BullDog Grooming - Simon Duffy

BullDog Grooming - Simon Duffy

For many people, running your own company or being an entrepreneur is the dream career. The ultimate graduate job! And it's hard not to be inspired by the entrepreneurs we've filmed. They're part of an industry that has a very real impact on the world. Entrepreneurs improve things, invent things, create new markets, new goods and new services. In the words of the inimitable Levi Roots "they make business their business."

Something which struck us is that entrepreneurs are the ultimate problem solvers. Creating something from nothing is not easy and entrepreneurs have to overcome obstacles every day just to stay afloat. It's also a tough mental game. Setting-up your own company can involve a great deal of risk and overcoming the uncertainty involved is a big challenge. In fact, most entrepreneurs seem to work longer and harder than anyone else. But if setting-up a business was easy, everyone would do it. Besides, most entrepreneurs are following their passion so it's not like 'work' as many people know it.

One of the huge upsides of setting-up your own business is being the boss from the off. Your learning curve is enormous and you are able to have a direct impact on the success or failure of the business. It's not about being a cog in a giant machine! Being able to control your destiny is one of the things entrepreneurs derive greatest enjoyment from. In fact, many consider being part of a large company and not in control much more risky than starting a business.

So. It's fun, challenging, rewarding, stressful, all-consuming and uncertain - but is it for you...?

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Simon Duffy and I am co-founder of BullDog.  BullDog is the UK’s largest skincare brand for men.  We make skin care products and also shaving products and shower product.  Products all very reasonably priced between £3-6 and you can find them in Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Tesco, Boots Superdrug, Planet Organic Hotfoods and Ocado we have got a really good mix across the UK and we have been going for two years and we are now in over two thousand stores but still plenty more to do.

What is Entrepreneurship?

So I think that being an entrepreneur is about being able to spot an opportunity where others don’t see opportunity and then working out ways of taking these ideas and make them real and get them into market.

Where did the idea for BullDog come from?

We read a piece of research that said the average man would use 865 chemicals on his skin in a day and some of these chemicals are really under regulated and there are health questions that have been raised about them and there was a huge gap in the market and we just decided to go for it.

It was something we are really passionate about in ourselves, something we really saw the need for in the market and just no one else offering natural skin care products for men so that gave us hope that if we got some great products to market people would buy them but certainly it is a nerve racking thing just starting out, there is just one clear route to success which is really hard work.

What do you do on a typical day?

As cliché as it sounds I don’t think there is a typical day, typical tasks would involve speaking to retailers, checking in with consumers to see how they think about products working on ideas for marketing campaigns or coming up with ideas for new products.  You have to be a bit of a generalist and turn your hands to anything and everything and that involves the big meetings with the big retailers to packing boxes, to answering emails or just answering the phone when people call in so there is a little bit of everything along the way.

Describe the process of your work

It was a process that involved lots of stages and took a long time but I think in simple terms it was coming up with the idea to start with then doing as much research as we could to put a framework around what we were trying to formulate.  Finding the right people to work on concepts at different stages getting some amazing people within our team and then it was just kind of persistent relentless focus on getting perfect products.  Then working out the best way to position those to retailers in a way that was motivational to them and the whole thing was important for us to maintain the focus on what we were trying to do and the enthusiasm we had from the first day we started right the way through to all the meetings 12-18 months further along.  It is more complicated than that but it is just about being true to the idea and just following through on everything.

Research is part of it there are some great resources out there like environmental group database that has safety information on loads of ingredients, so certainly you can achieve a lot by looking online but you need to get out there and speak to consumers or people who want to buy your products to get insights from them.  You want to try and build insights from retailers if they will let you know if there is anything interesting to them or what they don’t currently have in their selection yet you need to be able to find great people to work with who can help to bring your idea and dream to life.

You just need to be persistent and relentless and make sure you are getting very high quality products back to take them to market.

What are the best bits about your job?

I think the best bits are when you walk into one of the stores they are in, and we are in eight retailers, and you can see it there on the shelves or if you see people buying it or you just hear people talking about it in a positive way it is great to feel like you made something and it is there and people are interacting with the brand and liking the products.

What are the worst bits about your job?

I think the down side is that you can feel really busy so there is a lot to get done in a finite amount of time and I would say my least favourite part of the day is when people phone me up trying to sell me once in a lifetime advertising opportunities or you just kind of dealing with people who are trying to sell you stuff.  It is hard to manage you time on an ongoing basis.  It is much more good than bad though.

It is hard to switch off but you just have to.  Over the course of how the business grows you just have to learn ways to make sure you get some time in your week to relax but you are thinking about it a lot of the time.

What has been your biggest challenge so far?

The biggest challenge was formulating the product to start with because this hadn’t been done before we were using ingredients no one had used before and we were trying to do it at a price that people could afford.  It took absolutely ages and was really hard work.  So product formulation is the biggest challenge we face.

What has been your greatest achievement?

Two things, I think formulating the products for the first time was a big achievement for us because we were trying to do something unique, we wanted to use only natural use, there was key ingredients that had to be taken out which have been linked with a whole host of negative side effects, we wanted to make products that really worked for men and also we wanted to do it at a price that everyday men could afford and that hasn’t been done before for men so that was a real achievement just to get the product range the first time, it took us absolutely ages.  I think the second things was launching for the first time, from what is at that time a concept, an idea for a great business and getting it onto the shelf of the retailer.  We launched nationwide with Sainsbury’s and our first deal was a very challenging process to kind of get that shelf space so that was a great achievement to kick this off.

