5 things I’ve learned running my own business: Steve Croot, Croots Farm Shop

Steve Croot has run Croots Farm Shop, near Duffield, in Derbyshire for almost eight years, and before that headed up his own business producing flavoured oils and vinegars and growing herbs. Here he shares some of the valuable lessons he’s learned during that time.

Get the right team in place and look after them
We have some people that have been with us at Croots Farm Shop since the start and are incredibly loyal and amazing with customers. We have shared our progress with them, they understand what we are striving to deliver, live the same values and we look after them and treat them like part of a big family. We know what’s going on in their families too. Recently we ran a ‘listening’ session with the team and we’ve given the staff room a face lift as a result. We know that one person who has been with us since the start was offered another slightly higher paid job recently, but chose to stay.

Branding is key
Get the brand right and then live it consistently through the team, through any events, through signage and printed material, through images, through social media… everything. Create a few ‘pots’ of things that you want to stand for in the brand and are the things that make you unique and then talk about them all the time. One of the things we do is to ensure we talk about what’s going on at the farm and about the team at Croots, as it’s part of our brand that we are a family owned, farm retailing business and you will always get great service from friendly people.

Customer communication
Keep talking to your customers – face to face and online. Learn what they think and get feedback. Let them know they are appreciated. Be the face of your business. Customers like contact with the business owner if possible and anyone who knows me, knows that I’m always happy to stand and chat in the shop. One of the big investments we’ve made recently has been tarmacing the drive and this came about as a result of talking to lots of customers over a long period of time, and sure enough we’ve seen an uplift since we’ve repaired it.

Suppliers are vital
Look after your suppliers, especially the smaller ones. Some have been with us since the beginning when we opened Croots Farm Shop in June 2008, and have grown with us. We keep loyal to them and pay the smaller local companies fast as we know what it’s like to worry about your cash flow – we’ve been there when we first started ourselves! Croots has more than 40 suppliers who are within a 50-mile radius of the farm shop and we are very proud to support them and work with them.

Innovate constantly
It’s important to keep the ideas flowing, so in the short term, we try out new recipes, new products, and new ways of laying out the shop. Customers like new products so we make sure our teams know about them and can talk knowledgeably about them, whether they are new products on the deli, new items on the butchers’ counter or an extension to the gift and homewares ranges we sell. In the longer term, it’s vital to keep thinking about where your customers are going to come from and where your next idea is going to come from to grow the business. At the moment, we are in the process of extending the café – for a second time – as we know that’s where our next growth will be focused on, and we’ve been working with a local interior designer on the look and feel and getting all her wonderful ideas.