Role: Founder
Company: Slender Choice
Track Record:
Track Record
Co Armagh born Karen Daly set up Slender Choice, a range of delicious and nutritious foods that won’t affect your waistline, in November 2010 with her husband Frank. Karen graduated from Queens University Belfast with a degree in Information Management and Economics and built a successful career in the recruitment industry. She worked for over eight years as an operations manager for a Dublin based firm, heading up their Dundalk operation. In 2008 after the birth of her first son Aaron, Karen lost over four stone which brought her on a journey that would ultimately change her life forever. Passionate about helping other people lose weight, Karen decided to pursue a new career in weight management and has since set up the Dundalk-based Slender Choice Academy, which today helps hundreds to lose weight each week. In 2010 the couple began supplying a range of hand-made meals and low fat sausages and burger to retailers across Ireland. Today Slender Choice supplies all Ireland’s leading retailers including Tesco, Dunnes, SuperValu and exclusively SPAR & EUROSPAR in NI and will launch in the UK in January 2015. Karen is also studying an MSc in Weight Management to further her knowledge and skills in this area.
7-7.30am No need for an alarm in our house. Each morning between 7 and 7.30am we will hear the patter of little feet across our landing as Jamie (3) wakes up to run in and tell us “I had a good sleep!” before hopping in for a quick cuddle. We then head in to wake up the older boy Aaron (6). Once every-one is awake, it is time for brekkie.
8am Breakfast… everyone else starts the day with porridge or Weetabix and a cup of tea. Whereas, I have my usual green tea and two boiled eggs with beetroot.
8.10am With everyone fed, I jump into the shower and get ready.
8.30am I try to be organised the night before and know what everyone is wearing and it helps things run smoothly in the morning!
9.00am Drop the boys to Frank’s mums and we (Frank and myself) are in the office before 9.30am.
9.30am This morning we are meeting with our designers regarding our pack-aging for the UK launch in January — I love this part of the role. With so much competition in the UK market it is so important we get it right… meeting over by 10.30am with lots yet to be decided but timelines are set in place.
11am Every day we try to spend one hour replying to emails and customer requests through social media, etc. It always gives us so much joy when a customer contacts us with positive feed-back, explaining how our foods are really making a big difference to their overall diet and health.
12noon Orders generally come in each day by noon and it’s critical that we keep an eye for variations to ensure we have sufficient stock in our distribution centre. Today orders are high with the hot weather as sausages are in huge demand as a result of the summer BBQ weather. It sounds like a good problem to have, but there is nothing more frustrating than having demand and not being able to meet it. A few phone calls later and we are sorted — an extra production run and a second delivery is booked to the retailer and the problem solved. No better feeling that getting a good resolution. I started working on our promotions with the retailer for the winter but this will have to wait until tomorrow.
1pm As a healthy food company I know how important it is to eat regularly so no matter how busy our day, we try to eat between 12 and 2pm. Within our academy offices we have a full kitchen which is used for product development and cookery demos so we have no excuses for not eating well. Today it’s our own delicious Tasty Thai Red Curry with only 250Kcals. A couple of glasses of water, a cup of green tea and a handful of grapes and it’s back to work.
1.30pm Social media takes up approximately one hour each day. Scheduling posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest can be time consuming-but it is an invaluable part of our business and we appreciate the support that we receive via these channels.
2.30pm Once a week we quality check all products. Products are checked on taste, appearance, labelling, packaging etc and as an eternal slimmer these are products I enjoy regularly, so this is an-other nice part of the job. Once that’s done work continues on the product development for our new meals launching in January 2015. Recipes are nearly there, but it is always more difficult taking a dish I love to cook at home and then matching that with what is possible for large scale production — this can be challenging. However, when it works out we jump up and down.
4pm We also manage our Slender Choice Academy which runs weight loss and cookery courses. All enquires get a response within 24 hours and today I am organising the schedule for the Back to School course in September. This is a six-week weight loss course with live cookery demos and I do all the cooking myself so plenty of prep.
5pm Off home to pick up the boys. I love getting home to cook dinner for them and this evening we are having our family favourite, sausages (Slender Choice of course!) new potatoes and onion gravy.
6pm Dinner made by six and then its family time — a beautiful evening and it’s great to be able to spend it in the garden, a little bit of footie followed by a quick shower for two sweaty kids.
7.30pm Jamie’s bedtime which involves brushing teeth, saying his prayers and a bedtime story. Jamie is the best sleeper in the world and is conked out in less than 10 minutes.
8.30pm Aaron is a different story, especially with these bright evenings — he would love to stay up all night. He’s in bed by 8.45pm.
9pm A quick tidy up and then it’s great to finally settle down for the evening with Frank — we love to make a cup of tea and have a little treat which is usually a Ruffle bar or a Kit Kat for me. Tonight it’s a Crunchie!
11pm Every night we make a list of the things to be done the next day and get the clothes for the boys and ourselves organised for the next morning. Tonight its 11.45pm and we’re tucked up for the night, excited about what tomorrow may bring.