, we just listen to the things people say on there.

..... said:
have you considered making alcoholic versions
Not our scene but they do go well with vodka...

..... said:
Richard - it has baffled me for quite some time now why the brand has not diversifed its product portfolio from smoothies, veg pots and orange juice. The brand is easily transferable that I was hoping by now that you would have had an Innocent Natural Yoghurt; Innocent Ice Cream? Anything like this on the horizon?
We're sticking to fruit and veg for the time being as it so good for people but we'd love to make a wider range of stuff in the future. Whilst we're been around for a little while we're still a young business and it's important for us to do the things we already do as well as we can before we launch new things.

..... said:
Do you think British manufacturing is making a come back and do you think people appreciate it when a product is actually made in the UK these days?
Buying local is good but the most important thing is quality not geography

..... said:
Did you ever think your product wasnt gonna take of well? And you surprised of how many people love it And What made you make it?
I assumed it would fail as everyone said it would but the emphasis on quality has meant it has worked.

..... said:
If you bottle one individual trait that has been fundamental in your personal success (however you measure success), what would that be?
Persistence

..... said:
At what point should you do a business full time when you have a family and kids?
When you want to and decide it is the right time.

..... said:
Can you suggest any alternative to capitalism?
Not that's better

..... said:
How do you still get away with classing smoothies as healthy when they contain the same amount of sugar as about as a large glass of coke?
Because they are nothing but fruit and the only sugar in them is the natural fruit sugar and if you don't think fruit is good for you then you are bonkers

(santa; off topic but I disagree with him here- got to be careful with sugar no matter what form)

..... said:
Given the threats from climate change, do you think growing fruit and veg in special skyscrapers could be viable alternative to current farming?
Nope

..... said:
What inspired you?
My friends Adam and Jon
(santa; thats the 2 other founders of the company)

..... said:
Richard Reed fan here in need of some business advice/help! I'm a young entrepreneur (18) about to launch my innovative online student recruitment business: Studeeze I was wondering if you could tell me if there are any specific characteristics you look for when investing in an entrepreneur? Also what is the right time for me to approach an investor with my online business? Thanks
Qualities: honesty, persistence, smarts and numeracy. Right time is when you have proven, even on a small scale, it works and when you have a plan showing what you would use the investment for and how it would transform the business

..... said:
Illustrator Just starting up my business in digital design this week but what is the one piece of advice you would give that will help start ups like me in a difficult and tough recession. (excluding determination, grit and plain old working hard as this comes as standard), thanks love the show BYOB!
Build a team and working processes so you can spend as much time as possible doing the things that really generate value – presumably in your business the designing and the selling to clients. Get to a position where you do only what only you can do.

..... said:
why are your smoothies so tasty? do you have any other smoothies in the making? X
It's all about just using the best quality fruit.

..... said:
I am the sole founder of my business, how can I make it as successful as yours when there is only one of me?
Build a team around you. The better the team, the better the business.

..... said:
What do you need to do to stand out as a new graduate?
Examples of you having taken the initiative beyond your studies when you were a student always help

..... said:
Richard please help! I need to know how to kickstart a business - it's not a brand new concept but let's say a more affordable alternative to what's already out there. I am struggling to get any definite bookings - lots of likes and interest. I have practically nil cashflow so marketing is not a major option although I am networking like crazy, have flyered and gone door to door. I just need a few bookings and then we'll be
Be systematic in your sales approach. Make sure you have the proposition right for the people you are approaching – is it the right price, the right format etc. Concentrate on one area. Make it personal – call them rather than email them. Are there any partnerships you can form with other businesses that service the same people but don't compete?

..... said:
What has been your favourite day so far? (and why)
This morning on the beach in Ibiza was pretty good

..... said:
Ickle Bockles Hi Richard - Opinion is divided on our Brand name - does it make you smile or make you cringe ? How important do you think the Brand name is?
In business everything is important but some things are more important than others. The name is significant, but the quality of the product/service, its price and how it is sold even more so.

..... said:
How much value you do you place on formal education (as opposed to real world experience)? Or are they both just as important?
If I could only have one I would take experience, but both is better, and smartness and honesty most important of all

..... said:
Richard! Hi! do you remember me? I'm part of the New Entrepreneurs Foundation, when we met, you remembered the name of each person in our group for the whole day, my question is, how are you so good at remembering names?
Hi Chris. You look the person in the eye, shake their hand and say 'Chris. Hi Chris. Nice to meet you Chris. And if you do that you in theory remember their name.

Any takeaways, reinforcements or favourites for anyone?

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