In our latest series of articles, we look at players maximising their football career through their off-field activity.
For a long time, Callum Saunders wasn’t really sure where he was going in life. Despite playing 27 games in the Football League for Crewe Alexandra – and a handful for Notts County – he found himself dropping into non-league at the age of 22. Having been in the academy system with Crewe since the age of 6, football was all that he’d ever known.
For a time, he found work as an Amazon delivery driver. But the question remained: what was he going to do? Sure, he had some qualifications from Crewe, but they weren’t that advantageous. And yes, he knew football, but if he wanted to go into coaching it’d be a long path ahead.
And then one evening, it hit him: ‘Me and my mate (fellow footballer Declan Poole) have always been interested in business,’ he said. ‘We both follow George Heaton, who owns Represent, and knew we wanted to do something along those lines. But the clothing market is saturated, and I’m not really into fashion. So we sat down and asked ourselves “what do we like, what can we sell?”’.
As they were brainstorming in the living room, a cry came from the next room. Declan’s dog, it turned out, was struggling to eat.
The idea sparked. They loved dogs. They both owned lots of dogs. And so together, Callum and Declan would launch their own dog bowl under the name of EasyEat. Only, it wasn’t quite that simple. ‘I went home and researched how to do it,’ said Callum. ‘We needed to turn our idea into a product. Eventually I found a company called Idea Reality who could do just that. It seemed expensive, and it was a real risk, but we decided we’d have to go through with it.’
Their journey has been one of constant adjustments. Traditional dog bowls have been around for more than half a century. EasyEat’s dog bowl, however, transforms the traditional design to improve the feeding experience. Getting consumers to embrace their innovative design, where the bowl sits above floor level, has taken some persuasion.
‘That’s where the skills I’ve picked up from football have come in handy,’ said Callum. ‘I’ve been at quite a few clubs and each time you move you have to make friends quickly in the changing room. I’ve learned to be personable and confident, which means I’m happy to approach people and sell them a product, and also to ask other business owners for advice. The routine I’ve had from football, along with the discipline, also help me with my business. Instead of training, my routine now involves packaging and doing my emails.’
From that single spark, EasyEat is now ‘coming along nicely’, providing Callum with a new career alongside his commitments with semi-professional side Nantwich Town. For any other footballers considering enhancing their game with off-pitch activity, Callum had some advice: ‘Look outside the box. Growing up in football, you want to fit in and be the same as everyone else, whether that’s wearing the same clothes or doing the same things. When you get older you realise that none of that matters, so think differently and do what you enjoy.’
Find out more about EasyEat at www.easyeatofficial.com/
Follow EasyEat on social media - @EasyEatOfficial
Comentarios