Reflecting on the early days

It is a glorious day today. One of those crisp and sunny winter occasions. It comes as a welcome respite from the torrential rain that has been beating down on Somerset these past few weeks. I was delivering ketchup the other day and saw half the county under water. Really not good…

Since introducing my substack last week, I have been reflecting on the early days of our business when it was just Matteo, Basil (our old Farm Manager), and myself, working out of a small cottage we had rented near the farm.

The first thought that comes to mind while reminiscing on these times is that absolutely nothing gets done at a start-up level unless you decide to make it happen. This may sound obvious, but it threw me when I first embarked on our journey.

Unlike Matteo, I had spent the majority of my early career working for other people; I had no ‘founder’ experience. From where I had come - the world of established business - no matter how poorly run or inefficient a company might be, shit gets done: desks get cleaned, coffee gets restocked, meetings are organised, people get paid, stuff happens. It might not be productive or efficient, but an organisation will trudge along in a certain direction, with days rolling into weeks rolling into years.

When you are just an idea on a page, you have none of these luxuries (and trust me, you come to view them as luxuries). There are no systems in place, no routines, no habits, and no operations unless you actively manifest them into being. Bins don’t get emptied, stationary doesn’t get refilled, bills don’t paid etc. etc.

As a business owner, the first thing I realised is it takes a massive amount of effort to just get the ship sailing – forget whether it’s in the right direction or not; those are problems you can deal with later. At the very early stage just getting your project moving is hard enough. I have spent more time hoovering up the office and taking out the bins that you’d care to imagine.

Matteo and I outside the farm house on the day we purchased Higher Farm (April 2023).

Then comes the admin. And when it rains, it pours. In my previous life I used to always have beef with admin - I really didn’t like it. I always saw it as a bad use of my time; something to be looked down upon as unproductive and boring. It was done by unimportant people, in some dimly lit backroom, who didn’t really contribute much value to the output of a business.

Surely when you are the boss you spend your time cutting deals, drawing up strategies, speaking to investors and talking to the press - not getting involved in crappy admin?!I couldn’t have been more naive…

The amount of paperwork one needs to go through in the early phases of a start-up is relentless, it never stops. Enrolling on Companies House, setting up bank accounts, filling in direct debit forms, supplier forms, buyer forms, enrolling with an accountant, paying bills, setting up bookkeeping systems, IT systems, drawing up hiring contracts, PAYE forms, VAT returns, enrolling with a pension provider, you name it - it’s all admin!

Anyone who starts their own business will tell you that the majority of their time is spent doing unsexy, unglamorous, boring admin. You’re basically a glorified PA - to yourself.

So given this rude awakening, I quickly learnt that my view on admin had to change, or else I probably would have blown my brains out within the first month. Admin is now my friend who deserves proper attention and respect. We would get nowhere without admin.

Matteo and Harold designing our website in our first make-shift office and me trying to put together our first investment deck (Aug 2023).

Finally, one last thing that hit me in those early months, and has really stuck with me to this day, is that a start-up’s journey basically entails people telling you no, a lot.

No your idea won’t work

No I won’t come work for you

No I don’t want to buy your product

No I don’t want to invest in your business

No I can’t partner with you

NO, NO, NO!

And when you do get a ‘yes’, the majority of the time you will get a call or email two days later stating that the answer had changed into ‘no.’

Why? Because they probably realised that you’re just a fanciful idea on a page, with no credibility to your name, so why would they take the risk of doing business with you when you will probably not be around this time next year. So who can blame them?!

Anyway, I have really learnt not to celebrate early in this game.

Well, I probably haven’t painted the most glamorous picture of starting our own business, but I guess that’s the point I am trying to get across. From the outside, I found that start-ups often get glorified, and I quickly learnt that, in reality, a couple inches underneath the veneer of attractiveness, you’re faced with a lot of messy, dull, admin and resistance.

It’s not the picture I had in mind when thinking of Jobs and Wozniak partying in their garage.

I honestly can’t get over this weather. The old oak tree at the top of the farm will be looking beautiful in this light. I think I’ll go pay him a visit.