Some of you may know that I've been in a very dark place for the last year or so. I have really hated what I do and wanted more than anything to get away from it. I used to think that rule about bad things happening in three's has some kind of weight behind it, but seeing as bad things happened to me in fives and sixes and then got worse even after that I guess its as full of shit as that one about apples and immortality.
We'll I wont go into the gory details but the long and short of it is that I lost a hell of a lot of money opening sandwich shops in London, that actually made money. I know that sounds weird but believe me it can happen and it sucks. What sucks more is at the start if this year before the food price went though the roof and all this credit crunch bollocks we were valued at around 2 million and we refused 500,000 worth of funding before the markets fell. Hindsight is a motherfucker, best to just ignore it.
Luckily I could see this coming faster than my idiot business partner, who's job it was to see stuff like this coming. So back in april of this year I set about starting to sell my Scottish business which at the time was going really well.
So I succeeded in doing that last week just in time before the news that the business down here was closing. If it had been any later than is probably wouldn't have gone though. I suppose I should be thankful or jump up and down happy but to be honest I'm just so tired from the whole thing that I don't know what to feel. I guess I'm relieved more than anything and relaxed for the first time in a year. I had to tell all my staff they were out of a job before Christmas yesterday and that was very unpleasant. Luckily my staff were understanding. I feel the most for them out of this (that could be a lie). Some of them have been with me for three years now and unlike a lot of staff in this industry really have stuck by me. So the last few weeks that we trade its really about getting as much money to them as we can so they can have a decent christmas.
On top of this my plan to go to the cookery school I wanted to go to succeeded. I start in April. Before that I'm going to just relax and maybe take a holiday which I haven't done in over five years. I'm also taking Helen to The Fat Duck, She's been a rock in all this and to be honest without her some of my darker thoughts though all this might have carried more weight.
So was it all worth it ?
God yes. I've not been put off doing it again, i just need a break. The lessons I learned though is to build things up gradually and not to throw all your money into something until you model is working perfectly. Success is not just when something is popular, its when its popular and making the right sort of profit. We bet a hell of a lot of money on getting discount food prices by buying in bulk. Historically that would have seemed like a given but like betting on stocks I guess we didn't see the global food crises fucking up all our plans as it did. That on top of a couple of schoolboys that I wont make again in a hurry doesn't paint a disastrous picture of what we did. We were just unlucky for the most and did things at the wrong time.
But its all over now and very soon once I've shifted this cold I should be back to my old self...sorry about that.
We'll I wont go into the gory details but the long and short of it is that I lost a hell of a lot of money opening sandwich shops in London, that actually made money. I know that sounds weird but believe me it can happen and it sucks. What sucks more is at the start if this year before the food price went though the roof and all this credit crunch bollocks we were valued at around 2 million and we refused 500,000 worth of funding before the markets fell. Hindsight is a motherfucker, best to just ignore it.
Luckily I could see this coming faster than my idiot business partner, who's job it was to see stuff like this coming. So back in april of this year I set about starting to sell my Scottish business which at the time was going really well.
So I succeeded in doing that last week just in time before the news that the business down here was closing. If it had been any later than is probably wouldn't have gone though. I suppose I should be thankful or jump up and down happy but to be honest I'm just so tired from the whole thing that I don't know what to feel. I guess I'm relieved more than anything and relaxed for the first time in a year. I had to tell all my staff they were out of a job before Christmas yesterday and that was very unpleasant. Luckily my staff were understanding. I feel the most for them out of this (that could be a lie). Some of them have been with me for three years now and unlike a lot of staff in this industry really have stuck by me. So the last few weeks that we trade its really about getting as much money to them as we can so they can have a decent christmas.
On top of this my plan to go to the cookery school I wanted to go to succeeded. I start in April. Before that I'm going to just relax and maybe take a holiday which I haven't done in over five years. I'm also taking Helen to The Fat Duck, She's been a rock in all this and to be honest without her some of my darker thoughts though all this might have carried more weight.
So was it all worth it ?
God yes. I've not been put off doing it again, i just need a break. The lessons I learned though is to build things up gradually and not to throw all your money into something until you model is working perfectly. Success is not just when something is popular, its when its popular and making the right sort of profit. We bet a hell of a lot of money on getting discount food prices by buying in bulk. Historically that would have seemed like a given but like betting on stocks I guess we didn't see the global food crises fucking up all our plans as it did. That on top of a couple of schoolboys that I wont make again in a hurry doesn't paint a disastrous picture of what we did. We were just unlucky for the most and did things at the wrong time.
But its all over now and very soon once I've shifted this cold I should be back to my old self...sorry about that.
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You deserve to be happy. And you will be.