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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_02: Hello, this is Robert Smigler with Canada's podcast where we talk to the entrepreneurs who are making it happen here in British Columbia.
[00:12] SPEAKER_02: Today our guests are Ed and Natasha Tatum. They are the co-founders of Bread, a bee-certified,
[00:18] SPEAKER_02: vegin sourdough bakery located in the premier ski and mountain resort, bike resort of Wistner,
[00:26] SPEAKER_02: British Columbia, Canada. The bakery specializes in sourdough and vegin at baked goods.
[00:31] SPEAKER_02: Their new day-bue cookbook is also called Bread. It is a homage to the Tatum's bakery admission to inform and provide their community with cruelty-free food.
[00:43] SPEAKER_02: Natasha and Ed, welcome to Canada's podcast. I appreciate you both taking the time to share your entrepreneurial journeys with the rest of Canada.
[00:53] SPEAKER_00: Thank you Robert. It's so good to be here. We've been listening to this show for a long time.
[00:58] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's right. Let's start off. Just tell us a little bit more about yourself and your current business.
[01:05] SPEAKER_02: I know that you guys are from the beautiful country of England. Why don't you start from there?
[01:10] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so Natasha and I met 20 years ago. We worked together in a bar restaurant.
[01:18] SPEAKER_01: And we talked over travelling and things like that. We've both, Natasha was an English teacher. I was a chef.
[01:27] SPEAKER_01: So we were able to travel the world together, worked in Australia and New Zealand.
[01:30] SPEAKER_01: And then back in England, Natasha was teaching and doing some hospitality work.
[01:37] SPEAKER_01: And we had discussed opening a restaurant or something together, but I always sort of held back on that because I didn't want to ruin our relationship.
[01:46] SPEAKER_01: I knew what I was like in the kitchen and can be a bit heated sometimes.
[01:51] SPEAKER_01: But eventually in 2013, we moved to Whistler, the classic Whistler story of moving here for six months and then move on to Montreal.
[02:01] SPEAKER_01: And we're here 10 years later.
[02:04] SPEAKER_01: So yeah, eventually we started to open a bakery together, which seemed a little bit less stressful than a restaurant, but it still definitely has a lot of challenges.
[02:15] SPEAKER_02: Okay, so you've got this. How long you guys been in business for?
[02:18] SPEAKER_00: Five years.
[02:20] SPEAKER_02: Five years.
[02:21] SPEAKER_02: Okay.
[02:22] SPEAKER_02: And he's been growing.
[02:24] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we tested the market first. Ed kind of had a side hustle going while he was still working at a restaurant.
[02:31] SPEAKER_00: So that was in 2016, but then 2019 we opened the doors of our bakery for the first time.
[02:38] SPEAKER_01: It was very grassroots.
[02:40] SPEAKER_01: It was kind of minimal investment, I think $1,000 or something like that, just to pay for some baking tins and a little bit of extra equipment.
[02:49] SPEAKER_01: But yeah, just rented the kitchen.
[02:52] SPEAKER_01: I was a sous chef of a sort of farm stable restaurant here in Whistler approached them and said, you know, can I?
[02:58] SPEAKER_01: It's just a side hustle essentially to put towards you know, buying a truck and eventually are wedding.
[03:07] SPEAKER_01: And it grew from just making 30 loaves a week to about 150.
[03:12] SPEAKER_01: And like Natasha mentioned, it was a community focused word of mouth, very small grassroots business.
[03:18] SPEAKER_01: And it was the community that asked us to open a bakery.
[03:22] SPEAKER_02: Okay. Now you've got a book out now. Is that from some of the learnings and some of the things that you've, I guess, gotten over the recipes and so forth.
[03:31] SPEAKER_02: You've done it for the last few years and you've published it. Is that right?
[03:34] SPEAKER_00: Yes.
[03:35] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[03:35] SPEAKER_00: It's our life story through baking somebody said the other day and they're right.
[03:41] SPEAKER_00: It's got lots of old British classics, but then it's got some North American inspired foods and things that we've done at the bakery.
[03:49] SPEAKER_00: In fact, all of our recipes that we've done at the bakery and lots more that people haven't seen from us before as well.
[03:57] SPEAKER_02: Okay. Now you've both mentioned you worked and met in a restaurant.
