When your business dream is a nightmare


11 April 2007 15:00

For many, whisking up top-notch cappuccinos while chatting to customers and listening to great music sounds like the perfect job.

But while for the majority a venture like this will always be a pipe dream, a few risk takers give up their well-paid jobs to pursue their dreams.

But sometimes they soon discover the dream can turn into a nightmare and the vision of having a relaxing time serving cups of coffee in a trendy cafe ends the minute they start the business.

New research has shown that small business owners are the most overworked and underpaid people working in the UK.

A recent survey, carried out by small business insurer Zurich, found that many were working a seven-day week, putting in more than 12 hours per day, not taking lunch breaks and having no holidays - and taking home less than £20,000 per year for their hard work.

For more than 70pc of small business owners, their jobs include customer services, sales, operations, supply chain management, HR, risk management, premises and marketing.

Many small business owners in Norwich are making such little profit that they are sailing very close to the wind.

When Andy Ridoutt bought a building in Upper St Giles in Norwich to convert it into a cafe, he was fulfilling a burning ambition.

But it did not take long for the freelance cameraman to watch that dream become a nightmare.

A year after he bought the cafe, he has sold it to Tony Burlingham, who runs the Beeches Hotel in Norwich.

“Running a cafe is not as glamorous as it seems, because as soon as everyone else has gone you are left to graft,” he said.

Now he is back at his old job, filming Norwich City matches for Sky TV.

“Running a cafe is one of those things that every man says they would like to do. Whereas the majority of people talk about it, I did it.

“I don't regret it because it is something that was a burning ambition in me and it's made me realise how difficult it is to run a small business. These business owners are not making themselves rich, it is long hours and hard work and it's a case of survival for many of them.”

So why was it such a nightmare?

The day Mr Ridoutt opened Cafe Ninety One in December 2005 the manager chef he had hired did not turn up.

He ended up being the chef - despite having no training, while also ordering stock, accepting deliveries and managing staff.

Two weeks later a woman fell through his cellar hatch, which landed him with a £4,000 fine.

And despite ploughing tens of thousands of pounds into renovating the former toy shop, winning the best cafe category in the Evening News Life Matters Independent Style Awards 2006 and attracting praise from customers, most of the time the cafe failed to break even, let alone make a profit.

“When the Beeches approached me it was the first offer I had ever had on it. It was a horrendous decision as my heart was telling me to stay, as I was enjoying the socialising, but it was hard work and my head was saying take the money and run, here is an opportunity top get your life back.”

Throughout his year there, he worked from 5am to 7pm every day, never took lunch breaks or paid himself a salary.

“It is a 24-hour seven job because your head is never free. You cannot let go. My original aim was to get a manager in and I would carry on doing the TV, but that didn't happen. I was thrown in at the deep end.”

He was the one accepting deliveries at 7.30am, working as a chef, cleaning, designing the menus and running the kitchen. He soon closed on Mondays “for sanity and to gain his breath”.

But that meant he had to face the wrath of customers who had walked across the city only to find he was closed.

He became the face of the business and was under pressure to be there the whole time. Despite his hard work and success at pulling in customers, the business was making a loss.

“Paying a salary to my staff was the biggest drain on my business,” he said. “All my money was going on staff wages. I personally was living off the TV business.”

He said most of his staff saw it as a transient job, often a stopgap between school and university.

“The day you think you are going to have a day off that is the very day that everything goes wrong, staff don't turn up and the suppliers phone you up and say they can't deliver.”

He had to keep on top of employment law and described health and safety as “a constant worry at the back of your head”.

“I think anything in the catering trade is a complete nightmare - there is so much red tape and legislation, there are so many authorities that you have got to be answerable to. There is less to worry about if you are selling paintings - you have to just got to hang them on the wall.”

Two weeks after he opened the cafe a woman fell through his cellar hatch. Mr Ridoutt was fined £4,000 at Norwich Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to failing to undertake measures to ensure the safety of members of the public.

“That was a complete nightmare. I had done proper risk assessments, it was just an unfortunate accident, but it did not put me off running the business.

“Now I look at small businesses and appreciate how hard they are struggling to make a living. Almost every independent shop in Norwich is fighting for survival.

“As far as I can see, the only way you can make money is if you are a chain and if you've got the infrastructure like the Beeches has - you have more buying power and clout and that's when you can start making money.

“As a one man band you have not got a hope in hell.”