Introducing a new Katie & Jane creation; the vegetarian food truck… Not Dogs!

We’re very excited to tell you that, for the past six months, we have been working quietly in the background on a very exciting new project, backed & supported by the vegetarian food brand Quorn.

Not Dogs was created by us; one meat-eater and one vegetarian, both with a love of quick, scrumptious & simple food. While at festivals, gigs and outdoor events we struggled to find mouth-watering veggie food and trustworthy meaty meals that satisfied that 'fast food' need after a long day so we decided to create our own festival food truck Not Dogs!

Our hot dogs pack a mighty punch exclusively made with the UK’s first meat free Bratwurst crammed with tasty, fresh and original toppings. We like to call them meaty dogs without the meat!

The aim of Not Dogs is to provide food lovers, both carnivores and veggies, with a delicious, fun and quality menu to excite and amaze the taste buds. Choose from Plain Jane, Kickin' Katie Nacho Dog (see what we did there!), The Original Frank, Hello Houmous and newcomer Top o' the Mornin' Dog.

We’ll be kicking off  with a mini-launch this weekend, at Middleton Food & Craft Market, before we embark on a summer tour of (hopefully sunny!) UK festivals including Godiva Festival in Coventry, Lovebox in London, Wakestock in Wales, Boardmasters in Newquay and Festival No 6 in the beautiful setting of Portmeirion in Wales.

To find out more about Not Dogs head to www.notdogs.co.uk and join us for festival fun over on Twitter and Instagram.

We hope to see you in a sunny or muddy field soon!

Katie x

Carrie Green: Founder of the Female Entrepreneur Association talks to us about empowering women, building an online business & a few of her favourite things...

We first came across the Female Entrepreneur Association back in 2012 when we launched Katie & Jane. Since then, its founder Carrie Green has inspired us daily with her online support hub set up for female entrepreneurs all over the world. Here Carrie talks to us about her inspiration, goals, motivation and of course a few of her favourite things...

#1 What was the a-ha moment that inspired you to create your own business?

My first ever a-ha moment was back when I was 19… I’d run out of money while studying at university and found an opportunity to start my own online business and very quickly realised how unbelievably powerful the internet is. That was the moment that I knew I never wanted a job, because I could achieve so much success for myself online.

A few years later I did have another a-ha moment – that building a business really isn’t all about the money. You have to have a lot of passion and love for what you do, otherwise it becomes incredibly difficult. I fell out of love with my first business and went soul searching and realised that I wanted to build a business that really meant something to me and made a difference, which is when I came up with the idea for the Female Entrepreneur Association.

#2 Why did you choose the name ‘Female Entrepreneur Association’?

Because it sounded official and because it had my primary keywords in ‘female’ ‘entrepreneur’, so I knew it would rank well on Google.

#3 What was the ethos behind the Female Entrepreneur Association?

My vision was to create an onlinehub to inspire and empower women from around the world to turn their ideas into a reality and build successful businesses.

So many people are too afraid to follow their heart and their dreams, because they think they’re not good enough, or because they think they’ll fail, or because someone told them they couldn’t do it. But we only have one life in which to achieve all the things we want to achieve, so I want to help as many people as possible to make it happen. I want to inspire and empower people to believe in themselves and be amazing.

#4 What has been your biggest challenge to date? And how did you overcome it? 
Raising awareness of FEA. I started off with a network of zero, I was publishing stories and no one was reading them – it was frustrating and disheartening, but I just kept going. I set myself some goals – one of them was that I wanted to get 25,000 fans on Facebook. I had no idea how I was going to do it, but I took a screenshot of my fan page and I changed the number of fans I had, using Photoshop, to 25,000 so I could see what my page would look like when I’d reached my goal. I printed it out and put it in my goal box and then kept working hard on making it happen. When it happened it was an amazing moment.

The biggest lessons I learned about raising awareness, building your audience and getting traffic are:

• You have to go above and beyond to create amazing content – it’s all about adding value, what compelling reasons are you giving to people to make them want to engage with your business over and over again.
• You have to get really clear on who your target audience are and make sure that everything you do resonates and connects with them – the language you use, the images you use, the products and services you create. 
• You have to know exactly what you’re trying to achieve – when you don’t know, the messages you send out are blurry and confusing for people. You’ll waste time and you won’t make the progress you want to make. At the beginning of each month, week and day it’s important to get clear on what your intentions are and focus on reaching them.
• You have to take the time to learn as much as you can and then keep trying and trying. I’ve managed to build FEA into a network of over 140,000 women because I’ve been consistent, even when nothing seemed to be working, even when I’d had enough, I kept going, because I trusted that somehow I’d make it happen.

