Starting a business during the pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic changed our lives beyond anything any of us could have imagined.

Aside from a once in a lifetime virus that caused people to be extremely ill, our interactions with each other, how we went about our daily lives, suddenly stopped and everything we once knew was temporarily halted with no clear end date of this new way of life in sight. 

People were forced to stay home and work from home.

The word ‘furlough’ entered into the nation’s lexicon but for some people, furlough turned into redundancy and unemployment.

For others, the pandemic allowed people the space to think about their lives, their jobs and how they spend their time. 

Four people interviewed below either gave up their jobs, were made redundant or decided on a new career and started their own businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Number of new UK businesses opened during 2020 compared to 2019.

Burnt Umber Brasserie

The first of these is a couple, Jaro and Ivana Petrak from Hackney.

Jaro worked in sports catering and saw his whole business put on hold when sporting events were suddenly stopped. 

His income went from comfortable to zero overnight. 

Ivana was put on furlough from her job as a manager at a national sports organisation.

It was at this juncture that they decided to take the biggest risk of their lives and do something they’ve both always wanted to do.

They decided to open a brasserie. 

They set about trying to find premises in the local area and happened across a new building which was just a shell of floor and walls, industrial chic style in Hackney Wick. 

After negotiating the rent with the landlord, they then set about the enormous task of getting ready the 1,400 sq ft  empty shell of a building, transforming it so it was functional and welcoming to customers, and turned it into Burnt Umber Brasserie.

Ivana said: "I have to say that Jaro is very entrepreneurial, Jaro has been self-employed for a long time, he’s always pushing forward, he’s always looking at how to improve and increase his own business. 

"Jaro looked around for the spaces and this is the one we liked the most. 

"Then we started negotiating with the landlord and signed up the lease. It’s a 10-year lease now."

Jaro continued: "There were loads of opportunities around Hackney, we visited so many places but it was difficult to see and understand the areas but it looked like the new upcoming area was Hackney Wick.

"When we came to see the space the first time, there weren’t really people around, I was a little bit worried about what would happen because at that moment, we didn’t know how long the pandemic would continue, if it was going to finish within a month or two or three months, and then we ended up almost a year in the pandemic after we opened the business."

When asked what family and friends thought of the couple setting up a restaurant in the middle of the pandemic lockdown, Jaro gave a wry smile and said he knew the pandemic would finish and the world wouldn't always be locked down.

Jaro continued: "At the moment when we opened, it was really difficult to think about a future, we had to go day by day following the rules in the media, trying to get everything according to regulations.

"For example, when we opened it was December 2020, we started negotiations with the landlord and by May all the relaxations [of the pandemic] started in June, July, August, but we were sure that everything would be finished by the end of November."

Although the couple put all their life savings into their venture they are pleased to see customers coming into Burnt Umber on a regular basis.

The place is packed with people using the large area as a work from home space, friends chatting, or mums and babies pop in for a catch-up and a coffee.

The weekends see a constant stream of young millennials and families, eating the most delicious brunch of fresh food and endless coffees.

Burnt Umber has expanded and now hosts wine tasting evenings and corporate events and parties.

When asked about the biggest challenges going forward, Jaro hesitates and talks about sustainability and the current price hike in food and energy.

The couple also talk about how proud they are of what Burnt Umber gives to the local community.

Ivana adds: "Burnt Umber Brasserie is a place that cultivates good food, homemade food and warm connections and good relationships, and we have that all."

POW PR 

Another person who became self-employed during the pandemic was Fiona Fraser, 40 from Beckenham, Kent who set up powpr.co.uk

Fraser had worked for various television companies as a PR person for the last 13 years when the pandemic hit. 

She got put on furlough in March 2020 and was then made redundant in October 2020.

Although a shock, she knew she had to keep working as she had a young baby and a husband who was a trainee teacher.

The day after she lost her job she set up her LinkedIn page and set up a website. 

She’d always wanted to go self-employed and now she had the chance. 

She said: “I told myself I can make it work and why not, there aren’t many jobs out there.

“I got work in pretty quickly as I’d never not been in work.”

In January 2021 she started working on podcasts and hasn’t looked back since. 

She’s clearly passionate about podcasts and reels over her favourite ones: Sweet Bobby, Sisters in the City, Guilty Feminist and Happy Place.

She represents some of the biggest podcasts going but keeps schtum about who her clients are. 

She does say though that she works with ACAST the biggest podcast producer in the world. 

Fraser really is at the top of her game but was frightened of going self-employed because she’s always worked since 14 so the idea of not knowing how much money she’d have was scary.

She said: “I have a 3-year-old, what if I can’t make this work or there isn’t enough work?

“I had to work on my confidence and had such a  steep learning curve but have never been better at my job.”

In terms of success, Fraser said: “I’ve met some amazing people and want to work with nice people, I want weekends and evenings with my daughter - and I get that now.

“I’m never going to go back to 9-5. 

“If I work extra hard, I have different income streams and I don’t want anyone to have power over me or have a lesser job.”

Clean Cuts of Manchester

Max Maxamed is a 23-year-old young man from Moss Side, Manchester.

Dropping out of university after one year of a BSc in Pharmacy, Max decided that a career distributing medicines wasn’t for him.

