As chef and founder of independent bakery chain Bread Ahead, Matthew Jones, knows only too well, operating a successful business comes from years of hard work – and some seriously good back-end software and hardware to keep everything running smoothly. He opened his first store in 2013 with a single mixer, one oven and a few bags of flour before launching his bakery school a few months later in 2014. Since then, he has turned his artisan business into a thriving independent bakery chain with seven locations in London and two more abroad.
Whether you want to start your own bakery, run a beauty salon or set up a restaurant, having the right tools and skills at your fingertips is the difference between success and failure.
Below, Matthew shares his tips for turning your entrepreneurial dream into a successful business venture and reveals the Square products he can’t do without.
1. Don’t be afraid to go it alone – you don’t always need a partner
Matthew ran a highly successful bakery business for 10 years before he launched Bread Ahead. He took on an investor hoping it would boost growth but things didn’t work out and he eventually walked away.
“It was a lesson well learned”, he says. “I wouldn’t do business with a partner, and I think a business like a bakery is very much a sole venture. Otherwise, you spend all your time talking about ideas rather than doing the job.”
Bread Ahead is a testament to his success as a sole business owner – what started as one store is now seven across London, with his first overseas shop in Jeddah, another in Dubai and plans to expand further across the globe.
2. Track your sales and use them to forecast ahead
To be able to understand not just your top line sales figures but exactly what products are most popular and when they sell best can reap huge benefits. It allows business owners to plan ahead and make strategic decisions around inventory, in short helping them to understand what works and what doesn’t on a much more granular level.
These kinds of POS reports have proven invaluable to Bread Ahead, with sales growing by 30% since they switched to Square. It’s one of the things Matthew values most – being able to see how his stores have been performing each week. He can view his top five sellers in his Square dashboard, spot customer trends and make key data-driven marketing decisions.
“The value Square gives us is unbeatable because it means I can react really quickly, understand what’s selling and set the staff new targets”, he says.
3. Be ambitious and believe in your product or service
Matthew cheerfully admits he had nothing and was on the “bones of his arse” when he started his business. It took a lot of self-belief and determination to keep going even when others doubted him.
He reveals, “Looking back at the first five years, it was really hard. Getting people to believe in it is hard because they’re like ‘yeah, whatever’. But then people did start to believe and now they look at me differently, which is nice because it’s something I wanted to achieve.”
“My vision for the business is for a full global rollout. It’s big, it’s amazing and we’re not stopping. This is only step three out of 10!”
4. Invest in the right team and give them the tools they need
As much as Matthew is the founder and driving force behind Bread Ahead, he values his employees above all else and gives them plenty of autonomy to do their jobs. He admits he’s had his fair share of bad staff members – but even one of those introduced him to Square so he’s grateful nevertheless. Now he has a team which works cohesively to keep Bread Ahead running like a dream.
Every day Matthew nips between bakeries checking to see how they’re doing, making tweaks to production and chatting with the staff.
He admits he’s a very hands-on owner who still loves to get stuck into baking, trying to roll out a few croissants every day but he also gives staff the tools they need to do the job well. By using Square Point of Sale his staff can process payments fast and easily, ensuring customers leave happy.
The system also allows him to see when the busiest periods are so he can plan his staff rotas accordingly and make sure no one ever misses out on a break.
5. Make sure your hardware matches your business needs
As Matthew acknowledges, it’s all very well having a fantastic product but if you can’t take sales then your business will suffer. This was the situation he found himself in with his old payment provider – transactions were being rejected far too often resulting in customers simply walking away. Even a handheld PDQ from the bank wasn’t up to the job and it frequently refused to connect.
Describing switching to Square Payments as a game changer, Matthew says it has transformed his business by giving him the tools required to run efficiently and focus on customer service.
“I’d recommend Square all day long to any business. Every time”, he says. “We’re a high turnover business with a lot of small transactions. Square is very good at quick payments, quick acceptance and card payments.”
“Our old system was horrendous, and it sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it. We used to get rejected all the time, but you wouldn’t know about it straight away and by then the person had walked off and you couldn’t find them to take payment.”
6. Develop a customer-first marketing strategy
As a customer-facing retail business, providing the right experience is important for Matthew and his team. He explains customers expect busyness and that they will have to queue – but they also want a decent service.
With his former payment service provider it was hard to ensure that, but Square has enabled Bread Ahead to focus on delivering an elevated experience. Square’s reporting feature has also allowed Matthew to discover what customers really love and what isn’t quite so popular, which means he can make his marketing strategy appeal directly to them, either by removing unpopular products or promoting them heavily to get sales moving.
“We’ve got to keep the customers engaged”, he says. “Sometimes they’re queuing for 20 minutes, you know, so we’ve got to make sure we deliver something really good at the end of it.”