#5 What’s the business skill you’ve had to work hardest on improving since becoming an entrepreneur?

Technology. All of my businesses have been online and so the skill I’ve had to work hardest on is how to leverage the internet. The online world provides so many opportunities for people – you can be a one-man-band and build a successful, global business fast, if you know how to leverage technology correctly.

#6 Have there been any moments when you just wanted to pack it all in?

All the time. Building a business is hard. You’re constantly trying to push yourself to do things that you don’t know how to do, so you’re always coming up against challenges and setbacks – it can be incredibly tough. But I’ve come to the realisation that it’s all part of the journey. 

Being an entrepreneur is a way of life – it’s like being on a rollercoaster ride in the dark – there are ups and downs, it’s exciting, but can also be scary as hell and most of the time we have no idea how things are going to work out. There is a lot of uncertainty to deal with, because we can’t see into the future and know for sure that our ideas and decisions are good ones.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve daydreamed about getting a job, so someone else could tell me what to do, when to do it and what time I needed to arrive at work and leave work at. But I just love the freedom and thrill of being an entrepreneur too much to quit.

#7 If you weren't supporting female entrepreneurs every day with the FEA, what would you be doing?

Probably something with animals or children. I like helping and taking care of things, it definitely makes me feel fulfilled.

#8 What keeps you striving forward in business?

The thought that I only have one life and I want to make it as amazing as I possibly can. I want to push myself to grow as much as possible, I want to learn as much as I can, I want to make a difference, I want to get to the end of my life and know that I did the best I could to follow my dreams and live the life I wanted.

#9 Name one future goal of the Female Entrepreneur Association

To open up the website and enable people to contribute to it. We’ve had a few contributors in the past, but it’s not been part of our strategy. But we’ve now set a goal to start sharing more knowledge, expertise and help by bringing on wonderful people who have something great to share.

#10 What is your favourite quote?

Ooo, I don’t know how I can possibly choose! There are a few…

“Everything in life can be taken away from you, except for your freedom to choose how you respond to the situation” Viktor Frankl – this one helps me whenever something bad has happened. It reminds me that I get to choose how it makes me feel and how I respond.

“Successful people hang on when everyone else has let go” I’m not sure who said that, but I love it! Whenever I’m having a tough time I remind myself to be the person who is willing to hang on.

“Your destiny is determined by the choices you make. Choose now, choose well” Anthony Robbins – this quote practically changed my life. It made me realise that I had to start making consistently good decisions, if I wanted to live an amazing life and achieve great things.

#11 A few of your favourites…

Way to relax? Walking my two black labs

Aid to well-being? Meditations & guided visualisations

Fitness activity? Body pump

Wine? Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc

Food? I’ve spent 10 minutes trying to narrow down my choices and I’m failing miserably! I love it all!

Song? At the moment it’s Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker (my boyfriend has got me into country music!)

App? YouTube

Social media platform? Facebook, because it has so many amazing tools for being able to share content and engage with people.

Your hero? My parents – they’re amazing.

And finally...

#12 what piece of advice would you give to entrepreneurs to inspire them to give their dreams a go?

Something that really pushed me to start FEA was a chapter I read in The E-myth Revisited, by Michael Gerber (a must read book!). He said something like…

Imagine walking into a room and sat on the chairs are your family and friends. As you begin to walk down the centre of the room you see a box and as you get to the front of the room you realise that you’re in the box, and it’s your funeral.

What kind of things would you want people to be saying about the kind of person you were, the kind of life that you lived and the kind of things you achieved?

Don’t wait until the end to realise who you want to be and what you want to achieve – start now. Life is precious and it’s up to you to make the very best of it. I think that when you look at life like that, nothing is too scary to go after.  So just go for it, be the amazing person that you’re meant to be and enjoy the journey.

******************************

To find out more about Carrie and the Female Entrepreneur Association head to www.femaleentrepreneurassociation.com and connect to the network on Facebook, Pinterest & Twitter.

To read the full set of entrepreneur interviews on our blog click here.

