Dorothy Hegarty tells Courier Business about the Cheesery.
Q Which market do you cater for?
A Our customers tend to appreciate good food and want to support independent local businesses.
Q How many staff do you have?
A It’s mostly me manning the cheese-cutter. At the weekend I have a part-time assistant, and my husband also regularly helps out whenever hecan.
Q How and why did you start in business?
A I thought there was a gap in the market for a quality cheesemonger in Dundee.
We went to St Andrews or further for real cheese until it dawned on me that we were probably not the only ones travelling for it.
I had been looking for suitable premises for a little while before Exchange Street came on to the market, and it seemed in the perfect position for a small new business not too far from the High Street, and the rent was affordable.
Q How did you get where you are today?
A Working hard and having a genuine interest in people from all walks of life. I’m a good listener.
Q Who has helped?
A My family, who have given me help and encouragement from day one. My husband particularly has a lot to put up with sometimesbut please don’t tell him that.
Q What was your biggest mistake?
A Thinking that by working for myself I would have more spare timewhereas in reality you seem to have precious little especially in the early days.
However, I think you do tend to appreciate holidays a lot more and make the most of them.
Q What is your greatest achievement?
A Staying in business. The Cheesery celebrated its fifth birthday in January.
Many people thought it didn’t have a hope of surviving, but I had a hunch the good people of Dundee would appreciate something tasty after all, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen all have cheesemongers, so why shouldn’t Dundee?
As a city ambassador I’m a proud Dundonian and hugely excited by the developments in the city.
Dundee’s vision of the future is ambitious and truly inspirational.
Q How has your business developed?
A Our selection has grown from 26 cheeses to around 65.
We also stock a much wider range of accompaniments and giftware which has grown over the past five years.
Quite a bit of what we stock has come from customer suggestions.
Q What do you hope to achieve?
A To promote small, independent businesses and keep our customers happy.
We recently joined forces with our business friends in Dock Street to promote the area as ‘Downtown Dundee’ in an effort to raise public awareness of this historic part of Dundee.
In this small area we have an excellent French brasserie, vintage clothing store, unique tea and coffee houses, handbag store, bookstore, quality hairdressers, tasty takeaways and lots more besides.
Q What is the hardest thing about running your own business?
A Fitting the rest of your life around it.
Q Any advice to wannabe entrepreneurs?
A Take a bit of time and do your research.
Speak to Business Gateway they have some excellent advice and workshops available.
Bounce your idea off as many people as you can and pay close attention to the reaction.
Try to save a bit towards your project if at all possible so that any initial borrowing is kept to a minimum.
This might help to keep the stress levels down.