Back in 2019 when I worked at EventCity, this was what I was quoted by an account manager from one of our suppliers trying to impress me with their ability to support our business. ‘It’s the small businesses that shout the loudest.”
At the time I was a Food and Beverage Operations Manager for a large events company where we would do retail operations for up to 20,000 people a day, gala dinners for 2,500 and so much more. It was a blank canvas venue from outlet setups for our cafe, street food stands and bars, to bespoke dinner menus and we were a small team with big clients, so as an operation it was extremely challenging.
I’ve purposely put a picture of us both as the headline photo for this post, because despite our extensive menu, offers and ambitious business goals, it has literally been just the two of us for the last 12 months. Sadly, we can’t pay ourselves let alone bring in a team, so as a small business, we are it.
The company I’m discussing (I won’t be naming in this blog) had changed their business support model to ensure that its ‘high value’ client businesses would get their full attention and support and I was told that gone were the days of “£300 a week businesses taking up their time, and would only get an account manager when they were financially viable enough.”
I’m ashamed to say that this quote went right over my head at the time. I had the attention of this company, who I was putting hundreds of thousands of pounds of business their way each year, and was so impressed with their customer service and adapting to the challenges and they were ready at a moment’s notice to address any problems, match pricing and ensure we were supported.
Now I’ve launched my own business, the reality is that £300 now is the same value as £3000 to EventCity for us. And worse, it impacts me and my partner both personally as well as professionally, unlike when I was raising Purchase Orders at EventCity. It’s easier when you are spending someone else’s money, and that business has the foundations in place to manage comfortably in difficult times, move money about and have the funds for creative accounting. Don’t get me wrong, business is never easy whether you head up a small cafe or a big corporation. I understand that fully well. The only real difference is the ‘scale up’. For example, people ask me how difficult it is to run a dinner for 2500 people and I will say it’s the same as running a dinner for 100, as from an operational standpoint, you just scale up (with a little more stress for the people who tie all the threads together). However, it’s more likely the underdog, the small business, that will be the one who won’t be sleeping at night.
So, I have partnered with the company since starting up, and it’s only now that my circumstances have changed does that old quote come to light, and made me realise I made a mistake partnering with this business. Now the reason I’m not going to name this company is not because they are a despicable company, far from it. I was motivated by my previous experience with them and the service I received when I was at EventCity, which is why I wanted to work with them, but they are just too big of a supplier and now I’m a number, not a client, and therefore, not important. And for that, I am angry. Not angry with the company again, business is business, KPIs are KPIs and there are so many benefits to utilising this company. Their pricing is great, their minimum spend is reasonable and although I no longer get the ‘extra mile’ customer service, the customer service hasn’t been bad. This is not a blog to out a ‘corporate titan’ that should be held accountable for its poor ethics, but a blog to highlight the anger at myself for not using our start up as a way of positioning to support smaller businesses. A mistake I will not be making again, and a principle I refuse to forget when we grow.
Now here’s the problem. I want to correct this mistake, but at this point it’s easier said than done. I’ve reached out to smaller businesses in hopes to move the business, and the people I speak to are so grateful, will do anything to make it happen. In particular Birchall Foodservice. They were fantastic, caring and wanted to move the earth to make us a part of their businesses.
Unfortunately, the logistics to change the menu around new suppliers, allergens, calories, pricing, and like-for-like products, is a mammoth task at this point for myself. And I would absolutely do that to support smaller businesses if I could, but the reality is even they can’t compete with the pricing of this big company. So now I’m in a dilemma. I want to honour my principles and work hard to accommodate businesses that are struggling like ourselves. But to do that right now would be giving our business a death sentence, at this stage of its development.
I’m being selfish with my current practice, but I do not intend to live by this for the foreseeable future. We have now almost established our brand, menu and style, and the next steps will be about keeping things fresh. So, when I design new menus, it will be tailored around not only dietaries, unique concepts and flavours, but with the aim to pull in new suppliers, small suppliers and as we grow, bring them on the journey with us.
The most important thing I will not forget, and something I find bigger corporations forget, is that we all start somewhere, including the company I speak about now. Unless you are super rich already, no one can succeed in business without support, networking and building positive relationships. And I can almost guarantee that it was the smaller businesses that started this company’s growth.
In a future post, I will be taking about the ethics of delivery partners and how this culture has impacted small businesses in both positive and negative ways. But for now, I want to talk about some of the businesses I’ve worked with, who have incredible ethics.
