Keith Jaques is the donut man. He lives, breathes and works with donuts every day. The $750,000 business he manages, supplies fresh, hot donuts at events via vendors all across New Zealand. However, the vendors aren’t your average team members. The exciting part of the business is that Keith’s focus is on lifting up students to work through University by attending events to sell donuts and come out debt-free.
The business agency agreement with his hundreds of vendors is so that he can help students help themselves. Helping these students means a lot for Keith, past covering costs and a moderate income, his focus is giving people a chance to get educated and to stay away from poverty.
The Online Opportunity
When COVID hit, the business was unable to continue with selling at events, leaving the team without work. They had to figure out how to trade without leaving the workshop, and they needed to pivot fast.
To tackle this head-on, Keith joined the CLA and became a Flow Consultant. The business needed a promotion plan, and the mentorship. At the same time, Keith began assessing the numbers to fully understand where the company was at, and what government support was available for them. They were able to apply and received a grant, keeping them afloat.
In the CLA, the idea that Donut Express could sell pre-packaged donut materials online was floated. These pre-packaged materials would include instructions and all the materials they would need to cook safely at home.
Not only that, but they could also offer multiple products to the market. From pancake mixes to more specific items such as GF donut mixes, tapping into a wholly new market. To extend even further, mentor Sandra Morrell suggested they create an entirely new product of icing materials, including icers and training content for decorations knowing 100’s of families now had an abundance of time on their hands and cake breaks to fill.
Reaching a New Market
It hasn’t all been plain sailing for Keith’s team. To promote and sell their new offerings, Donut Express attended a New Zealand trade show, which recently went online. In total, they received over 4,000 visits to the online store and overall sold NZ$1000, but this was far below their initial goal of NZ$12,500.
However, what the trade event had done was create a time pressure goal for the team, forcing the business to pivot much quicker than they would have, leaving them ready to focus on acquiring new sales and growing this new online side of the company.
With this renewed goal, the team has begun focusing on completing the Promotion Plan Keith’s created within the CLA. Creating new offers such as Buy One Get One Free, and new product use ideas such as Pancake at Midnight. The team is also gearing up to sell directly to the market via Shopify store on Facebook, becoming visible online.
The Lessons of Promotions
Keith’s work with the CLA programme, also helped him to understand the need to build a team that supports the business and having a different leader for each promotion you create. During the initial lockdown period, Keith welcomed a new VA to the team, who is already positively impacting the team and enabling the online side of the business to flourish.
The essential lessons for Keith, he shares, during this time were to take stock of where you’re at, pivot to where you need to go moving forward and relaunch. His advice for other entrepreneurs: “Don’t put your feet on the accelerator until you’re moving in the right direction.”
Challenges Faced
-Unable to sell Donuts at events
-No alternative income solution
-Team structure lacked key roles
Solutions Found
-Joined CLA
-Applied for Government Support
-Attending online trade fair
-Business Ideas from direct Mentorship
Results Produced
-New line of online products ready to be sold in high quantities
-Achieved NZ$1000 in sales
-New VA team member, pulling together the new promotion plan
Keith's Contact
Website: https://www.donut.co.nz/
Genius U: https://www.geniusu.com/users/1025970
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-jaques-a8936285/
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