Year in Review: 2021

Well, 2021 is over. It’s undeniable. It can’t be denied.

I’ve spent the first few weeks of January recovering from a month of almost non-stop jam making and order packing, which, I’ll be honest, I was quite underprepared for. Everything worked out though and as far as I know all the jam went to the right places and was enjoyed by the right people.

Thanks everyone for supporting my small business during 2021, it’s been fun. I've put together some numbers and stats about the year - read on for more.

- Rikki

How much did you sell?

In total, 616 jars were sold in 2021. November and December were the busiest month due to two new stockists and Christmas presents!

What flavours did you make?

By far the best seller in 2021 was Original. Makes sense, it was the only flavour available for the first 5 months of the year until Wild Garlic came along. Overall I developed and sold 11 different variants of chilli jam!

How much did you make?

In 2021, I sold 616 jars of jam - about 133.3 litres. Adding on the 6.85 litres sold via catering, that means I made 130.05 litres of jam! I looked it up and that's about 1.6 typical UK bathtubs.

Where'd it all go?

You can get Easton Chilli delivered anywhere in the UK, but about 2/3rds of the orders came only from Bristol. This is probably because I focussed most of my advertising spend on Bristol this year.

Where'd the money go?

A portion of each sale from Easton Chilli goes is put aside and donated to charity. The Trussel Trust receives £1 for each jar (retail), each 200ml (catering) and 30% of profit from merch (between £1-2.50). I also donate 1% of online transactions to the Stripe Climate Fund.

I think it's important to be able to quantify any charitable claims a business makes. Otherwise, you're at risk of charity-washing. I put together the graph below to demonstrate Easton Chilli's commitment to charity - it's about 22% of expenses which is significant! The donation represents between 30% and 60% of profit made from each item (since the donation is fixed to £1 per jar, the amount varies depending on the product and whether any wholesale discount applies).

Overall, Easton Chilli just about broke even in 2021, excluding set up costs (which I covered myself). There are definitely a lot of things that can be improved and made more efficient, plus it's just expensive to set up a business - there are lots of hidden costs and trade offs to make.

Some other numbers...

Finally...

THANK YOU again to everyone who supported my small business in 2021!

If you have any thoughts about this post, feel free to DM @eastonchilli on Instagram, or send a message using this form.

Cheers!

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