Vegan Business Tribe Podcast

For many, looking to grow a business means taking on more staff. But employing people can also be a nightmare. If you get it wrong, instead of releasing your time and helping your company grow, you can find yourself micro-managing a team of people and still having your own work to do! In this episode, David brings you his 8 tips for hiring people from his experience of having hired close to 50 peo...

How (and why!) to get better at speaking and presenting. If you view your vegan business as your activism, then you owe it to the vegan cause to become better at speaking and communicating so that you can reach a bigger audience. But for most of us, the idea of standing on a stage in front of people, or even just 'going live' on social media, can be terrifying. In this episode, David shares his se...

Lisa & David take their roving microphone around Vegan Camp Out. We hear from vegan entrepreneur and investor Heather Mills, activist Joey Carbstrong, podcasting legend Jim Moore, YouTuber David Ramms and Dave & Steve from The Happy Pear. In this special double-length episode, we also catch up with vegan companies Vausages, Motion Hatch, One Planet Pizza, The Vegan Haberdasher, Vegan Found...

How to keep the momentum going in your business.  We often think about our strategy for the next six months, but what can you do that will move your business forward in the next 24 hours? Quick wins aren't just a good way to keep you motivated, they are a good way to jump-start your company if you've hit a slump. We take a look at how you can make something happen that will have a real impact...

How to connect with more people who can help your business. Listen to any successful entrepreneur's story and often you will hear about a chance meeting with someone who went on to play a big part in their business journey. But these kind of connections don't just happen by accident. You need to have a strategy in place to increase the number of connections you are making. In the vegan sector, col...

What to do when someone complains and how to turn it into a positive. As a vegan you probably hate conflict - but just because your company is on a mission to create a better world, don't think that you are going to be immune to customer complaints! When you receive a complaint, you need to first find out exactly what the customer needs (which in many cases is nothing more than an apology and know...

We bring you the best of Vegan Life Live from the Alexandra Palace. In this special live episode, Lisa and David take their roving microphone around the two-day Vegan Life Live event in London. Join us as we talk to some of the trail-blazers in the vegan sector about their tips for vegan businesses and bump into a lot of Vegan Business Tribe members and podcast listeners along the way! This episod...

How do you know if it's time to give up on your business and move on to something new? Failing is an important part of succeeding. Listen to any successful entrepreneur's story and it will be a list of the missteps, failures and lessons that eventually led to that success. But at some point, you need to decide whether the thing you're doing now is going to ever be successful or if it's time to giv...

Podcasting trends and tips from the UK's biggest podcasting expo. Many vegan businesses will have considered launching a podcast, or you may be thinking about using other people's podcasts to promote your product or service. David shares his notes from the two-day Podcast Show London 2022 to bring you 6 big takeaways about where the industry is heading and what trends you need to be aware of: from...

How your vegan business can not just survive, but also thrive in a financial downturn. The idea of a recession can be scary, but no matter how good the economic outlook is you will still see companies fail - and no matter how bad the economy is, some people will be making more money than they ever have before. In this episode, David looks at the practical steps you can take to get your business re...

What really happens when you make your company vegan? Many people want to align their personal ethics with how they make a living but the fear of what their customers might think stops them from making their company publicly vegan. The truth is, however, that most of your non-vegan customers probably won't care. And those that do - well, they are probably not the type of people you want as custome...

Why Vegan Fried Chicken brand VFC decided to just give their products away. VFC made the headlines when they announced that they were giving their products away for free. Simply head to the supermarket, buy one of their products, upload a photo of your receipt and get your money refunded in full. From the outside, this campaign seems like a fast track route to going bust with the consumer getting...

How to get people to take that final step and become a customer. Every company has a marketing funnel, and in this episode David goes right to the bottom of it: the place where people already know about your business, are on your mailing list, seem interested, but still haven't bought your product. So where's the blockage? The truth is, the people who are right at the end of your funnel are probab...

How do you get your business in the news? If you see a vegan business or product in the news, then it's most likely there because the company sent the story out as a press release. Newspapers, magazines and news websites all need a constant stream of interesting things to share with their readers but don't expect them to just give you a free advert for your business. In this episode, David walks t...

Can your vegan company claim for the research or product development your company may have done?  And before you say your company doesn’t do R&D, don’t be too quick to jump to that conclusion! Veganising a recipe for your food product, developing a new app or computer system, researching a new material or creating more environmentally-conscious packaging for your product - all these are a...

The five main lessons that we've learnt from running Vegan Business Tribe. As Vegan Business Tribe celebrates its second birthday, David shares the top five things we've learnt about running a vegan business over that time - from why you need to remain flexible about what business you are building through to why the biggest thing holding your business back might just be yourself. And just a warnin...

Why products for vegan children will be the next big growth sector. Last year, Quorn launched their vegan Roarsomes Dinosaur Nuggets, making them one of the first high-profile food companies to bring out a vegan product aimed specifically at children. But new research from The Vegan Society suggests that children are 50% more likely to be vegan than adults, so with demand so high why is this new s...

We are joined by the host of The Bloody Vegans Podcast to talk about how to start your own podcast. There seems to be a lot of obstacles to starting your own podcast. Which microphone should you get? How can I create a good-sounding recording space without spending a fortune? How do I get my podcast listed on Apple and Spotify? And once I've actually uploaded my podcast how do I get people to list...

How to overcome the fear that is stopping your vegan business from moving forward. If you see a child jump onto a high wall, it's often accompanied by a panicked parent shouting at that child to get down. We're conditioned from a young age not to take risks, climb high or to rock the boat. But the feeling that we've come to associate as fear is actually a neutral sensation, it's as much our bodies...

In business you're unlikely to get everything right on your first attempt, so learn to embrace a testing culture. Talk to any successful entrepreneur and they will tell you about all the mistakes, failures and missteps that they had to go through before their business found success. This is because before you launch a business, every decision you make is just your best guess based on your life exp...

Using crowdfunding to bring massive visibility to your company or project. Andrew Alexander is the director of Creating a Vegan World, a documentary taking a look at what it would actually take to turn the world vegan. But seven days from the end of his crowdfunding campaign to buy the recording kit he needed to get his film on Netflix, Andrew found himself with almost no backing and no real idea...

How to forecast your company's cashflow. Cash is probably the most important thing in your business. Suppliers need to be paid, staff need to take their wages and regardless of what you do, if the money stops then your business stops too. Even the most successful businesses can find themselves with cashflow problems. But maintaining an up-to-date cashflow forecast lets you see these financial iceb...

How to become a best-selling vegan author. Writing a book is a brilliant way to prove your authority and raise the visibility of both you and your brand - but where do you start?  Does it still have the same credibility if you self-publish a book yourself and if so, how do you even decide what you're going to write? In this special extended episode, we are joined by three best-selling vegan a...

Your chance to come and see us live in London! We take a break from our normal podcast format to announce what is the most ambitious thing we've done yet: two days at the London Olympia for Vegan Business Tribe Live 2022! The event will be part of the newly returned VegfestUK which is the UK's biggest and best vegan consumer expo. In this special announcement episode, David tells you about what yo...

Convincing customers to value ethical, vegan products. Ethical and sustainable ingredients, suppliers and packaging all cost more. This means you're always going to be at a disadvantage if you are trying to compete on price with your ethical product. But how can you get customers to see the extra value of buying from a company that has a mission? And how can you convince them to pay that little bi...