Miss Macaroon was set up in 2011 with a dual purpose: to create the most premium macaroons on the market, while providing workplace skills to unemployed young people. From starting out with just one team member, a small kitchen space and £500 in the bank, Rosie Ginday MBE, Founder and CEO, has now gone on to build one of Birmingham’s most well renowned social enterprises.
Ginday combined her passion for quality food – born from her training as a high-end pastry chef at University College Birmingham and her work in Michelin starred restaurant, Purnell’s in Birmingham – with that for helping under-served young people. Miss Macaroon provides moments of indulgence for their customers, selling sweet treats to consumers, companies and through retailers like Selfridge’s.
Foundational to the social enterprise arm are the 8-10 weeks training courses that run alongside the small business, to support economically disadvantaged young people or those with social difficulties. After a close relative had a bad experience with the UK care system, Ginday works tirelessly to provide opportunities for the next generation, whether they are seeking a step on the career ladder or just to build confidence.
The numbers bring it home. Under 1% of young people in the UK have lived in care, but that community makes up one in four of the prison population and the same in the homeless population. It was important that, as well as seeing people in this demographic flourish personally and professionally in what is a highly competitive industry, Ginday would be able to reinvest the profit of her macaroon business back into its flagship training programme; to onboard more people and improve the accompanying wellness and counselling sessions.
However, effectively running two adjacent organisations – a small business and a social enterprise – comes with its challenges. Many of these are grounded in financial management, which required a digital solution to give her oversight of a thriving operation.
The challenge: Funding two different businesses
Balancing the responsibilities of a small business and a social enterprise, and ensuring profits can be reinvested into the latter, is an unusual challenge. For Miss Macaroon to commit to its vision and mission, it’s critical to have the resources to run both the manufacturing business and training organisation.
Miss Macaroon earned a place on both the NatWest accelerator and the Goldman Sachs 10,000 small businesses programme, helping put the foundations in place for it to move into retail partnerships. But there’s still a need to find sufficient funding to sustain both sides of the organisation – a challenge compounded by the increasing cost of energy and ingredients. Beyond that, lower consumer spending and confidence is being felt particularly when it comes to buying premium gifts. All finances needed to be tracked closely and reported to Ginday’s board of advisors, to prove that new initiatives and expansion are viable.
Changes in consumer spending and attitudes
Despite customers pulling back on spending, many want to give back through conscious consumerism, a trend that has benefitted Miss Macaroon. In previous years, people didn’t identify so much with social causes. If they purchased from one, it was an added benefit. Even if consumers want to do the right thing, they often don’t know where or with which organisation to start. At the same time, some commercial organisations put some resources behind social initiatives, but not in a strategic way.
But Miss Macaroon is feeling the benefit of engaging a more considered customer base, as bigger businesses focus more on doing good in the community through the suppliers they work with. The Fairer Futures Programme – a collaboration between Miss Macaroon and the Your Co-op store in Walsall – is just one example of how Rosie Ginday is creating a platform through which buying macaroons is driving genuine social change. The bespoke partnership offers a 9-12 weeks course to help prepare young people for a happy, fulfilling work life – 41 of whom have come through the programme with 75% moving into work.
Ginday said: “I get so much out of running Miss Macaroon. As well as seeing young people flourish in a highly competitive industry, learning to work confidently and collaboratively in the pressurised environment of a professional kitchen, I know my customers are also investing in them. By believing in our products, they are believing in disadvantaged young people across the UK. That’s my reward, and a digital finance platform makes it easier for us to make a difference.”
Financial management and late payments
Small businesses are often impacted by late payments from suppliers or corporate customers, and Miss Macaroon is no exception. The business is fortunate to have some reliable customers buying direct to consumer, but wholesale accounts tend to take longer to pay their invoices, which can have a detrimental effect on a small business.
Technology sits at the heart of Miss Macaroon. Ginday is not shy of innovation, having developed a proprietary algorithm that matches the colour of a macaroon to bespoke branding for corporate orders. But there was also an opportunity to transform the organisation’s financial management via the adoption of digital platforms. She started a search for one that would be easy enough to integrate into day-to-day operations, help plan ahead for any scenario and ensure that the commercial and social arms of Miss Macaroon were not only stable, but successful.
The tool: Creating certainty through financial software
Miss Macaroon transitioned to Xero’s software around 10 years ago, due to its range of features that transform financial management processes. The intuitive platform is a small business staple and has allowed Ginday to create financial plans and budgets, monitor cash flow in real-time, digitise invoices and automate reminders and ultimately track the performance and financial dependencies of the commercial and social businesses.
Time put back into the business
As founder of a social enterprise small business, time is a commodity for Ginday. Since implementing Xero, Ginday has trusted the technology to create and track customised invoices and streamline their management, saving hours of time on what was previously a manual task. Re-claiming this time means it can be invested into more pressing areas of the business, like developing the online training programme or finding candidates through their referral network.
Planning ahead
With consumer confidence somewhat unpredictable, and some down periods to be expected, Ginday has been able to work on budgets and plan for a range of scenarios – from wherever she is, on whichever device. Knowing how best to prepare for different periods of the retail calendar – while ensuring there is enough investment in the training programme – has been hugely beneficial. The same can be said when Miss Macaroon takes on big projects, like the Kickstart scheme – one of the government’s employment programmes to help young people into work post-COVID-19. The scheme was a six-month paid placement helping to provide early work experience, for which Ginday has been able to use Xero’s cash flow forecasting to show her board of advisors how and why they can fund it.
“Travelling in a taxi and sending an invoice from my phone is an amazing way for me to keep on top of my finances and manage my business on the move,” said Ginday.
Ease of use
While Ginday works with an accountant, having autonomy through an accessible platform to undertake financial tasks herself, such as downloading and collaborating on reports with her board of advisors, takes some of the stress out of finances. Ginday’s bank feeds are updated in real-time in the Xero platform, meaning she can quickly access information and management accounts when needed. The simplicity of the Xero platform has transformed the way Ginday and her advisors work for the better.
Goals for the future
Ginday is looking ahead to an impactful future for Miss Macaroon with digital at the heart of the business. It is increasingly working with larger corporates across several sectors to co-create social impact programmes that can change young people’s lives. These All Rise Partnerships boost employee engagement and wellbeing, address talent gaps and drive innovation and inclusive working practices. As Miss Macaroon grows in this way, Ginday is focusing on developing integrated data systems to demonstrate to corporate partners, not only the social impact for the young people they’re supporting, but the financial savings to the public purse and the impacts on their own organisation. Xero will form a key source of a chunk of this data.