A former McDonald’s worker has revealed how she sold her brand of alcohol in a deal worth more than a million pounds after launching it on a tight budget.
Sally Wynter, 27, of Haringey, London, said the money was “scarce” for her family as she grew up and the times became so difficult that she relied on free school meals.
However, he saved £ 1,000 on freelance journalism work to launch MUHU, the UK’s first CBD-infused gin, from his bedroom in 2019.
With only a small budget, the expert businesswoman taught herself the skills she needed to start a business, from designing a website to learning trademark law.
Five months into the launch, two investors had bid for the one-woman brand and became a millionaire overnight after selling the beverage label.
Speaking to FEMAIL, he explained: “I didn’t even know what a growing entrepreneur was, I had to look it up on Google when I started.”
Sally Wynter of Haringey, London, has revealed how she sold her alcohol brand in a deal worth more than £ 1 million after launching it on a tight budget.
Sally revealed: “Growing up I didn’t have positive role models. Money was scarce and we often went without it. It made me decide to change things when I was older.
“Because of how I grew up, I felt like I could never be in the right room with the right people.”
She explained that growing up in a low-income household made her work harder: “Going home without eating at home was a family feeling.
“When I was younger we relied on free school meals, and I hadn’t even met anyone with my own business. I had to start a network from scratch.
Sally created MUHU gin with CBD infusion (pictured left) from her bedroom with only £ 1,000 saved from self-employment
“Without social media I would never have been able to get into those circles where I could talk to business people and investors.”
WHAT IS CBD OIL?
CBD oil is a legal cannabinoid that can be sold in the UK.
CBD contains less than 0.2% of the psychoactive substance THC.
Although the oil has been thought to have some medicinal properties, such as relieving inflammation, pain, and anxiety, there is no conclusive science.
Suppliers in England and Wales must obtain a license to sell CBD as a medicine.
Manufacturers can avoid strict regulation by selling it as a food supplement, ignoring the lengthy process of obtaining a medical license.
CBD products come in many forms, the most popular being an oil – which users spray under the tongue – or ice pills that slowly melt in your mouth.
MHRA government advisers found that CBD has a “restorative, corrected, or modifying” effect on humans.
Cannabis oil, which is different from CBD oil because it contains THC, a compound that gives users a “high” – is illegal under UK law.
Billy Caldwell, from Castlederg, Northern Ireland, made headlines last April when he became the first Briton to be prescribed the NHS.
Cannabis oil, which is said to have no side effects, influences the release and absorption of “feel good” chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin.
After catching the entrepreneurial mistake, Sally went through “dozens” of ideas before launching a drink with CBD infusion.
She told mediacatmagazine.co.uk: “I had been making my own drink mixes at home since my sophomore year of college, so when I started going into CBD and seeing all the problems with taste oils bitter, he knew gin would be the perfect choice spirit from which the British could have their first experience with CBD.
“As I saw it, if ‘the worst comes to the worst,’ everyone loves gin. I could sell the bottles at the price of my family and friends.
The entrepreneur started trying different flavors in alcoholic beverages after she got bored during a vacation.
She explained: “I’ve always had an experimental streak, so when it hit a monsoon and didn’t stop for days, I decided to start infusing locally available vodka into jars with things like mango and hibiscus to beat boredom.
A few days after their first infusion, she checked out her experiment and said, “They tasted great, not as artificial as many of the home-flavored gins. I was impressed with how they turned out.
Back in the UK, Sally continued her experiments, saying: “The second phase was to test adaptogens. I would add things like CBD and tea leaves to the mix and each mix had a different feel.
“One was perfect for a night out at the nightclub, while another was much more suitable for a quiet night out with classmates,” he said.
Her homemade mixes quickly became a hit with friends and family, and after six months, Sally decided to try to bring MUHU from the kitchen table to the shelves.
“It was a huge decision because I had no experience,” the entrepreneur admitted.
