Young Entrepreneurs - Fraser Doherty

Fraser Doherty started his jam-making business at the age of 14.

In an interview with Make Your Mark, he described his entrepreneurial journey.

I have always been a big fan of jam and since I was about eight years old I had lots of little projects on the go, trying different ways of making pocket money.

I suppose in some ways it was inevitable that I would start my own food business given that enterprise and food have always been my two passions in life!

The catalyst came when my Gran taught me her top secret jam recipe and I had something of a 'eureka' moment when I realised I could make jam myself and sell it door to door in the local area.

Fraser's jams and marmalades were an instant hit when he started selling them door to door, and demand from farmers' markets and delis soon had him producing up to 1000 jars per week in his kitchen at home.

Some of Fraser's early success was due to his previous selling experience - he had been selling bacon door to door for two years, and was the wholesaler's top salesboy in Edinborough before starting his jam business.

In 2004, aged just fifteen, Fraser won an Enterprising Young Brit award.

He encountered some of the obsctacles which typically frustrate young entrepreneurs, such as being unable to join a business networking organisation because he was under sixteen.

Despite the difficulties of being such a young business owner, Fraser took a businessman's eye to his business. Noticing that the overall market for jams was in decline, he identified a niche and began innovating his products.

Probably the hardest thing I've had to do so far has been finding a way of making jam without using any sugar at all. This has taken about four months to develop but I am now able to make 100% fruit jams, sweetened with fruit juice rather than sugar.

These are very healthy and with more than two thirds of people in this country overweight or obese, the demand for these is clearly massive. The major supermarkets have expressed an interest in stocking them once I'm able to produce large enough volumes, so things are getting increasingly exciting and also very challenging.

The sugar-free jams were launched in 2006.

By the time he was seventeen, his jams were being stocked by major supermarket chains. Michael Simpson Jones, the buyer of preserves for Waitrose, said, "Waitrose has a long history of working with smaller scale suppliers, like Fraser, as it allows us to offer customers real diversity of choice.

"I was bowled over by Fraser's passion as a producer, and that a 17-year-old had such strong entrepreneurial skills.

"Fraser has managed to take a product that's regarded as old-fashioned and has completely reinvented it, giving it an up-to-date make-over."

The rapid growth eventually forced Fraser to spend his "gap year" between high school and university organising production of his jams in a factory, a challenging process, which was filmed for a Channel 4 documentary.

He is now a university student in Glasgow, studying business and accounting. He says that he is prepared to take time off from his studies if the pressures of business require it.

Once my time gets ‘jam-packed' I'd probably end up making a bad job of uni and the business if I tried to do them both.

Chin up, Fraser, it might not come to that - Ben Casnocha is managing to "have it all"!

Fraser's advice to other young entrepreneurs from his Make Your Mark interview?

I don't think there's anything inherently difficult about having an idea, starting a business or growing it into a career. The difficulty lies in motivating yourself to get up in the mornings and keep working at the idea until it is finally a success.

Anyone could achieve what I have with just a lot of hard work and a bit of imagination. You really don't need to reinvent the wheel and the best businesses are usually very simple. I started mine in an afternoon with a dozen oranges and a bag of sugar.

That was something anyone could have done, but it's something which has taken a lot of hard work, sacrifice and determination to make into what it is today. I suppose people should just give their idea a shot and if it doesn't work out, try something else.