Sir Richard Branson gets Not Dogged with the Ultimate #SausageSelfie & Happy Birthday to Us!

Last week we were invited by the lovely team at Virgin StartUp to watch the live finale of Pitch to Rich – a campaign by Virgin Media to award three businesses an amazing package of business support. Nine finalists pitched live to Sir Richard Branson and his judging panel which this year consisted of the inspirational; Jo Malone MBE, Supermodel turned business investor; David Gandy, Vegetarian CEO of the hugely successful Shutterstock; Jon Oringer and founder of Mumsnet; Justine Roberts.

Last year Not Dogs made the live final of Virgin’s Foodpreneur competition which saw us cook live in front of the judges, including Richard Branson so we really felt the nerves of the final few! Last year as the judging panel took Q&As and as we sat furiously scribbling notes on the front row, Richard gave the valuable advice that you should never be afraid to make a fool of yourself to get your brand noticed. Following that, he directed a question at me (Katie) and asked outright what we’d been doing to make fools of ourselves for Not Dogs in the past year. 

By September 2014, just three months since our first event, there was a growing list of things I could mention! We’d named vegetarian hotdogs after ourselves, decorated a food truck in bright purple zig zags and driven it into Middleton Hall (as in physically into the wall of the hall!), only narrowly missing the lake. We had been so busy organising the delivery of 1,500 hotdogs to Coventry, that we’d forgotten where we were going to store them – a shout out here to Bob the freezer man who kindly let us borrow all the freezers in his shop last summer! We’d even bought (wait for this) purple and orange slippers each as a crazy IKEA purchase (this should not have been a priority) and, this one is Jane's favourite - I once pushed the trailer so hard I fell down face first in chicken poo. It was safe to say we left our pride at the door of our little food truck as we embarked on our Not Dogs journey!

Apart from these happenings, we hadn’t actually chosen to go out of our comfort zone to truly make a fool of ourselves and at the prospect of bumping into Sir Richard himself again at another Virgin event, we thought maybe we’d take him up on his advice. We decided we were going to make a fool of ourselves to get our brand noticed with the aim of getting the ultimate #sausageselfie to celebrate our 1st Birthday!

Yep... it took every piece of confidence we had but we dressed up as walking Not Dogs making people laugh all the way from Euston Station to the event in Shoreditch and taking lots of Sausage Selfies with all kinds of people! Our first was Paul O'Grady after Jane spotted him at the station!

The Pitch to Rich event was fantastic and we heard from some great businesses and entrepreneurs. We, as ever, were inspired by Jo Malone who spoke very poignantly about being relentless as an entrepreneur, every single time you want to quit, keep going, because tomorrow the whole landscape can change in just a day – so very true. 

We really enjoyed speaking to vegetarian Jon Oringer who's creation Shutterstock has been going from strength-to-strength since 2003. More standout advice came from stylish investor David Gandy who said when pitching, many investors want to know about the people behind the business and the human elements of the brand rather than simply the figures - something Jane and I have been building within the Not Dogs brand.

Of course Richard wasn’t going anywhere until we’d captured the ultimate #sausageselfie – a lifetime goal for both of us!

This week marked the 1st birthday of Not Dogs… wow what a year. We've grown quicker than we could have ever dreamed of, met some very inspirational people and are building a brand we are so proud of. We can’t tell you how exciting the journey has been so far and how thankful we are to our customers who support us from all over the UK. We couldn’t and wouldn’t be doing this without you all!

We've very excited to be continuing our second summer tour this weekend with our return to Godiva Festival in Coventry, followed by Lovebox and Citadel in London. We hope to meet many more of you over the summer - you can view the full line up at www.notdogs.co.uk

Keep up to date with us on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook too!

Here's to a successful year two with tonnes more #sausageselfie photos... Wonder who

can beat the ultimate one with Sir Branson!?

Eat. Sleep. Not Dogs

Katie & Jane x

Not Dogs Receives a Very Exciting Invitation from the Government!

