Starting out

It was like a scene from Changing Rooms when PubChef visited the Crown in Dial Post, West Sussex.

New owners James Burn and Penny Hawes had only just picked up the keys to their new venture and had drafted in dozens of family members and friends to help prepare the pub to open in two days. Paint pots, cleaning solution, ladders, wallpaper strippers and bodies were everywhere.

"Getting the keys and opening our door for the first time was an amazing feeling," says James. "But now we've got to take a step back, get our heads down and get on with running the pub as a business."

James used to be head chef at the award-winning Green Man Inn in Partridge Green, West Sussex, a few miles away and hopes to transform the Crown into a destination pub for diners. But he has his work cut out.

The Crown was bought for £585,000 at the beginning of August but the scale of work needed to achieve James' dream may cost another £100,000.

James and Penny have a 50:50 share of the business with partners Dewar and Alison Donnithorne-Tait.

"It was always at the back of my mind that I wanted my own place, but I didn't have the confidence to go it alone - it's such a huge step," says James. "But now I've got fantastic support from my business partners Dewar and Alison."

James is looking forward to the new challenges of becoming a businessman, but all his experience lies in the kitchen.

"I started in pubs at the age of 13 washing up," he says. "At 15 I started making omelettes and when I turned 16 I began my YTS. I moved on to contract catering, but worked in pubs at weekends. I just can't get pubs out of my system. Once you're in one pub you just can't get away."

But before James allows punters through his doors, it's all hands on deck to get the pub fit for trading.

"We've got 30 friends and family in here helping us," says James. "It's been a fantastic bonus to get all that support. It's really fortunate we both come from this area - someone from outside would have found it hard to get this up and running. It would have either taken them weeks or they would have spent a fortune on contract cleaners.

"Even with everybody's help, Penny and I were here painting until 1am last night and back at 8am. We aim to open at lunchtime on Thursday, although we may be looking at extending that to Thursday night."

The pub will be non-smoking from the start, says James. "We've not spent all that time, effort and money painting and cleaning just to have to do it all again when the smoking ban comes in. This will be a food-led pub but we really want people to come in to drink and socialise and bring back the community feel to the place."

He wants the pub to have a good local following. He will start with two real ales and introduce a third as custom builds. The conservatory, which was the pool room, will get sofas and coffee tables for hot

beverages during the day and pre and post-dinner drinks.

There is already a buzz around the village about the new arrivals and James hopes word of mouth will be his main advertising tool.

But he says: "When it comes to attracting people from further afield, we will need some sort of marketing strategy. There are a lot of people in the surrounding area that already know me from the Green Man so that will definitely help."

Being a chef may be James's forté, but already the task of running a business has forced him to become a site manager, decorator and cleaner. Over the next year, we'll find out what else the future holds.

Life as your own boss

Approximate number of hours

slept each night: seven

Approximate number of hours worked per week: 120 in week one, but now averaging about 80

Number of days off: one per week

Biggest nightmare: lack of decent fridges

Best bit: the amazing customer reaction

Average stress level (out of 10): two in the opening week, but now we've got going that's up to about seven

Happiness level (out of 10): 9

Crown business plan

The Crown, Worthing Road, Dial Post, West Sussex, RH13 8NH

www.floatingcrown.co.uk

Chef/co-proprietor: James Burn

On the market for: £695,000

Bought for: £585,000, including upstairs flat

Investment budget: £100,000 maximum

Budget to rebuild and extend kitchen: £40,000

Number of covers: 54 in restaurant, 25 in bar, 20 in the conservatory and 30 outside

Guest bedrooms: two

Projected turnover: £150,000 in year one and then £250,000

Crown 'is our destiny'

Having climbed their respective career ladders, James and Penny decided they wanted to run their own business.

"We wanted this pub before we knew it was for sale," says James. "We came in for a drink one day and just knew we could do something great with it."

James will take charge of the kitchen, while Penny will run front of house. She's given up her career in marketing and promotions, working with the likes of Mercedes, BMW and Wimbledon to follow the dream. But she has pubs in her blood too - her grandparents used to run the Crown in the 1960s.

"When we decided to get our own place we did an internet search to find out what was available in the area and this was the second pub on the list," says James. "It seems to be

our destiny.

"The Crown was on at £695,000, but we told the agent there and then it was not worth that - a lot of work needs to be done throughout."

James says negotiating the price was tricky, but an offer of £585,000 was accepted.

Initially, James and Penny had planned to ask friends to invest in the business, but realised this would have caused untold complications. "We were going to send out a letter to 10 of

our wealthy friends, but we realise now that would have been a nightmare to get contracts sorted out."

Instead, through friends, they found business partners in Alison and Dewar, who are joint directors of Veitch Moir, which produces, imports, distributes and sells food and drink. The business owns a farm, wine-supply arm, a property company and now the Crown. The wine business, Amphora, will link up with the Crown.

"Alison and Dewar's business experience will be invaluable," says James. "We have formed a limited liability partnership with a contract. The lawyers were costly, but there was no other way of making sure everything was done in the right way and now we all know where we stand."

As Alison and Dewar get stuck into preparing the pub for opening, with Alison elbow-deep in water and Dewar taking notes on the wine cellar, James explains that the priority in the refurbishment is the kitchen rebuild.

A disabled toilet must also be put in and James is hoping he can get planning permission to convert the upstairs of the accommodation block into a third guest bedroom. The two rooms that exist also need attention as they currently have a 1970s Eastern-bloc feel about them.

If all goes to plan, James hopes turnover will be £150,000 initially, rising to £250,000 when the business gets established.

Reasons to be cheerful: week three

PubChef catches up with James Burn three weeks after the Crown opened

Despite the challenging task that James, Penny and the loyal band of volunteers faced, the pub opened on schedule.

Having picked up the keys on the Monday, James served his first lunch, tapas, on the Thursday, and that evening dished up sausage, egg and chips and ham, egg and chips; James chose dishes that were simple to prepare in the first week and restricted the menu to eight main dishes and five desserts.

"Everything had to be really good quality, but with the limitations of the kitchen, everything had to be simple," he explains. "I've been selling a lot of home-made pies. Because they are made with a short-crust pastry top and bottom, with lots of meat and a thick, reduced sauce, I'm finding customers are coming back and asking for a pie again. People are loving the fresh vegetables as well."

Food has been flying out of the pub's kitchen, with sales of 280