INTERVIEW WITH NESSA MCMANUS OF “SPICED WITH LOVE” – PART 1
I met Nessa a couple of months ago and was very interested in her story. I wanted to look beyond the accounts and see the full picture. What comes through is somebody, full of spirit and a doer. She decided where she was going and followed all the best practice guidelines in her approach. Watch this spice, oops! sorry space………
What made your decision to get into the food sector, was it a deliberate brainstorm or something you just got into?
How did I get into this? Well I fell into it literally. I had lost my job a couple of years and found it very difficult to get a job. I had some friends around for dinner one evening and served them 3 different Asian inspired dishes. One of my guests made a throwaway comment “How I wish I could serve this up” and the idea was born.
How did you plan it out?
It started out as an idea to do cooking classes, then I was cooking in others houses. My son in Australia told me about these spice kits that had become very popular there and sent me some. I experimented and decided that was the way to go. I went to Australia and Sri Lanka and experimented and perfected 3 recipes to move forward with.
Who did you go to, to develop the idea or product?
I applied for the Food Academy so that I would have the opportunity to learn more about the Food and Retail sector. That process took 9 months. I applied in February 2016, started in June, pitched in September and got into shops end January 2017. I got a lot of help in the form of grants and mentoring from the Offaly LEO. I met a lot of new people involved in the Food business and got their advice. I then did a course, “New Frontiers”, which helped me enormously as one of the facilitators was a mentor who had a food business and it was great lean training. I did my market research at markets over a 3 month period to ensure products were customer friendly and adjusted accordingly. I stood outside SuperValu and interviewed people, posted questionnaires on blogs, facebook and other sites.
