If We Can, You Can

Author:

Joyce Mead

Business:

Scholars

Published:

26/01/2010 10:57:00

Before I started my business, Scholars Restaurant, I was PA to a Local District Council Chief Executive. Alf, my husband was (and still is) a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy.

I had reached the top of the tree as far as the job with the Council was concerned, and my defining moment came when I realised that I wanted more out of life.

In 2006, visitors to my office and my friends were all talking about the Jamie Oliver ‘Better School Lunches’ campaign. I noticed that whether they loved or loathed their school lunches on the TV programme, everybody had a smile on their face (just remember prunes and custard and try not to smile… even if you do grimace too!)

I thought that good, honest, English food was a reasonably good bet for our local town (Darlington) as I couldn’t think of any restaurants selling similar homemade meals. I began to make enquiries.

My initial idea then somehow snowballed into a business plan, talking to ‘experts’ and looking for properties. My aspiration for the business was that the restaurant was going to be the best eating place in Darlington for English food. A place where people knew they’d come for a well cooked, honest to goodness meal with staff giving a friendly service.

The first person I sought out when I began to think of the restaurant as a serious proposition was my husband. To commit to such a venture (and to lose a regular salary and pension) needed to be thought out properly.

He said yes, and I then went to see a business manager in Barclays Bank. When he didn’t laugh me out of his office, Alf and I approached Business Link and set up a meeting with an advisor.

We found an old, dilapidated building which we wanted to transform into the 86 cover restaurant. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple as I had to deal with both the owners of the property and the company subletting it to me. Due to the sheer number of people involved it caused a lot of delays, but we finally opened Scholars Restaurant in February 2009.

The building was a charity shop when we moved in and it was in a very poor state. We needed to remove walls, re-plaster, build walls and bathrooms, a staff room and staff toilet. We totally rewired the place and installed CCTV and a full alarm system…. I could go on and on!

I brought in a builder who was eager to have some commercial experience to show his future clients, and I found a designer who was newly out of college with excellent grades (with the added bonus of owning her own catering business). When the Health and Safety executive officer arrived on the site and was greeted by two women and no builder (he was out getting some timber) I could see he was envisioning a nightmare scenario.

But I’m proud to say that he looked through all paperwork, saw we were doing everything by the book (including reading it cover to cover first!), which apparently isn’t always the case. The only comment he made was to go and buy safety boots as stilettos on site was a ‘safety no- no’, and then he left us to it. We never saw him again so he missed us looking like two failed dancers from River Dance in our heavy boots. Shame!

It’s been a hard rollercoaster to ride and turning the dilapidated building into the restaurant was a huge feat in itself, but I think our greatest success has been the way in which our reputation has grown. It hasn’t come as quickly as I had hoped, but we now have a very good reputation for quality food and service. I’m immensely proud of that, and of my staff of 12 people.

Our biggest challenge was getting money through lease purchases in the middle of the worst worldwide financial crisis in living memory. We didn’t have any catering experience to recommend us which made getting finance a little difficult.

In the end we mortgaged our house and gave our cars as added collateral. I did offer my blood group to support the bid which may have swung the deal.

Mistakes-wise, in hindsight I would keep my paperwork up to date more. I’m hopeless at it and it leads me to panic about where the business stands financially and legally. I sleep better when I know all my bills are up to date! I leave the bank manager to lose sleep over my overdraft. He gets paid for that, not me!

I also bought some decorations before the building was ready, which was a big mistake. You never know what a building will need or can carry until it’s ready so, unless you really KNOW that you’ll be needing that immense easel or the two massive pictures of a knife and fork, once you get the furniture and colour schemes in place, they may be surplus to requirements.

The money I spent on marketing without having a package put together was a waste (in fact I find it hard to talk about it!) With hindsight I’d have done a lot more printing out of leaflets and walking the high street to talk to people. This is what has brought me the most response – although one local paper has been a godsend. It is cheap and accessible, unlike the nationals that keep getting in touch with me to sell advertising!

It’s been a tough run, judging by the fact that I’ve lost 2 and a half stone and I don’t sleep as much! I don’t get to see my friends as often as I’d like and if I only I could stop thinking about the business so much I could relax! It does take guts and stamina to have your own business but you’ve also got to have that sense that you will not be beaten.

Being confident in yourself and your product and making sure your financial backing reflects that confidence is, I am sure, the only way you’ll make headway. Family, staff and finance are all crucial support too. I feel that if you have those three and are able to bring in experts in their fields (such as HR), then you’re already ahead of the game.