Cornelia MacWilliam, Little Birdie Coffee, Alyth
Find out how Birdie Coffee grew out of a need for quality coffee to enjoy in Scotland.
Getting Started
Cornelia MacWilliam came to her entrepreneurial journey with a background in food production and starting a business had always been a dream. She had been fortunate enough to travel to Papua New Guinea, where there was access to a lot of amazing coffee beans which were perfect for roasting on the stovetop. She was fascinated by the process. Coffee of that quality is not easily available in Scotland, so Little Birdie Coffee was born.
Cornelia sources the best coffee from around the world and hand roasts them in small batches, paying close attention to all aspects of the roasting process, highlighting the uniqueness of each bean, and thereby ensuring the highest quality and flavour. In addition, Little Birdie Coffee has a range of fine loose leaf teas and luxury hot chocolate flakes.
The Enterprise journey
Cornelia’s journey started two years ago with having the idea to start a coffee roasting business to selling her first pack of coffee. In those initial months that she set up the business, she worked on her product range, branding, packaging, website, social media and most importantly, perfected the art of commercial coffee roasting.
In July 2022 Little Birdie Coffee sold its first bag of coffee and now has a range of 8 freshly roasted coffees (4 Single Origin coffees and 4 Signature Blends), a selection of 8 fine loose leaf teas and 7 different flavours of luxury hot chocolate flakes. The products are available through a range of local delis and farm shops, the website www.birdie.coffee and the business is also a regular stall holder at the Forfar Farmers’ Market.
In terms of help along the way Cornelia comments ‘Very early on I contacted both Growbiz and Business Gateway for business advice and both these organisations have been essential in getting me set up. They gave me advice on a wide range of issues like what type of company I should set up, VAT registration, insurance requirements, registration and legislation for running a food production business and trading standards for food labelling. Growbiz also helped me to secure grant funding from Perth and Kinross Council.
I am also very fortunate to have a group of fantastic retail customers who promote my products in their stores.’
Cornelia also mentions that her biggest mistake so far was not having the courage to start her business sooner. However in terms of her biggest achievement
.I am so proud of where Little Birdie Coffee has come in such a short time. I always strive to give my customers the best quality products that I possibly can, and it always brings me great joy when a customer makes a repeat purchase – they have tried my product and they love it!’
At GrowBiz we’ve been asking how the cost of living is affecting businesses and at Little Birdie Coffee it is the rise in energy costs and inflation has certainly had an impact on the business. The input costs like electricity, packaging, raw products and delivery charges are continuously increasing. At the same time Cornelia is trying to keep the prices to her customers constant.
Support
Q. How do you feel about the support you've had from GrowBiz?
Growbiz has been absolutely amazing. It is incredible that a small business like mine has access to top-class business advice for free, it is something I would never have been able to afford. In October 2020 I contacted Dan Grandfield at Growbiz who talked me through how to set up a new business and he also helped me to apply for a Microfund Grant with Perth and Kinross Council.
In the last couple of months Alison Finlay’s advice has been invaluable. She’s given me advice on how to tweak my website and paperwork to look more professional and how to approach new customers. Her help has given me a great boost of confidence.
Q. How has the pandemic/cost of living crisis affected your business / family / well-being?
Covid has had a major effect on my family, with the period of home schooling and stay at home being particularly challenging. As for my business, high inflation and increased energy costs is a concern, especially when trying to keep the price to the customer constant.
Q. What, if any, net zero goals are you working towards and how are you achieving that?
I would really like to change my coffee packaging to being recyclable or biodegradable. However, buying packaging of that kind in small quantities is not economically viable. I am hoping to change that as my business grows.
Q. What other support do you feel you need at this time?
I am still getting advice from Alison on sales and marketing.
I need to purchase a bigger coffee roaster soon, so it will be good to know if there are any upcoming grants for equipment like that.
Looking to the future
Cornelia remains focused on plans for the future and with the business continuously growing this year Little Birdie Coffee hopes to secure more retail outlets and expand its online sales.
She is also looking to recruit a small team to assit with production capacity as at the moment she is in the planning phase of expanding the roastery’s capacity.
We also asked about the hardest aspect of running a business and Cornelia told us,
‘Time management and prioritising tasks. There are so many aspects of running a small business on your own. With my business, apart from roasting and packaging my products, there are planning, bookkeeping, communication with customers, social media, deliveries and attending markets, to name a few. I always prioritise production and fulfilling customer orders, but fitting all the other tasks in can sometimes be tricky.’
Lastly, we asked Cornelia if she has any advice to wannabe entrepreneurs?
Start. Do your planning and if your idea makes financial sense and you have the passion to make it work, do it. Everything does not have to be absolutely perfect from day one, but nothing will happen unless you make a start.
You can see the full range of coffees and teas from Little Birdie Coffee here.
To find out how GrowBiz can support your business please contact us here or sign up to one of our events.