[04:00] SPEAKER_02: What job experience has helped you most in both for both of you to adapt and change and grows on our to know what if you learn from those experiences that you could bring over time to put your ship.
[04:14] SPEAKER_01: I think for myself, I had a lot of experience as a chef and as a manager, but being an owner is totally different.
[04:23] SPEAKER_01: You kind of have to wear all the hats. You have to for us, we're working in there day and day out.
[04:29] SPEAKER_01: So we're working there as an employee essentially, but then we also have all the admin and everything else to do.
[04:35] SPEAKER_01: So personally, I've learned to manage, you know, everyone's expectations, the customers, the staff and sort of look, you know, every, every sort of angle basically.
[04:50] SPEAKER_02: Okay. Let's talk a little bit about your industry. I want you to give me a key piece of knowledge or information about your industry that you could share that the general public may not know about.
[05:02] SPEAKER_00: Could be true. Storing a bakery. Would you tell us the one fact that we discovered quite early on that's quite shocking is that the industry standard in cafes and bakeries for food waste is about 30%.
[05:16] SPEAKER_00: So it's considered good business sense to make 30% more than you need to sell each day and throw it away.
[05:24] SPEAKER_00: And you incorporate that food waste into your costs. However, we are environmentalists and we hate the fact that it's considered normal and acceptable to throw 30% of your food away when about 30% of the world are food insecure.
[05:43] SPEAKER_00: So that's something about our industry that a lot of people don't know and we see other establishments get rave reviews because people go there in the evening at five, six o'clock when they're about to close and they say, oh, it was so great.
[05:57] SPEAKER_00: I had such a great selection. But what you need to be thinking if it's a bakery is okay. So what are they going to do with that food? Are they going to sell it the next day, day old? Are they going to price it down because it's not freshly baked now?
[06:10] SPEAKER_00: Or are they going to throw it away? And if they're throwing it away, are you comfortable with that? And for us, we are striving to change this and we're very much focused on being zero food waste in our bakery.
[06:23] SPEAKER_00: And so if you come to us just before you're about to close, hopefully we've sold out of everything by then. And most of our customers know that and have learnt to come in the morning or order online.
[06:33] SPEAKER_00: We have an online ordering system so people can order and pick up in the afternoon. So we're not sold out of whatever they want.
[06:40] SPEAKER_00: And it's changing those habits of people, the convenience culture and educating them on why we sell out every day.
[06:48] SPEAKER_00: So that's something about our industry that most people wouldn't know.
[06:52] SPEAKER_02: Okay. What advice would you get to someone starting out as an entrepreneur? Knowing what you know now you've kind of been doing this for a while.
[06:59] SPEAKER_02: And if you were to sit down and have a cup of coffee with someone who said, I want to start my own business, but none of that would be.
[07:05] SPEAKER_02: What are some key things that you might bring up and say, hey, do you hear some things to look out for or some areas, strength areas or what would you pass on to them?
[07:15] SPEAKER_01: We were I think fortunate in the fact that we, we had a lot of investment ourselves. We sold our house in the UK.
[07:23] SPEAKER_01: We 100% believed in what we were doing. We're a vegan company. So we're very mission driven.
[07:28] SPEAKER_01: So first of all, we really believed in it, but we weren't naive just because we believe in it. You need to do your market research.
[07:34] SPEAKER_01: And because we needed to borrow some extra financials, we went to a community base lender and had to write, you know, a quite extensive business plan.
[07:46] SPEAKER_01: And in that business plan, you have to look at your competitors. So I think it's looking at the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.
[07:54] SPEAKER_01: You know, looking at is there a gap in the market there? When are they busy? When are they open throughout the year?
[08:00] SPEAKER_01: So I think it's really important to do your research and make sure, you know, there's a gap in the market.
[08:06] SPEAKER_01: But firstly, I think make sure you're personally invested in it because it's not easy going into business and being an entrepreneur.
[08:14] SPEAKER_01: So if you're not passionate about what you're going to do, it probably won't last because, you know, you need that drive to sort of put in the extra hours every day.
[08:25] SPEAKER_02: Okay, let's talk a little bit about the location where you are being in British Columbia, in particular, with sort of a beautiful place to live.