Katie x

Captivating Crete: A Travel Review

I've just got back from a week filled with sunshine, Tiropites (cheese pies) and history on the Greek island of Crete. Having visited a few of the 200 plus Greek Islands, Crete has the feel of the mainland thanks to its 650-mile loop of coastline. This year, we stayed on part of its beautiful coast near the sleepy resort of Elounda having visited Rethymnon and Chania in the past.

Although I try and book our holidays using my own steam instead of a travel agent this year we turned to our old go-to Thomson as we couldn't resist the ease of it all being nicely packaged together. Plus, my parents recommended our hotel, Aquila Elounda Village which we were only able to book through the company. We opted for half-board, something we don't usually do in Greece as we love to explore the little seafront tavernas but, after research discovered we could swap some of our half-board dinners for lunch so we went ahead and, as usual, Thomson gave us an excellent service.

I was very happy that Aquila Elounda Village surpassed our expectations (I am hard to please!) in every way. It's positioned perfectly in the middle of the two towns Elounda and Aghios Nikolaos; close enough to get a cheap taxi to but far enough away to not be affected by noise. 

Aghios Nikolaos is described as being an affluent town with the promise of spotting a few 'super yachts' within and, although it's a nice enough place with an unusual lake in the middle of the town, surrounded by welcoming restaurants, it wasn't as expected. It's quite rundown with a few of the usual touristy shops dotted around a number of nondescript bars. 

Elounda, the smaller of the two, on the other-hand was lovely - focused around a little harbour with a handful of traditional tavernas and bars we spent two nights here enjoying dinners of Greek meze, seafood and baklava.

The hotel's facilities were great; four restaurants, tennis courts, two saltwater pools, a beach with watersports and a peaceful spa. Although all that sounds like an expansive offering, it has a lovely small-hotel feel unlike our trip to Jamaica which was the opposite. The staff were so friendly and helpful and gave you a personal experience every time. I was slightly concerned about the food choice but the four restaurants each had a different feel and offered traditional Greek food with a twist. Mirabello overlooking the sea was our favourite for lunchtime shade!

It seems there are a lack of sandy beaches on the coast and surprisingly, as feeling the sand between my toes is usually a holiday must, I didn't actually miss it... in fact, I think I preferred the tasteful stone leading to the sea rather than worrying about getting sand in places I really didn't want! Again the hotel had a fantastic vibe with a beach bar, double sun-loungers (and comfy single ones too!) and a range of watersports from waterskiing to sailing. We opted to ditch the planned car hire (we liked the hotel so much we didn't want to leave!) and hired a jetski to admire the beautiful rugged Cretan coastline instead.

On one of our few days away from the hotel I ticked off one of my '101 Dreams'; to visit Spinalonga - the tiny island which my favourite book The Island by Victoria Hislop is focused around. We boarded a large boat at Aghios Nikolaos harbour and set off on a day cruising to see the many islands off the coast of Crete, followed by a swim in the bright blue Aegean Sea with our last stop being my most anticipated.

Spinalonga is located just off the coast of Crete and due to its location served a variety of roles and purposes over the centuries. It was initially walled to protect the ancient city for Olous, then in the late 16th century the Venetians built one of the most important defensive sea fortresses in the Mediterranean on Spinalonga. Moving forward to 1715 the Turks took over the island with 1,112 Muslims living there by 1881. In 1903 the Cretan State established a leper colony on the island and its first 251 patients arrived in 1904. Patients lived independently in their own houses, earned a livelihood on the island, grew vegetables and even got married and had children. As treatment for leprosy was developed the colony closed in 1957 and has reminded uninhabited ever since. 

The book 'The Island' is about a Greek family living across from Spinalonga's leper colony and their relationship with the island which goes up and down throughout the years. It's absolutely fantastic... as was our tour guide who told us about the history and secrets of the island whilst taking us around the empty, rundown houses of past inhabitants. After our tour we were able to explore the island ourselves and we managed to walk around the whole perimeter passing the hospital, churches, cemeteries, gardens and ancient architecture.

Having experienced Spinalonga and writing about it in my Kikki.K 101 Dreams journal there was nothing left to do for the rest of the week but relax by the pool, splash around in the clear sea and have a few leisurely games of evening tennis before indulging in some delicious Greek specialities!

There's not many places I'd feel confident enough about to recommend to friends (aside from Melbourne of course!) but Aquila Elounda Village is certainly one of them, in fact, I'm going to actively encourage them (and you!) to go!

