Richard Woods, 39, took over a bakery and coffee shop with his partner Jillian motivated partly, he says, by an impending mid-life crisis.
“I spoke to so many people who were getting to that age, who were fed up with their lives and wanted something different,” he recalls. “When you get to 40 you start thinking it’s your last chance.”
To make it a bit easier on ourselves we wanted an established business with a good track record
Richard Woods
Buying a business was the preferred option for the couple, who had decided to work for themselves almost a year before alighting on a business they were happy with. “When you start up a business you have to be a lot more involved.
Difficulties
“To make it a bit easier on ourselves we wanted an established business with a good track record,” says Richard.
Their first attempt at buying was fraught with difficulties. “We went through an agency and a lot of the information they provided us with was vague and inaccurate.
“It’s not at all like buying a house. It became apparent during the sale that the turnover was different to what we had been told: they’d overstated it by £80k.
“Also, the lease wasn’t as they had advertised it: there were only three years left instead of the 10 they had initially told us. They then said we could extend it, but at an additional cost of £1.5k, which I thought was rather cheeky.
“In the end we decided it wasn’t a viable option, so that fell through and we found this one.”
The couple had been looking at various businesses, and despite neither of them having a background in catering, they paid £135k for a bakery and coffee shop combo, because it looked as though it would be profitable.
They had a clear idea of what they wanted out of their new life, as Richard explains: “I’ve managed garages and businesses with anything from £15m to £30m turnover, so I wasn’t worried about the day-to-day running of a business — in any case, Jillian would be handling that.
“It was more important to find something close to home, something that wasn’t going to be a drain on our time. Although we have an early start, finishing at three means we still get to spend quality time with our children.”
The character of the employees was also important to Richard. “I was looking for a business which had long-term existing staff.
Staff
“The age profile was really important. We wanted the bulk of the staff to be between 30 and 40, where you don’t get those phone calls to say they aren’t coming in because they had too much to drink the night before. We wanted established, settled and responsible people who we knew we could trust and rely on.”