WDS Group, a small wholesaler in Bury, were also a supplier when I was at EventCity. We gave them a chance at working alongside our business that demanded high volume and quick turn arounds, and even though it wasn’t always perfect, they appreciated the support, gave more than 110% and were the only supplier who came to our rescue when the pandemic started. The pandemic really started to cause problems in March 2020, one of the busiest months for the events industry. We had £20,000 worth of stock ordered for the month (more than £60,000 at retail value!) and suddenly all the events were dropping out the diary like flies. Now part of our agreements with suppliers was a ‘order and return’ agreement due to the nature of our business being bespoke. For example, a gala for 1000 may want a particular lager for their event. We can’t run out, we have to stock it, but at the same time we can’t hold on to the remaining stock at the end of the event if it’s not a key line item, as the next event will expect something different. But all of these businesses turned their backs (including the supplier this article was based on). For reasons we did understand, but was it honourable? No! Yet WDS Group turned around to us and bought almost EVERYTHING off us and at cost price, but still, that’s a £20K sale at the start of the lockdown which was not only incredible, but impossible in those times. They had the foresight very early on to run a home delivery service with their operation, putting together hamper kits, small orders and business pricing for small households and it took off very quickly. The fact it was a small company that had this success is incredible. Sadly, EventCity didn’t survive the pandemic, and I was one of the first to get made redundant.
Anyway, now I’ve gone solo, I’ve only put a small amount of business towards WDS Group, purely for logistical reasons as majority of the items I stock from them are beverages, and the bar side of the business hasn’t took off quite yet. But the reality is, they still make me feel like a VIP, they still support our business and are ready to help me out at a moment’s notice. They source products for me, find me unique products, help me out in an emergency situation and Adam Rowiski in particular is a true diamond for this company and a true asset and has so much of my respect. He was the one who supported EventCity in the dark times. He has also been helping us get our feet off the ground with the retail distribution and stockist project, coming to visit, both as a customer and colleague, and genuinely cares.
Another company I wish to discuss is EventHireUK. These guys are absolutely amazing. In particular a gentleman by the name of Jean Moller. The support they have given our start-up business is beyond incredible.
I first met Jean when I was at EventCity when he introduced us to EventHireUK for our furniture hire needs, and to say this was one of the most important meetings of my career is an understatement. Me and Jean went through the trenches to pull off some of the biggest events in my career. In particular McDonalds. They were not just a hire service; they became part of the team. Almost 80% of the kit out of the venue was sourced by them, put in place, washed, collected and logistically mapped out in such great detail. And the pricing was incredible. That was a hard event. Myself and their small team, it was a 28-hour shift, 2500 people for breakfast, lunch and a full gala dinner with big entertainment including Rita Ora. 10 bars were made and two giant field kitchens, each one the size of six traditional commercial kitchens.
From this event, we worked alongside each other for three years. They would source bespoke equipment, great prices and when the pandemic hit, they were hit just as hard, but Jean would get in touch to see how we were all doing.
Come this start-up, we had some logistical nightmares. Firstly, we were both in full-time jobs and we had big kit coming with no real way to take deliveries ad hoc. But they took in the equipment no problem, held on to it until we were ready and delivered and help us move it at very little cost to us. They wanted to help us, and they certainly did more than we could hope for.
When we had the issue from Adexa with the unit (please see the blog Soph-AKA Super Karen) they kindly held on to that piece of equipment for almost five months. No problems at all, and worked to help get it sent back when we finally resolved that nightmare. This wasn’t a small piece of equipment either, it was a full refrigeration unit!
Then when we came to running our photoshoot for the events space, the kit we would be hiring for events was so kindly loaned to us, with the only cost for transport, so we could prepare our showcase day.
There are not enough words to describe just how much I respect this team and company. They care, and although they do business with the big titan events businesses like Manchester Central, they have just as much time, if not more, for the little guy.
I also what to talk about our new payment card supplier Dojo and EPOS provider Grafterr who have been absolutely incredible supporting our small business. But I be will saving this for a future blog as this story goes hand in hand with our story of our former supplier, a company who have been absolutely disgraceful and should be absolutely appalled by their ethics.
Running a small start-up has really opened my eyes this last year. If for any reason this business doesn’t succeed, I will no doubt wish to return to events and hospitality. But this time the way I do business and who with will be so much more important to me and I would rather work harder to support the small businesses than take ease with the big ones! Because the phrase is correct, ‘small businesses do shout the loudest.’ It’s because they need the most help!