Highlights...

• Cheese pies followed by the most delicious garlic prawns ever at Olondi taverna in Elounda
• Lounging in the hammocks in the gardens of Aquila Elounda Village whilst reading The Island for the umpteenth time!

Must-Dos...

• Enjoy a simple entree of bread dipped in local rosemary olive oil
• A tour of Spinalonga

Jane x   

A Beautiful Mess Photo Challenge Summary

Since September last year I've had so much fun doing 20 of the 95 A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book challenges and feel I have learnt many things about photography. More importantly I think the book has made me take more photos than I was before, capturing even more beautiful memories to look back on.

You can see the whole series below from the first to the last photograph :)

Enjoy!

Jane x

Social Media Recipe for Success: The Sequel - Part 2 - Why are you on Social Media?

After the first part of our sequel to the Recipe for Social Media Success ‘Understand Social Media’, we are now onto the next stage – and one that many people overlook; Why Are You On Social Media?

For many companies social media is a route they cannot overlook in their marketing activity, which usually begins with a foundation of getting lots of followers, fans and likes for something they want customers to buy. Social Media works best when the consumer is put at the heart of the activity and when companies are direct about who they want to connect and engage with and most importantly; why. Here are five things to remember before jumping onto every social media platform going for your business…

#1  Don’t start out with tunnel-vision and aim to get a following for something you want people to buy, start out by realising that social media connects you to your existing and future customers every single day. If you want them to buy into your brand or product, then use social media to bring to life the amazing things about your company, the people and the ethos behind the offering or product.

#2  Have a really long hard think about your purpose for being on social media, without a reason you have no goals or objectives when it comes to planning your strategy – a sure fire way for activity to plateau after a while!

#3  Think about who your target audience is, and don’t say everybody! If your consumer demographic is broad, then start by tackling one by one and tailoring your ideas and content to suit the lives, thoughts, loves and hates of that audience – get on a level with them.

#4  Research into where that audience is when it comes to social media, it might be that different segments of your audience are typically on different platforms. For example, Facebook could be a successful route to your audience 35+, while Instagram could help you to connect with a younger audience.

#5  Stay dedicated to building an engaged following organically. Social media advertising can be a great tool to find new customers that would like to hear from you, but attracting thousands of new followers doesn’t happen overnight and usually when it does, it’s too good to be true!

We’ll be bringing you more social media musings in the next few months, but for now here’s a list of our past blog posts, we hope you find them useful. To receive our newsletter each month filled with handy social media tips sign up at www.katieandjane.com

Take our online Facebook eCourse to plan your first social media strategy here. 

Download our handy social media toolkits here.

How To Become a YouTube Superstar!

Twitter Lingo or 'Twermingology'!

Simple Social Media Advertising Tips

Facebook & Twitter? I’m not Pinterested!

Pinterest - The Only Social Network Needed for Luxury Brands?

Twitter Lists and How to Use Them

New Facebook Competition Guidelines - What You Need to Know

Social Media Competition Guidelines Made Simple!

The Hashtag & How to Use it by #katieandjane

Katie x

Updated: Madesquare App Review: Everything is Better Square!

There's a new photo printing app on the market, which has most likely been inspired by the increasing popularity of the square formatted photo editing app Instagram, called Madesquare and as we both like the concept we wanted to review it.

Madesquare was created by a team of four craft-making women from America who sell 'finely-crafted square photo products' through their beautifully designed app.

There are many, many innovative products available... you can print photos on mini wood blocks, create a recipe card from your favourite food photo, go vintage and print photos 'photo strip' style or display photos on metallic, to name just a few ways Madesquare allow you to print photos. These products would make the perfect gift as they are so unique and modern, yet personal.

Looking at the app itself the branding is striking, clear and simple with bright colours and detailed information on the various products. The imagery they use for the product examples are really aspirational which makes you want to buy everything! I like the way users can share the funky examples via social media (a great marketing tool for downloads too!).

If you think the app's aim is to sell tonnes of products, think again, as they've got the great additions of 'Discover' and 'Blog'. On the Discover tab users can gain inspiration for their own DIY crafty projects and tips on all-things photography too. The Blog is, as expected, Madesquare's blog again packed with nice imagery alongside topical posts.