While pondering his next moves, the pandemic hit and he had time on his hands. 

He had seen the success his mum had achieved running her own cafe and he knew he wanted to be self-employed and more importantly, he wanted to give back to his community.

In the summer of 2021  Clean Cuts of Manchester was born. 

Prior to setting up Clean Cuts, Maxamed took up gardening and grass cutting as a hobby.

Clean Cuts' mission statement is to promote productive occupational aims for young people who don’t have anything going for them.

Maxamed explained that in Moss Side there is a lot of knife crime and stabbings and he has witnessed violence in the area. 

He is passionate about plants, nature and the artistic display of gardens in communities with landscaping and lawn moving in urban inner-city communities.

Maxamed said: “I want all the violence to end, that’s the primary objective right now, for Clean Cuts to try to stop young people from getting involved in knife crime by doing something productive for themselves such as cutting grass.

“To cut grass for me is more than just a job, it’s giving back to the community, it’s helping people, especially elderly people who don’t know how to do it.”

Maxamed charges a very modest £20 to mow, weed and tidy up the front and back gardens of locals. 

Currently a one-man band, Clean Cuts does have six people who are working alongside him on an outreach basis for them to get work experience and the money they earn from jobs, they keep themselves. 

He continued: “A lot of young people turn to drugs to make an income for themselves and I don’t feel like that’s the right approach to make an income and I want to teach young people that you can make a legal income for yourselves."

He is fundraising to buy equipment so he can continue Cool Cuts and continue the outreach work with community groups.

A lot of his custom is gained through door-knocking but he says the youngsters who work with him through the outreach programmes are often disappointed when people say no to having gardening done. 

“Rejection is hard for them, they’re used to sugar-coated instant gratification.”

Maxamed teaches young people to dress the part, take ID and be professional. 

His aim is to have 20 staff in the team eventually but at this point the most pressing item he needs is a van for his tools and equipment.

He currently carries his lawn mower on a trailer attached to the back of his electric bike. 

Using his own savings to start the business off, Maxamed did manage to secure funding from Virgin Money Foundation in the form of a grant and mentoring.

They helped him develop his business and his website. 

Maxamed is going to spend a month in New York, Detroit and Toronto and meet other urban landscapers in how to develop Clean Cuts courtesy of the Virgin Money Foundation. 

Maxamed’s plan is to make Clean Cuts a sustainable business and become the number one company for gardening services, jet washing and fence painting.

“I want to flood Manchester and then reach out to all parts of the UK.”

To help Max Maxamed turn Clean Cuts into a functioning business where young people are employed, a fundraising page has been set up. 

To donate, click here. 

DuelFuel.com

Tim Davies had been working in Geneva for 4 years when he had the chance to move there permanently.

After discussing the matter with his partner, they decided against it, he left on good terms and moved back to his home in Henley Upon Thames. 

Then the pandemic hit and he was left wondering what his next move would be. 

An avid sports enthusiast and gym lover, he started thinking about nutrition and came up with the idea of creating a sports food that is eaten before a workout and one eaten immediately afterwards. 

Not one to be shy of hard work, he set about finding a sports nutritionist.

After a good deal of searching, he happened across England Rugby team food expert Mike Naylor and persuaded him to get on board and join the journey of becoming co-founder of the company along with Davies.

Davies said: "Mike and I got together on the second week of lockdown and he said three things to me: the first was "you've got the nutritional concepts right, the before and after", the second was that he couldn't believe it had not been done before because it's a very good idea and the third thing was 'how can I help?'"

After setting out a business plan, sorting out the nutritional elements and solidifying their partnership as co-founders, within a couple of months, Duelfuel.com was launched in August 2020.  

Davies quipped: "Mike is very laid back, I'm very energised.

"I'm the Mick Jagger of the business and he's the Keith Richards."

The duo continued to work on getting the ingredients and formula just right before moving onto the visual aesthetics of the product. 

Branding was key and with Davies contacts, they settled on a fist bump logo.

They are now trading online and hope to get into the health store market within a year. 

The biggest challenges have been getting the product correctly labelled and to market. 

Davies said: "Friends of mine know that if I set my sights on something, I may not succeed but I will absolutely go hell for leather to give it my best shot.

"That for me is the most important thing with Duel Fuel.

"Duel Fuel is like all start-ups at the moment.

"90% of start-ups fail, that's a recognised statistic but I see signs of encouragement.

"We are a great concept potentially at the worst time possible to set up a business."

Davies talked about the impact the cost of living has had on people making discretionary purchases as he refers to Duel Fuel.

He is determined to make it succeed and will do everything in his power to make sure Duel Fuel becomes the go-to brand for sports food.

"For me, the most important thing in anything I do is that, succeed or fail I have to walk away knowing I gave it absolutely everything I could have done.

"Literally no stone was left unturned on the beach to make it a success."

Davies is determined that once this superfood takes off, he’ll be able to employ a team and give back to society. 

He’s had a very successful career so far and this venture although just at the beginning is set to take the sports food market by storm. 

Photograph credits: Ivana Petrak, Jaro Petrak, Fiona Fraser, Max Maxamed, Tim Davies, Soraya Aslam