[08:34] SPEAKER_02: What is the long-term vision of your company? You've got this book. You've got this is Custal Bakery. Do you see your company expanding into other areas in DC or Canada? Or do you just want to stay in this work?
[08:45] SPEAKER_00: We do love Whistler. The community here have always supported us and we have great relationships with our local clientele.
[08:53] SPEAKER_00: And that extends even to Vancouver. We have a lot of semi-locals that come up at the weekends. They have holiday homes. Even down to Washington and Seattle, we have a lot of, like, you know, familiar faces that come up throughout the year.
[09:07] SPEAKER_00: So we love having that community. I feel like franchising or having a chain company doesn't really work for us because there's so much craft involved.
[09:19] SPEAKER_00: It's difficult to roll out lots of these types of concepts of what we've created. It's quite special and more of a destination bakery, I would say, to come and see Ed and Natasha working in their bakery.
[09:33] SPEAKER_00: We can't be everywhere all the time. So for us, the book that we've written is more of continuing our legacy and putting it out there.
[09:42] SPEAKER_00: So other people can be inspired to bake our recipes at home or to even open up their own bakeries wherever they are in the country or even internationally because the book is available worldwide.
[09:55] SPEAKER_00: So we just want to share it with everybody and encourage everybody to bake more plant-based.
[10:02] SPEAKER_02: Okay. Now, I want to talk about doing business and opening up a business in BC. I want you to give me some of the benefits throughout Starrion Company in British Columbia, particularly with Slur.
[10:12] SPEAKER_02: But also some of the challenges that you guys have had overcome over the years and what were some of the things that you did that kind of broke through and were able to achieve success.
[10:23] SPEAKER_01: I think one of the benefits to having a business in BC and specifically sort of vegan plant-based business is proven.
[10:32] SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of people that are interested in that sort of diet here in British Columbia. It's very much like California. We're on the West Coast.
[10:40] SPEAKER_01: People are definitely open-minded about that sort of thing. Healthy living. We all know sort of reducing the amount of animal products that we have in our diet is only a good thing for our health.
[10:52] SPEAKER_01: For the environment and for the animals. So I feel like first of all that is a great place to be for that.
[10:58] SPEAKER_01: Just because our clientele is going to be on the same sort of wavelength as us.
[11:06] SPEAKER_01: But again, it does come with challenges. We hit year one and the pandemic hit. So we've had those challenges as a small new business that we managed to overcome.
[11:17] SPEAKER_01: And like Natasha mentioned earlier, we had the website.
[11:21] SPEAKER_00: But BC specifically has one of the highest rates of so costs of living.
[11:28] SPEAKER_00: And what we'll see here is that the minimum wage and the living wage are higher here than in other provinces.
[11:34] SPEAKER_00: And we have to therefore price our products, especially in a ski resort like Whistler.
[11:39] SPEAKER_00: There isn't a whole lot of land available for building housing or for commercial retail.
[11:46] SPEAKER_00: So the actual rents here are very expensive to live and to run your business in.
[11:54] SPEAKER_00: And therefore you have to be very competitive with what you offer your staff. You have to have good benefits in place.
[12:01] SPEAKER_00: You can't expect people to come to Whistler and earn the minimum wage, which at the moment is around $16, $17.
[12:09] SPEAKER_00: You have in Whistler our minimum wage is set basically by Whistler Blackcomb ski resort, which is at the moment $20.
[12:17] SPEAKER_00: And that's seen as the minimum. So when you look at a minimum wage, it doesn't matter what the rest of BC is doing.
[12:23] SPEAKER_00: It's what are they doing in Whistler? It's higher than in other places.
[12:27] SPEAKER_00: And that's quite a challenge because as a small business, you know, labor cost is huge in a food and beverage business as well.
[12:36] SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes you have to charge the customer more. And at the same time, food and beverage operators, they don't feel comfortable asking people to pay more, especially something like bread that's such a staple of the Canadian diet.
[12:51] SPEAKER_00: It doesn't seem like it should be something that's expensive. It should be accessible to people.
[12:57] SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of challenges there with pricing your products correctly. So as not to upset the customers, make it affordable for them whilst also making living here affordable for your staff.
[13:08] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. And it gets a lot of immigration. A lot of people come from other countries of start businesses, much like you guys have done knowing what you know now.