So far, so good, but, I discovered a major issue with the app... I wanted to order a photo strip book complete with hard cover as I'd never seen one of these before so I spent quite a while going through my albums and picking photos that go together well to add to my order. After the book was complete and added to my basket I went to place my order to be delivered to the UK and I was unable to proceed. No alert appeared to tell me why I was stuck on the order screen and, after trying numerous times I emailed the team.

*** Update - June 2014 ***

The team responded really quickly to my above issue telling me that they were working very hard to fix their International shipping issues, and, I'm pleased to say they followed through and about two weeks later my lovely photo strip book is on it's way. The customer care was fantastic which is why I wanted to update this blog post and up Madesquare's score from 6 to 9 out of 10!

Score: 9/10

I love...

• The app's concept and design
• The range of unique products available

I'd like...

• To be able to print my photos on even more square items (I'm being greedy!)

Jane x

The Best Things in Life in June

June is finally here... the start of the summer with the promise of balmy nights and sunny days. Although we've not seen much evidence of hot weather our 'best things in life' inspired by Red Magazine always cheers us up!

Katie

The best things in life...

Park runs… After being recommended the Alexandra Heminsley's book ‘Running Like A Girl’ and being inspired by my friend Rowena’s running regimes I have totally got back into my stride. I love to run around my local park, especially on a Saturday morning, followed by a trip to The Juice House for my favourite juice – Ginger Beer (without the beer!)

I recently visited the Ikon Art Gallery in Birmingham, and it was really inspiring, plus I loved the cute little shop on the ground floor that sold unique books, stationery and art. I will definitely be vising again sometime soon!

Hampstead is so gorgeous in the summer and I recently went to visit my friends as they have moved into a new area near Golders Green. We had a lovely weekend walking through the parks, shopping on Hampstead High Street and we rounded it all off with a visit to Villa Bianca for some delicious Italian food.

If I could only take one book on the beach it'd be... 

Anything by Philippa Gregory! I love stories weaved around history, especially the Tudor times. I get totally caught up in the characters and their stories set against the backdrop of historical happenings. I loved the TV adaptation of the Philippa Gregory's The White Queen last year too.

What are your social media habits? What's the last...

Instagram picture you posted? A quote I love from Maya Angelou – “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

Pin you pinned? ‘Hell Yeah’ I loved the design, but the words just stood out for me and made me excited for our trip to the South of France this Summer!

Tweet you wrote? In aid of Volunteers Week I wanted to mention my local homeless shelter who run a 24 hour place of safety and warmth every year during Christmas.

Jane

The best things in life...

Summer festivals - Although I'm not a camping-lover I am really excited to be on the road at some fantastic festivals this summer with our veggie hot dog truck Not Dogs. We're still adding to the calendar but I'm really looking forward to seeing Tom Odell at Wakestock, MIA and A$AP Rocky at Lovebox and Bastille at Boardmasters.

ASOS - Having five weddings to attend this summer I needed some pretty dresses that could be adapted to use again with different accessories and additions and after spending hours physically shopping finding nothing ASOS came to the rescue! The website is great; the best feature being the in-depth filtering which means after seeking inspiration on Pinterest I could find the outfits I wanted.

Gino D'Acampo's Italian Escape cookbook - I love to cook mainly sticking to my favourite cook Nigella Lawson's delicious recipes as they never seem to fail to be perfect but my dad bought be Gino D'Acampo's Italian cookbook and I'm in love! Not only are the recipes full of flavour, the photography in the book is beautiful, especially the shots of the Amalfi Coast. I recently made a six-course dinner for my friends - sounds like a lot of effort but it was actually very easy and a resounding success!

If I could only take one book on the beach it'd be...

The Island by Victoria Hislop - it's my ultimate favourite book; I've read it twice and listened to the audiobook read by Emilia Fox countless times. This summer I'm re-reading it again as I am heading off to Crete where the book is set and fulfilling one of my 101 dreams by visiting Spinalonga a little island off the coast which plays an integral part in this amazing novel.

What are your social media habits? What's the last...

Instagram picture you posted? Very cliché but a picture of my labrador Beau! I captured his beautiful long eyelashes and couldn't resist edited it with Instagram!

Pin you pinned? I have a board named 'My Vision Board' on Pinterest where I pin any random image I feel drawn to and my most recent pin was to this board; a large open window looking out onto a sunny garden with a white squashy chair in the foreground... lovely!

Tweet you wrote? A tweet about starting the month of June with how to better plan social media activity.