For many, taking the leap to commit to running their business can take time, and can be daunting. Surrounded by positive and supportive communities however, the transition to running Trupig Vegan full-time came with minimal stress and setbacks. “I’d always had three or four jobs at once, so being able to do this on the side was pretty easy. I play roller derby and that was where our first community was built from because I’d have stalls at games and events, and a lot of people at roller derby are vegan anyway” Lily recalls. “So it had a ready-made market, as it were, where everyone’s really supportive. So that’s kind of what grew Trupig, and got the word out in the first place – we’d go and play different teams and then they’d hear about it and they put in orders too”.

For Ian on the other hand, transitioning to committing fully to Trupig came with a little more complication, being a Civil Servant at the time. “For Ian, it was way harder because he had a real job with a pension and stability, and he’d done it for 20 years; that was like a difficult process”, reflects Lily. Chocolatiering became a positive outlet for Ian, who talks openly about mental health through their platform, as Lily goes on to mention. “Ian had been off with anxiety and depression for about 18 months, and it was a really long road to get any redundancy and be able to get what he was owed. So we didn’t really know what we were doing at that time and Trupig became a helpful outlet for him to be able to help pack the orders and have our own space.”