[13:16] SPEAKER_02: What would you do differently as if you were to say, move from England, you landed here today?
[13:22] SPEAKER_02: What were some of the things that you've learned that you could say, you know what, we would do this differently or we would do it the way it is and not change a thing.
[13:30] SPEAKER_02: So anything that you might adjust in the last few years that you could pass on to other entrepreneurs looking to come to Canada.
[13:36] SPEAKER_00: I personally wish that I'd read the book Profit First. That's been very instrumental.
[13:43] SPEAKER_00: We have a cash flow system in our business called Profit First that you can read about, look into.
[13:49] SPEAKER_00: And it's been very helpful for us managing our finances and making sure we're profitable and successful.
[13:55] SPEAKER_00: And during the pandemic, we did go into the red and that was when I really started to delve into this other Profit First strategy.
[14:04] SPEAKER_00: And actually, it's accelerated our growth massively from getting out of the red into the black and being able to offer those competitive benefits that I was talking about adding in like the pension plans and extended medical benefits, wellness benefits and retention bonuses and things like that.
[14:22] SPEAKER_00: So I wish that I had learned and employed that strategy from the beginning.
[14:27] SPEAKER_02: Where do you see the business implied here? Do you want to franchise it out? Do you just want to kind of just focus where you are doing to write more books? Where do you see that more profit or extension going?
[14:38] SPEAKER_01: I think for us, we're going to just see where the book goes. What doors that opens and just be open to change and adapting the business.
[14:49] SPEAKER_01: We've definitely focused on staying in Whistler for the next few years, at least we have another three years of our lease.
[14:54] SPEAKER_01: So we'd like to see where that goes. Potentially we could move to Vancouver or stay where we are and write a second book.
[15:03] SPEAKER_01: But we definitely open to we don't want to plan too far in the future because things sometimes can be out of your control and you just have to write the wave a little bit.
[15:14] SPEAKER_02: Okay, let's talk a bit about routines and entrepreneurs need to be physically mentally up to up to speed with everything and we're just out of the play for you.
[15:25] SPEAKER_02: How seriously do you take your health and you're worked by balance and not working in your and Whistler obviously are in a lifestyle resort town, but I imagine you work a lot, but how do you balance work and how do you balance being you enjoy life?
[15:42] SPEAKER_01: That's a tricky question with Brian, a cookbook and right and you know, yeah, you got to like the whole work life balance is nonexistent.
[15:51] SPEAKER_01: But like I said earlier, you have to enjoy what you do because otherwise you would feel burns out, you know, for example, today we're sort of talking to you on supposedly a day off, but it's promotion.
[16:03] SPEAKER_01: It's bringing people to our business and investing in not just our business but ourselves, but I think having a daily routine is really important.
[16:12] SPEAKER_01: So either that's going for a run or going to the gym, you know, doing yoga, looking after yourself, your body mentally and physically because otherwise you would you would burn out and so it's trying to find that balance whenever you can and take those opportunities.
[16:30] SPEAKER_02: Okay, any online tools or offline tools, you have to use anything I mean in your company that has helped you greatly as far as could be online tools, Google Docs, could be.
[16:42] SPEAKER_02: Anything that has helped the night add anything that you use on a daily basis that you can recommend to other entrepreneurs who are in your shoes.
[16:51] SPEAKER_00: And we have quite a few different applications like we have, you know, the standard bookkeeping quick books and then we have other apps that integrate into that we use.
[17:01] SPEAKER_00: Body Poundage is an app for blocking in and out and it just makes payroll so much more efficient when the staff have control of that of that that's really helpful for us.
[17:13] SPEAKER_00: When we first started we didn't have that app and it was quite time consuming oh god I've got to do payroll now payrolls like a two minute process for me is so much more efficient and I mentioned the profit first strategy as well.
[17:27] SPEAKER_00: So I have a spreadsheet and lots of different bank accounts that are for different purposes.
[17:34] SPEAKER_00: So one of our bank accounts is the income and then from the income account all the revenue gets deposited in there and then twice a month we redistribute it into other accounts that are sort of different buckets for different things.
[17:46] SPEAKER_00: For example, because we're B-Corp certified we donate 1% of our revenue to animal and environmental causes so twice a month we take out 1% of our revenue and it goes into that account and then we have a certain percentage that we put into our payroll account into our owner's pay account and another account for older taxes.