We are thrilled that we have been invited by the Secretary of State for DEFRA (Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) Elizabeth Truss to be named as a UK Food Star in recognition that Not Dogs is an 'exceptional, innovative break-through business that is forging an exciting future in food and drink'!

We couldn't be more shocked or excited at the thought of how well-received Not Dogs has been since we took our 'Meaty Dogs Without the Meat' to our first event at the end of June 2014... so much has happened since then!

We will first attend a prestigious event in London where we will be able to showcase a few of our favourites such as The Original Frank, Kickin’ Katie Nacho Dog and of course the Plain Jane to lots of inspirational industry insiders before collaborating on lots of exciting projects with DEFRA in 2015 which are yet to be announced!

We’d like to say a huge thank you to every single person who has helped us to get this far, it’s been a huge learning curve and we couldn’t have done it without the amazing support from people we know, people we were yet to meet and of course our growing community of customers and social media fans!

Keep in touch with us on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest and we’ll be updating everyone very soon on the events and projects we have lined up for Not Dogs for the rest of the year.

Eat. Sleep. Not Dogs

Katie & Jane

Just 21 Days to go till Christmas! #CountdownToChristmas with Countdown Keeper

It’s officially the month of Christmas and what better way to get excited than to have a countdown on your iPhone to share with friends? Here are a few of our favourite ways to use Countdown Keeper at Christmas time…

Countdown to Santa’s Visit

A great one for the little ones in your life! As well as weeks, days and hours, you can countdown in minutes and seconds too which can make it even more exciting for those excited to see Santa and Rudolph on Christmas Eve. 

Why not count down to the children’s bedtime on Christmas Eve and set an alarm so that when the app notifies you of Santa’s arrival it’s time for bedtime too (Santa doesn't visit when children are awake!). You can have fun by uploading your very own background image from Facebook, your camera roll or use one of our pre-loaded backgrounds in the Countdown Keeper Library.

Christmas Gifts

With every event you add to Countdown Keeper there is also a ‘notes’ section which during Christmas is especially handy for keeping a note of gift ideas for friends and family. Just add a countdown to Christmas or a Christmas Gift deadline countdown and start adding your gift ideas from the notes button, et voilà! – a portable present list on your iPhone. You can keep all of your Christmas related countdowns organised in your very own custom-created category too, away from the usual countdowns and everyday events you use Countdown Keeper for.

Happy Christmas!

The big event! This year instead of setting an alarm or waiting to be woken up, create an alert to your Christmas Day event in Countdown Keeper and be woken up with your very own Countdown to Christmas! You can then share this across social media with your friends and tag those loved ones in to wish them a Happy Christmas wherever they are.

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas from the Countdown Keeper team!

To download Countdown Keeper from the App Store just click this link or simply search ‘Countdown Keeper’. In the free version of the app you can add up to three events, and to upgrade to the PRO version it’s 69p/$0.99 which unlocks the ability to add an unlimited amount of events, create your very own categories to organise your countdowns, use images from your Facebook albums and add notes too!

Find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for lots of positivity and more countdown inspiration!

www.countdownkeeper.com

Katie x

App Business Inspiration from Down Under

When Katie and I started developing iPhone apps we knew it was a male-dominated industry but that didn't put us off of course! Instead, we decided to focus our attention on designing apps for females which is where the idea for our first app Countdown Keeper came from.

We'd been inspired to produce iPhone apps after reading the fantastic App Empire by Chad Mureta which charts his journey from hospital bed to successful app developer. I follow his blog too and was over-the-moon to find two female app developers very similar to Katie and I in Byron Bay Australia; Sophie and Stephi, the owners of the business Applause.

These two inspirational women created Applause for the same reason Katie and I did; to be able to live a life that is more free than the usual 9-5 and what's great is, with a lot of hard work, they've done it! We're in a minority here in the UK in terms of lifestyle businesses but over in Australia and America people are valuing free time more than constant work so finding inspirational entrepreneurs like Applause is just fantastic for Katie and I and certainly makes us feel more supported.