“I had just graduated from college and didn’t know the first thing I had to do to start a business or create a product.”
After connecting with business owners in the food and beverage space, Sally discovered that most spent tens of thousands on new product launches.
She said: “It looked crazy. £ 20,000 for a label design. It shouldn’t cost that at all.
Sally saved £ 1,000 in freelance journalism work to launch MUHU, the UK’s first CBD-infused gin, from her bedroom in 2019
“Obviously, these kinds of figures were out of my reach, but I was convinced that there should be some way to do it with a smaller budget,” he added.
Realizing that she should learn money-saving skills, the business expert began using blogs, YouTube videos, and contacting LinkedIn to learn how to design a website, brand it, and get press coverage.
‘The biggest phase was the investigation. I had to make sure the idea was viable as a business, ”said the entrepreneur.
“Gin is one of the fastest and most profitable alcoholic beverages to produce, as it can be distilled in as little as 24 hours.
Sally said that she has always had an entrepreneurial spirit and that she started her business out of boredom while on vacation.
“It starts with vodka and then only botanicals are added. It doesn’t need refrigeration and there’s no sales deadline.”
However, she struggled to find a distillery that would support her in developing her product.
She said: “It took months of emails and calls to find a distillery that could help bring MUHU from my kitchen table to a proper production line and I was about to give up.”
After contacting ten distilleries and receiving tens of thousands of quotes for product development, Sally finally signed up with a distillery near Birmingham that agreed to test for free.
Sally admitted that she was close to giving up finding a distillery that could help bring MUHU from the kitchen table to a proper production line.
He added: “The ones I ended up working with were basically the last chance show.”
After nine months of research and preparation, the MUHU was ready to launch.
She said: “This was the hardest part because I had nothing to spend on marketing and Google had banned ads for CBD products, so I had to go to old school; I looked for online press release templates. and I started posting things to reporters I found on Twitter.
To his delight, the absurd combination of CBD with gin raised eyebrows and several national newspapers covered the release, generating thousands of pounds of orders for the drink.
Sally was able to reach an agreement with a global consumer goods company based in the United States after impressing them with how she managed her solo brand.
Sally has moved on to new projects after silently selling her gin brand (pictured), which made her a millionaire overnight.
She said: “It quickly took off, but it was exhausting without a team to support me.
“Doing it all myself was exhausting and I worked more than 60 hours a week to promote the product and try to get it into the bars.”
However, it wasn’t long before several brands saw Sally’s hard work and, impressed with how she had managed to launch her product, offered to buy it.
An agreement was reached with New Frontier Brands, a global consumer goods company based in the United States.
The sale was worth more than £ 1,000,000, and Sally said it “changed her life overnight.”
Despite her success, Sally admitted that she had found the process “exhausting” and said working 60 hours a week had been hard.
Sally said that without social media, she would never have been able to get into the circles needed to talk to business people and investors.
She said: “As a worker, selling has changed my life. It has been a turning point in my life.”
Wynter worked with New Frontier Brands for 18 months as part of the acquisition agreement.
After quietly selling his brand, he is now moving on to new projects and advising other entrepreneurs.
And last month, it went viral on LinkedIn after sharing the news in an exciting post.
She wrote: “The secret has been revealed … It’s been a hell of a journey and I’m honestly trembling at the sound of these words on my keyboard.
After quietly selling his brand, he is now moving on to new projects and advising other entrepreneurs
“After the great struggle to throw MUHU out of my bedroom on a small budget of £ 1,000 … after the fallen sticks of gin, the more than 60 hours a week of unpaid work, which brought my mental health to the limit and … COVID.
‘It happened. It actually happened.
“I can finally share with you all that my first business has been successfully acquired for a sum of seven figures.”
He went on to say, “That is, I … woman, I grew up with free school meals, no positive role models, no experience, no friends or family with money, no co-founder.
‘And when did I start? You’d better think I searched Google for “What is an Entrepreneur?”
“Never let anyone tell you you can’t”