[18:08] SPEAKER_00: And so having those accounts helps us manage our cash flow that's what I mentioned earlier has been one of the most useful tools for us and it helps us just cock into our bank account and see exactly where we are on a day to day basis with our finances and a lot of other small business owners I know they get so busy with their business they sort of leave their books to the end of the month and they don't really know where they're at with their money.
[18:34] SPEAKER_00: So that's been really important to us.
[18:36] SPEAKER_02: So it sounds like accounting you got that down and it's a very important part of the business obviously but would you say that consumes 20% of your time in the business?
[18:46] SPEAKER_00: Not anymore. Much less much less. I mean you know twice a month I can go in and reallocate everything and then meetings monthly or quarterly depending on what we've got going on with our accountant to review it.
[19:01] SPEAKER_00: So if we want to adjust our percentages it just keeps everything ticking over and it's really important in a seasonal business like whistle we have a huge highs Christmas through to Easter most of the businesses here take most of their revenue in that six months and in the rest of the year, especially in the fall and spring are much much lower maybe even making a loss sometimes.
[19:27] SPEAKER_00: So you need to prepare for that you need to have what we call a smoothing account to have sort of funds that you've saved up in the good times to get you through the bad times.
[19:39] SPEAKER_01: But it's interesting you say 20% I feel like you could end up using 20% and we didn't know we had a bad bookkeeper and we had a bad bookkeeper and we thought we were saving money.
[19:50] SPEAKER_01: But now our new bookkeeper accountant company is five times more expensive than what we were originally paying for but they've enabled us to make more money and be cash positive.
[20:06] SPEAKER_01: So it's an investment in that we it's better for us to use our time in the skills that we have running the bakery and let the accountants and the bookkeeper they're specialists within this you know they're filled.
[20:19] SPEAKER_01: So I feel like it's it seems like a lot of money at first but it's a real investment in our business and definitely worth that extra money.
[20:27] SPEAKER_02: It sounds like you yeah you guys have adopted a philosophy of working on your business not in your business in a lot of ways.
[20:34] SPEAKER_01: Yeah in a lot of ways totally I mean there's still a lot of skill set within the tasha is definitely the the front of house manager I'm definitely the head baker.
[20:43] SPEAKER_01: But I think outside of those roles we definitely sort of ask the people that can help us.
[20:51] SPEAKER_02: Yeah and a pdf should money for like you said for the accounting and it is for itself in the one room.
[20:58] SPEAKER_02: Yeah exactly.
[20:58] SPEAKER_00: But you know Robert when we opened that we had a lot of naysayers telling us that we weren't going to make it.
[21:04] SPEAKER_00: We went into creekside the original village in Whistler and it was a bit of a ghost town it hadn't really been occupied for the last 10 years.
[21:12] SPEAKER_00: There were lots of empty units but we took a chance on it because we saw that we had a community following that we're already invested in what we were doing.
[21:20] SPEAKER_00: And we felt that we could bring people to this once lonely trail bring them back which we have done.
[21:26] SPEAKER_00: But in the first year we had a lot of people telling us nothing works in creekside and then you know at the same point you always hear food and beverage operators don't last more than three years and so much negativity and the only way that you can really get through all that is to have a good handle on your finances.
[21:45] SPEAKER_00: And that's why it's really important for us.
[21:47] SPEAKER_02: So we want to get to know both of you a little bit better so we can have some questions that are a little bit on the fun side.
[21:54] SPEAKER_02: If you weren't doing what you do now what would you like to do for a profession?
[22:00] SPEAKER_01: I mean I love photography like I really enjoy the social media part of our business because I'm the one making the stuff.
[22:08] SPEAKER_01: So I have really enjoyed taking photos and now it's sort of moving more towards video content something maybe in that field something definitely still within food because I've done it since I was 13.
[22:20] SPEAKER_01: But yeah food photography or video or something like that something definitely creative.
[22:26] SPEAKER_01: Natasha?
[22:28] SPEAKER_00: I'm quite interested in writing I have a background as an English teacher I'm really grateful I had that career.
[22:34] SPEAKER_00: It gave me a lot of transferable skills into running a business but maybe as I get more to like retirement age in the future I'd like to take up more creative writing.
