IN upcoming posts I’ll shine a light on the turbulent, often fraught but ultimately rewarding world of a booch biz owner who’s ridden the storms and waves for 20 years…

BEST DECISION

Relaunching as a predominantly online biz as Covid hit and making our site a one-stop, consumer-friendly shop front and abandoning the pursuit of retail placements in an ever cut-throat and ailing high street, harnessing social media to generate our biggest sales and turnover in the last 3 years.

WHAT I’VE LEARNED

Don’t start a booch biz unless you can grow it organically within your own means and can afford to take the hit if it fails. And don’t gamble with other people’s money unless you have a sound business plan to show how they’ll be repaid. Many commercial brands are realising kombucha isn’t the golden goose or path to instant riches they imagined it to be - especially without the backing of millionaire parents!

VITAL ADVICE

Don’t rely on the biz for income; you’ll need to reinvest all profits in the early years to grow! I sought other income streams to pay the bills, including as a photographic model (above, in Jun’05), something I’d never have envisaged doing again; at 20 I was scouted while on holiday sunbathing close to Bondi Beach, and to my eternal embarrassment ended up donning wet orange Speedos for a range of globally bestselling Iron Men postcards and fridge magnets! 😂

DREAMS DO COME TRUE

I shouldn’t technically still be in business, but strokes of luck and coincidence (“synchronicities”) - and unyielding belief in what I was doing combined with ruthless determination - propelled me forward at critical times. Examples:

In Sep’08, £20k of credit card debt at 18mths 0% interest about to soar to 20% was mercifully converted by my bank into a 10yr loan at 5% days before the global crash, when loans to small businesses were withdrawn…and, 1 day after we were required to replace our dodgy brewery roof in Apr’18, @rudehealth asked if we’d make Kombucha for them.

P.S.

2 days later they were inspecting our facility, new roof and all, and we went on to brew 250k bottles for them in 12mths sold in Waitrose, clearing our debt & enabling us to rebrand & relaunch!