How I Learnt from My Mistakes

Victoria MacDonald, licensee, the Cellar House, Eaton, Norwich, Norfolk

Victoria MacDonald (second right), licensee at the Cellar House, had to close her third site after a poor recruitment decision. After selling her first site, she and her husband took a year our in 2015 and focused on the Cellar House. She said: "We learnt that we needed to spend more time on the recruitment process. Our staffing bill was a little bit higher than expected but it was worth it."

Tip:​ "It’s very hard to admit to have made a mistake, whether it’s picking the wrong supplier, the wrong chef, or the wrong menu. You need to swallow your pride and take time to analyse what went wrong and how you can make it better. I’ve been in this industry for 30 years, but I’m still learning." 

Matthew Crowther, director, Pug Pubs 

Matthew Crowther (right) explains why ignoring basic problems in the beginning can turn into huge ones. He said: "I took on a wet-led pub in 2012 [the Fat Pug] and decided to put a food offer in place. I paid the premium on the lease and spent £35,000 on fitting the new kitchen. After loads of marketing and a launch day, I found out that there wasn’t enough electricity, or gas, to power the equipment that I just purchased. The road had to be dug up, traffic lights were shut down and I had a 14-week delay on the launch of my new food offer."

Tip:​ "When you've got your mind set on the end goal, you're just hungry to get there. Listen to the experts and look into the details. Check your electrics and gas meter." 

Tom Bowen, general manager at the Wheatsheaf, Borough Market, London

Tom Bowen tells us about his experience when he first became a general manager. He said:"The one most beneficial mistake I ever made, when I first become the general manager of a pub a couple of years ago, was not getting a solid management team built around me straight away. I was unable to assign tasks to my staff for me to oversee, I did a million things all at once and couldn’t keep an eye on everything. I ended up fighting fires rather than just running my business and see the bigger picture. It caused me a cluster of problems."

Tip:​ "Don't macro-manage your business, don't be afraid to give out jobs and responsibilities. Give your staff the opportunity to further their development and this will give you more free time to oversee your business. You can run a successful operation by empowering the people who work for you." 

Darran Lingley, owner, the Five Bells, Colne Engaine, Essex, (Saint Arnold Pub Group)

Listening to the right advice and being innovative in your business is very important. Darran Lingley said: "If you’re not innovative in your business, regular customers start to get bored and we didn’t manage to attract a new customer base, which had a long term impact on our business. We weren’t on the edge of bankruptcy, but we weren’t making any money. It took us six months to realise that we were given terrible information and advice [from my accountant]."

Tip:​ Be careful for the advice that you pay for. When you’re losing money the hardest thing is that you can’t talk to anyone, you want to be surrounded by people who can give good advice and understand what you’re going through. 

For a more in depth read, you can find out more in the 19^th​ issue of The Morning Advertiser​.