[22:47] SPEAKER_00: One thing I would like a concept I've had floating around is writing a children's book called Oh no what's wrong with the sourdough.
[22:56] SPEAKER_00: Because there's so many little things that can go wrong when you're making or baking and baking bread especially that I thought would be fun to have a children's book.
[23:05] SPEAKER_00: And I've had some other ideas for more adult books and nonfiction books that I might like to write but right now I'm really focused on this book that we've written together our recipe book.
[23:16] SPEAKER_00: And pushing out business forward as well.
[23:20] SPEAKER_02: What two words would you use to describe yourself and why?
[23:27] SPEAKER_02: I'm going to go first or so I get your finger first.
[23:30] SPEAKER_01: I'll say I'm pretty resilient.
[23:32] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[23:32] SPEAKER_01: And hard working.
[23:35] SPEAKER_01: Okay Natasha?
[23:37] SPEAKER_00: He took my word I was going to say resilient and tough.
[23:41] SPEAKER_02: Okay.
[23:43] SPEAKER_02: So that's the thing.
[23:45] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[23:46] SPEAKER_00: You do.
[23:47] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[23:48] SPEAKER_02: Characteristics of entrepreneurs is definitely being able to be resilient, persistent and go through the dark times of challenges and stuff.
[24:00] SPEAKER_02: Okay.
[24:01] SPEAKER_02: And you think you've been you guys up at night.
[24:03] SPEAKER_02: Anything.
[24:03] SPEAKER_00: I'm not.
[24:06] SPEAKER_00: The sourdough.
[24:07] SPEAKER_00: The tension.
[24:09] SPEAKER_00: That changes a lot throughout the year.
[24:12] SPEAKER_00: You know, when you're hiring new staff, you know, are they going to show up for work the next day and.
[24:17] SPEAKER_00: We've had a bunch of like.
[24:20] SPEAKER_00: There was a neighboring business that had a fire recently and you know, we came to work as a security guard outside and all sorts of crazy things can keep us up all night.
[24:29] SPEAKER_00: But you just have to make sure you work really hard so you have a good night's sleep.
[24:34] SPEAKER_02: Okay.
[24:35] SPEAKER_02: Is there any advice that you have received either from a mentor or other entrepreneurs along your journey that you can pass on time to bring us to account?
[24:43] SPEAKER_02: I told you something like when you started business here's a key nugget of advice that I would recommend or anything like that.
[24:51] SPEAKER_02: The mentor.
[24:52] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was a don't work hard work smart.
[24:55] SPEAKER_00: We were told.
[24:56] SPEAKER_01: I think it's also important to listen to your customers and listen what they want because if they feel heard and you implement one of their ideas.
[25:06] SPEAKER_01: For example, one of our cut we we do an olive for capture and they said we love these olives.
[25:10] SPEAKER_01: Can you do them on the side like is a daily item so we introduced more daily items to the business.
[25:17] SPEAKER_01: And when they come in and now they can buy them you can buy you know flour from us less packaging and we can do it at a cheaper cost as well.
[25:25] SPEAKER_01: Then they feel heard and they they're more even more invested into your business.
[25:30] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so would you say that 80% of your customers will return 20% new?
[25:36] SPEAKER_00: It depends on the time of year.
[25:38] SPEAKER_00: I mean in the the time we're in now which is autumn.
[25:41] SPEAKER_00: Most of our customers are local.
[25:44] SPEAKER_00: We know all of their names.
[25:45] SPEAKER_00: We know their families.
[25:46] SPEAKER_00: We know where they work.
[25:48] SPEAKER_00: We have really strong relationships with our customers that are local.
[25:51] SPEAKER_00: But obviously we're in a ski resort.
[25:54] SPEAKER_00: So when it gets to January February March we're getting people from all over the world coming through.
[25:59] SPEAKER_00: So overall yes most of our customers are returning customers but a lot of the time they're just here as a destination visit in Whistler.
[26:09] SPEAKER_00: The great thing is that they will tend to come and tell us they followed us on Instagram for a few years.
[26:16] SPEAKER_00: And you know they've perhaps chosen Whistler for their ski holiday because they knew that there was this bakery there that they wanted to visit as well.
[26:25] SPEAKER_00: So we might not always see them as customers but we'll have them as an engaged follower.
