Charlotte Moore - Social Media Editor to Fab Foodie PR Specialist
“Find a way to take a leap into your dream – volunteer, start a side-hustle, work on your idea at the weekend, test and tweak it with the audience you're after to see if they have an appetite to pay for your goods or services. We all know that nothing in life is guaranteed but that having said that, you are guaranteed to have regrets if you don’t give it a go in some way.”
Career overview
10 years as a copywriter across many sectors. Founding member of Tesco’s social media team in 2011 and helped to create some amazing social media campaigns.
What triggered your career change/career re-design?
For a long time, Charlotte loved her role at Tesco. “It was wonderful to grow a huge brand across lots of different social channels, with the added perks of huge budgets to work with and hanging out at Facebook and Twitter headquarters.” But three years in, the glossy sheen had worn off as social media marketing budgets were outsourced to agencies, reducing the in-house team to little more than content editing – “I felt creatively stifled as I no longer had a real say in campaign development.”
As her interest in work at Tesco was declining, Charlotte started up her own food blog and spent lots of time visiting food shows and fairs at weekends “talking to anyone who moved” says the self-confessed Northern chatterbox. “I spent a great deal of time talking to small food business owners and realised that these start-up entrepreneurs had the least amount of time and money, but needed the most amount of help with growing their brands.
”I realised that I had never had a genuine love for the Tesco brand, but I LOVED these tiny food entrepreneurs.” In April 2015, there was an announced round of redundancies at Tesco and Charlotte had fingers and toes crossed that she would be on the at risk list as she knew that it was “time to explore something new.”
First Steps?
Sadly, Charlotte wasn’t offered a package as her job still existed in the restructure, but as her heart had already left Tesco, she resigned and began her own business – copywriting for food start-ups - and used her final 3 months’ notice period salary to fund it.
“It took a year of hard graft on very sporadic funds for me to realise that most of the small food business owners that I spoke to didn’t actually know what a copywriter was or did. It was no wonder that I was always struggling to get a regular stream of clients. Yet at the same time, I was doing bits of PR for myself and friends as a favour, but wasn’t actually telling anyone about this – yet everyone knows what PR is!”
“With a very heavy heart, my bank statements clearly told me to head back to the corporate world where regular pay cheques would help me pay the bills. Thankfully, it was then that I had a lightbulb moment about my business which changed everything.”
Charlotte realised that putting affordable PR at the forefront of her brand was going to be the way forward. She re-named her company Smoothie PR, re-branded the business and got her lovely partner to create a brand new website and logo.
“PR was not my background, but I figured out a way to do it differently to the usual traditional and very expensive model. Most agencies charge anything from £1.5k-£4k per month and write a lot of generic press releases on your behalf. I designed Smoothie PR to use a model that allows small business owners to do their own PR in a 10 minutes a day for only £49 per month, without writing a single, boring press release.”
What did you learn during that process?
“I have never laughed or cried so much in a year. Without trying to sound like an X Factor contestant, the highs are the greatest you’ll ever know and the lows make you wonder why on earth you’re doing this!”
“I couldn’t have done it without the fabulous support I’ve had from my boyfriend, my parents and my wider family and friendship networks. Support from an emotional perspective, comfort when needed and encouragement to keep going have all helped me to get to where I am today.”
If you had to do it all again, what would you do differently?
“If I’d done more thorough research about starting my own business then I probably wouldn’t have done it, as it can look daunting on paper. But, I was so unhappy at Tesco that I just had to give something different a try, so kind of made things up as I went along to see what worked for me.”
“I would have taken the need for regular cash flow more seriously in my first business. I was stubborn when it came to freelancing at agencies that stand for everything I don't. The second time around, I was so motivated by NOT going back to work for an agency or another corporate that I concentrated much more on creating a stable business model that would bring in a steady income.”
On the days that you KNOW you have made the right decision, how do you feel?
“I can’t believe I get to do this as a job – in fact, it doesn’t feel like a job at all. I’m excited to get out of bed in the morning and get started on my day. I’m so lucky to be working with clients that I really care about; we get to share our mutual passion for food and a virtual smoothie every time they get another piece of PR for their fabulous food business. I'm like a proud mother hen when I see them compete alongside the big boys with their big budgets.”
“I don’t think I could find this satisfaction in another corporate role. I do care more about my clients than my own cash flow which probably means that Smoothie PR has grown a lot slower than is ideal, yet this organic approach means that I know every one of my Smoothies well and we really have become #TeamSmoothie. On the back of this approach, Smoothie PR is steadily becoming more and more well-known and is doing well.”
“My main business motivation is being a small part of a team that helps my Smoothies to grow their brand, or in less official terms, I'm after the warm and fuzzies from each time they get their brand out there! I’m not money motivated so that probably doesn't make me a brilliant businesswoman in the traditional sense. But, my honest and passionate approach seems to have inadvertently given me my own USP. I follow my heart and give great service.
Any regrets?
“None. I had to go on my own crazy journey to get the experiences I needed to grow and change my new business.”
What one piece of advice would you give to anyone re-designing their midlife career?
“Find a way to take a leap into your dream – volunteer, start a side-hustle, work on your idea at the weekend, test and tweak it with the audience you're after to see if they have an appetite to pay for your goods or services. We all know that nothing in life is guaranteed but that having said that, you are guaranteed to have regrets if you don’t give it a go in some way.”
“Be brave and learn what truly matters most to you in your work life.”
If you too have a fabulous food business, find out how you can do your own PR in 10 mins a day for only £49pm at www.smoothiepr.com or follow @SmoothiePR on Twitter.
