When Duncan McGregor launched Planet Doughnut in Shrewsbury in May little did he know that within months it would become the ‘go to’ place in Shrewsbury’s thriving foodie scene as people flock to sample their home-made handcrafted, yeast-raised, donuts.
Duncan says, “I’ve always been an entrepreneur and dabbled in side projects whilst working full time. My dream has always been to be my own boss and when my wife started making doughnuts to make a few pounds while she was on maternity leave I saw an opportunity which I thought could put my entrepreneurial and creative skills to the test.
“We handcraft our own yeast raised doughnuts from home, hand decorate them and sell them via our new shop and stock other cafes around Shropshire.”
One of the biggest challenges was actually juggling the start up process; Duncan was trying to market the doughnuts, ensure supply met demand and plan ahead for growth. He attended a free StartUp Workshop run by Shropshire based Good2Great, which is funded by the Marches Growth Hub. During the workshop, planning, marketing and, most importantly for any new business, time management and prioritising were worked through.
“Now I have opened, the challenges seem to be about planning ahead to deal with the busy times. The advice given by Good2Great’s Deborah Isis helped me plan my priorities and signposted me to help and advice that I didn’t even know about. Deborah was really motivational and an excellent soundboard for my ideas and plans.”
Duncan was thrilled with the reaction when Planet Doughnut actually launched, “The first day we opened our shop, the queues where down the street and the feedback was amazing. It was a really emotional day to be honest.”
Duncan’s future plans are suitably ambitious – he’s looking to grow an offer to corporate clients with the ‘Diddy Doughnut’, “These have gone down so well – they are the perfect ‘bite sized’ doughnut which can be branded with logos and company livery. We’re also about to launch a new doughnut subscription service where you can get doughnuts delivered straight to your home or office and pay for them on monthly Direct Debit….with new flavours every month its sure to go down well with busy offices all over Shropshire.”
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