"You just stick to flipping burgers."
Over 11 years ago, I opened my first "proper" solo venture. Having saved up £13,000 from working, I negotiated a rent-free period for a banged-up, strange-shaped unit on Grey Street, and launched Newcastle's first healthy fast food takeaway business.
What we built
- Served over 600,000 meals in our first year of trading.
- Scaled the business into meal prep and grocery delivery.
- Sold oven-baked sweet potato fries next door to a national bakery chain.
- Generated more than £750K revenue, hiring young local staff.
- Sponsored a local, then-unknown fitness personality, giving him unlimited food and a gym membership in return for promotion on his social media (20k followers at the time). He went on to rack up over a million subscribers online.
Running on trading revenue
But it wasn't without its challenges. Being only 23, with limited cash flow apart from trading revenues, we would often encounter stock shortages, staff shortages and equipment failure, to name a few.
To stay agile, we used chalkboard menus so we could "pivot" our menu without anyone realising we couldn't afford certain ingredients that day.
The message I still remember
But after all that, what still sticks with me to this day is a pathetic supply dispute with a renowned business owner in the North East.
The owner said to me:
"Well I am happy for the legal brains to decide who is right and wrong... Good news is loser pays the legal costs... I can afford the risk... And actually happy to press on with matters... Now, I must go back to enjoying my weekend and skiing in Austria. Kind regards and keep flipping them burgers."
The moral of the story? You never know who you cross on this journey. All I can encourage you to do is be kind and empathetic to those you meet along the way.