Any regrets?

We don’t spend too much time retrospectfully looking back and we certainly don’t regret too many decisions we have made I think that is the wrong perspective to have it is all to play for so just be confident and go for it and believe in your idea and go for it.

How did you go about financing your business?

Yes we certainly needed investment because we are competing against the largest companies in the world, multi national companies so we raised some money to get us going from high networking individuals, we probably spoke to around a hundred different people and that is an incredibly hard aspect of getting something off the ground.  In the end we were lucky enough to find 20 or so people who shared our vision for natural products for men and they gave us the money to get going.

What is the pay like and are there any perks?

From a financial perspective starting a business is really demanding, you go through really tough times and there is probably different stages before it launches when you are not personally making any money at all and when the company is in a grown phase your salary is very lean, you are just putting as much back into the business as you can so from a short term financial perspective it is a challenging thing to do.

It is a risk reward thing because it is something you really believe in and you are prepared to go through the down side which is being financially hard up in the short term in order to be something you can really be proud of in the long term.

You are going to be doing this 18 hours a day sometimes more so if it is not something you are really interested in then you are just going to run out of steam and it is going to fall over.  You have got to find something that you believe in to get you out of bed every morning and you want to be at the office helping to progress it forward now doubt.

How long is a working day and do you have to work out of hours?

Again it’s a start up, so we are a small team and we get a lot done, there is demand on everybody’s time, so there are early mornings, there are late nights, I do work weekends, not every weekend, but it is a lot to get done every week. 

I think on the upside there’s no boss clocking me in and kind of clocking me out or watching my time. So that makes it much easier. 

So it is important to be self-motivated and yes it’s busy but it is just the nature of the beast

It doesn’t feel half as tough when you are working for yourself as I would imagine working those kind of hours in a big team where your contribution is diminished or you just don’t get noticed.

Is there much in the way of travel?

As I said we are in eight retailers at the moment so we go to see them regularly.  Most of their offices are in London or within easy reach of London.  We do have a few that are further out so that could be a day trip and I would probably be out of the office doing something probably two days out of the week which is a nice balance.

What is the working environment like?

As I said we are in eight retailers at the moment so we go to see them regularly.  Most of their offices are in London or within easy reach of London.  We do have a few that are further out so that could be a day trip and I would probably be out of the office doing something probably two days out of the week which is a nice balance.

How do you go about starting your own business?

I don’t think there is a tried and tested way to go from idea to launching your business.  Some of the great entrepreneurs have started while they are university without any formal training or they drop out of university to start up a great business and never look back and then other people, and in my experience as well, benefited from working in a couple of companies before striking out by myself.  It just comes down to the individual.  In terms of resources, probably Business Link and probably industry specific information out there relevant to your idea but never enough to feel 100% comfortable before you get going there is always going to be the feeling that you are branching out into the unknown for the first time and taking on a bit of a risk.

What qualifications do you need to be an entrepreneur?

I don’t think there are any qualifications for it but I think it is probably different person by person I think some people can take to it very quickly and will drop out of university and set up fantastic businesses and never look back and I think other people probably benefit from working at a couple of places beforehand and gaining some experience and kind of making a leap to being entrepreneur in later life so there is no hard and fast rule.

What are the key skills required for your job?

Key characteristics I think you need to be passionate about what you are doing first and foremost, I think you have to be creative and pragmatic and I think you need to be persistent in order to cope with knock backs and just keep going to get achieved what you have set out to achieve.

What is your top tip for breaking into your industry?

As I said, you need to be really passionate about what you are doing because you are going to spend a lot of time doing it, so find something that you are really interested in.  I think the second thing is have as sense in yourself about what you are good at and bad at and where you are weak, think about do I need to have a business partner who has got those strengths how can I recruit someone in the team to help me in the areas that I am not so strong about.  Thirdly I think you need to be able to strike the right balance between doing as much research as you can up front to try and understand what you are trying to achieve but then having the confidence to back your instincts to not feel that you have to know everything before you just get out there and give it a go.

What's the career progress and how quickly can you move up the career ladder?

One of the best things about it is it is so liberating because how quickly you develop your career isn’t down to politics or career path or anything age related it is 100% down to how successful you can make the business and that is a very liberating thing.

Is there scope for movement during or after this career?

I think they are really transferable I think doing something like this probably creates more opportunities than it closes them down so I think from my own experience what I have learnt over the past three years will stand me in good stead to try something else out in the future if it came to that.

Where do you see the industry going?

I think people are getting more interested in natural ingredients and what is amazing about them. So I think that will be a trend and just grow and grow and I think people are more and more interesting in supporting ethical businesses and businesses that manufacture everything in the UK and I think as people learn more about the companies they buy their products from I think that can only help small UK based start up companies so I think the future is really bright.

What are the industry resources that someone interested in joining must know about?

In terms of resources there are industry specific resources, the environmental working group Skin Deep a database that has information on these kind of under regulated chemicals in conventional products and then the Business Link is available for very basic tasks about how you start up a business.  From Companies House perspective but really there isn’t much else out there that I could point people to.

What next for Bulldog?

It is an exciting time our plan is to get a BullDog in every bathroom in Britain so we have got a long way to go before we achieve that.  So more work to do in the UK to gain the message out there and then overseas we have had some really good interest from companies overseas and we are just working through those at the moment and thinking about the best ways to make BullDog an international business as well.

If you weren't in this career, what would you be doing?

I used to work in marketing and advertising which was a lot of fun so I would probably still be doing that.