[26:30] SPEAKER_00: And that's quite valuable as well because then they'll tell other people to come here on vacation and visit this bakery.
[26:38] SPEAKER_00: So we definitely haven't very engaged following an audience.
[26:42] SPEAKER_02: Has anyone come into your bakery that was from a country you would never expect or somewhere from very far away country that that heard about you?
[26:54] SPEAKER_00: We have I mean we get people in all the time from like Scandinavia.
[26:59] SPEAKER_00: We've had somebody in from Jamaica.
[27:02] SPEAKER_00: That was interesting because you don't really think that people in Jamaica are going to come to the ski resort very often.
[27:09] SPEAKER_00: So that's cool.
[27:10] SPEAKER_01: We have a one customer lady.
[27:12] SPEAKER_01: We get quite a few people from Hong Kong but she actually bought it in a suitcase.
[27:17] SPEAKER_01: Like a check-in small suitcase and bought eight loaves of bread was flying out that afternoon to take these eight loaves back to Hong Kong to give to friends which I thought was kind of cool.
[27:27] SPEAKER_01: But she was yeah.
[27:28] SPEAKER_01: It really had this suitcase just to fill with loaves of bread.
[27:32] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, two bedrooms can get into the international.
[27:35] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well that's kind of our USP is that you're when you buy a loaf of bread it's still worn from the other.
[27:41] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
[27:42] SPEAKER_01: We don't bake through the night you know when you get fresh bread sometimes it's so warm we have to tell people to wait 20 minutes to cut it.
[27:50] SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
[27:51] SPEAKER_01: You don't always think they're going to listen to but at least if you saw giving them that advice.
[27:57] SPEAKER_01: So it wouldn't really work and we try not to you know we're plastic free with our packaging but.
[28:02] SPEAKER_01: We did have a gentleman asked he messaged me through Instagram and asked if he could.
[28:06] SPEAKER_01: If I could send him a dozen cinema buns to Miami.
[28:11] SPEAKER_01: But he said I sort of said that it wasn't possible but he'd make a trip back at some point.
[28:16] SPEAKER_00: I just thought we had a lady in last week who was very very excited to tell us that she was from Iran and her brother.
[28:25] SPEAKER_00: We've been following us and told her what she's in Vancouver or something she had to go to whistle and visit our bakery.
[28:31] SPEAKER_00: And she really wanted to tell us this and she took loads of photos to show him so.
[28:36] SPEAKER_00: Iran is probably the most unusual one.
[28:39] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then okay we're going to wrap things up.
[28:42] SPEAKER_02: How can a person get whole of you?
[28:44] SPEAKER_02: Is there anything you'd like to add before you leave us today?
[28:47] SPEAKER_00: Thank you for asking Robert so we do have a website it's bread.com that's EDSBRED.com and on there you can find our social links to our Instagram it's underscore bread and more information about our sourdough and vegan baking cookbook that's released to November 7th.
[29:08] SPEAKER_00: So there's lots of information on there all about us and what we do that's the website is probably the best place.
[29:14] SPEAKER_02: Any advice, lasting advice for any entrepreneurs out there?
[29:18] SPEAKER_02: Motivation, something to say, hope, keep going.
[29:23] SPEAKER_01: I think we need more, more, you know, small entrepreneurs like make building like small businesses especially within BC and not let these huge corporate giants take over for us.
[29:35] SPEAKER_01: It's, you know, a childhood dream really for me to have a small business like high streets in England to die now unfortunately.
[29:43] SPEAKER_01: So I feel like there are more new entrepreneurs if you've got an idea, you know, don't have any regrets.
[29:50] SPEAKER_01: Give it a go, you know, at least research it and see what the possibilities could be.
[29:56] SPEAKER_02: So it's like you guys did your homework which was probably, but you know, gave you your longevity.
[30:02] SPEAKER_02: Would you say that?
[30:04] SPEAKER_01: Totally.
[30:04] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think and if you do your homework and you have to go a slightly different way, then maybe it'll direct you into a more positive direction.
[30:15] SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
[30:16] SPEAKER_02: Okay, Natasha and we're going to wrap things up.
[30:18] SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much for coming on the show today. We appreciate your time and we'll see you again next time.
[30:25] SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much, Robert.
[30:26] SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