Aside from their millions of app downloads, their way of working is also a major inspiration. They make relaxation and nature part of their working day (nicer in Byron Bay than the current gloomy Birmingham I imagine!), they take 'mini-retirements' to regroup and focus and also I love the principles that they created when they started Applause. The principles focus on what they want out of business and what direction they want Applause to go in along with actions on how they are going to get there. I know they were as inspired by Tim Ferriss' The Four Hour Work Week as I was before creating Katie & Jane.

We asked Stephi and Sophie where they found business inspiration from...

"Instagram and the App Store. It helps a lot if you know what target market you want to reach with your apps so you know what app category to look into or what Instagram users to follow."

Get inspired by the duo on their blog here or download one of their popular apps.

Jane x

The Six Myths of Starting Your Own Business by #katieandjane - Reblogged from She Owns It

Starting your own business is one huge, daunting, exciting, ecstatic, worrying, wonderful roller coaster and we're so glad to have done it! Having said that, when we started 'Katie & Jane' we were under the illusion that, after reading and receiving lots of advice, some things were imperative to being successful, but we have found our journey so far to be a little different! There’s a lot of business advice flying around and here are six myths that we found not to be quite so true for us in our first year of business, maybe some of them will resonate with you too.

Myth #1: "You must have a completely unique & complex idea"

Wrong... It’s ok to keep it simple, but, of course, still significant. Even if the idea has a complex thought process behind it, if you make sure it’s delivered to the end user in a simple, innovative and meaningful way, it'll have the best chance of it being a success.

Myth #2: "Pick a funky name to standout!"

People want to see credibility and honesty in your business name and picking a colour, fruit, animal or a combination of all three without reason or strategy may not add that to your business. Have a think about what sets your business apart from the rest (hopefully not just your funky name!).

Myth #3: "Do only what you already know"

Just because you've worked for years in one industry,  you shouldn't feel you are limited to stick to what you know when creating a business. For example if you've worked as a PR Consultant for several years and want to start out on your own, your experience doesn't necessarily mean you would be best setting up a PR agency. All the knowledge you've built up in previous jobs will be so much more valuable when you start transferring those skills to your new product or innovative idea.

Myth #4: "Before you start you need a mentor"

We hear the word ‘mentor’ quite a lot. It’s almost as if finding an amazing mentor will be the secret to having a successful business and fast-track you to world domination. We found ourselves searching for this one remarkable person but when we arranged meetings with people we admired and were inspired by, it just wasn't to be. One memorable 'mentor' turned up having had a few too many ‘afternoon bubbles’, which gave us a story to tell, but wasn't very helpful!

A mentor could be a valuable asset for your business, just don’t try to force it; it should be a natural collaboration that fits in well with your company, you as an individual and more importantly, your vision.

Myth #5: "Take all the work you can get in your first year"

The pressure of keeping financially on the straight and narrow can mean that you hunt out and take every single piece of work you can get, even if it means you are offering services you didn't set out to in the beginning for reasons that are easy to forget when you're feeling the strain. Even though it’s a little daunting try to stay selective and true to yourself, your vision and don't give up - it'll help you shape your future business exactly as you imagined.

Myth #6: "The only way to create a sustainable business is by getting investors on-board"

Everywhere you look investments are being made in start-up companies. For the companies it gives a potentially priceless air of credibility and for investors, the potential to make a fortune. It may be beneficial to gain credibility and an experienced mentor (see #4) but business owners don’t need to exclusively rely on that. Remember with no investors, you keep all control over your decisions for your business and its future and think how proud you'll feel to have built up a successful business all on your own. Just like the Cambridge Satchel Company, maybe one day when you've come so far on your own, the investors will come knocking!

We'd love to hear your business myths (or truths!) - tweet us using the hashtag #katieandjane and see this original blog post on She Owns It - A blog to celebrate, support and connect women entrepreneurs!

Katie x