We've all came up with a golden business idea that we're secretly disappointed didn't come to fruition. Maybe you came up with a plan for a sustainable menswear brand way before people started to care about the environment. Possibly it was for a vegan steak house before everyone went plant-based. But most likely it was to buy your favourite rundown local pub that you'd transform into a micro brewery (which you'll learn more about imminently).
Unfortunately, there are only a few who build upon that lightbulb moment and see the pipe dream through. Success takes graft and determination; you need to fully immerse yourself in your chosen field to truly understand what it takes to be triumphant in business.
Having the above work ethic is hard though when you're most likely in a 9-5 job outside your chosen passion, which is why I did the hard work for you. I went to spend time working with three successful London businesses in a quest to unlock the key to running a prosperous brand, so you can make the leap and grow your own.
My agenda: grilling patties with gourmet burger restaurant owners, flipping tyres with a respected personal trainer, and making beer with the UK's coolest brewery.
Learning Honesty At Honest Burgers
The thought of being back in a commercial kitchen triggers a long-forgotten panic deep inside me, reminding me of days long ago when I frantically cooked fries for a well-known fast food server. I only lasted two weeks, quitting when they tried to put a hair net on me. Contrary to the popular saying, I was not "lovin' it".
But Honest Burgers in London Bridge is not your average burger establishment. It's clean, it's friendly, the menu is creative, and you actually know where the ingredients come from. But most importantly, it has values.
“I felt frustrated with the way customers were treated in restaurants, with sneaky add-ons, clever marketing and low quality,” explains Honest Burgers co-founder Philip Eeles, venting about the culinary scene he worked in while at university in Brighton. “Then I had the word 'honest' in my head... I thought someone just needs to open a restaurant and call it Honest.”
Phil and his business partner Tom Barton had their brand name even before it began its life as a festival burger stand, which has now evolved into 36 national restaurants. They saw a problem in the market and created an ethos that they stick to, especially when it comes to their chips. (I’ve not met anyone as passionate about potatoes.)
“Putting chips with the burger was a massive decision from day one about being honest,” says Phil, as we flip the famous Ginger Pig patties in the kitchen to make their most popular dish: The Honest. “Who doesn’t have chips with a burger? The idea that you can charge a lot of money for a burger and then charge more for standard run-of-the-mill chips just didn’t sit right with us.”
Honest’s rosemary salted chips have become famous in their own right, with food critic Jay Rayner hailing them as ‘edible crystal meth’. But not everyone thought it was possible to make fresh, homemade chips. “Tom Byng (former CEO of Byron) said they’d be the first thing to go, that it’s not possible to make your own chips as you expand,” states Tom. “As soon as he said that to me and Phil, we were like... pfft, f**k you!”
Secret to success: Don’t deviate from your original business mantra. Your customer comes first and always will do.
Testing Mental Strength At MCP
Once, gyms were reserved for Pumping Iron obsessives. Now, everyone from Mark in HR to Karen in accounts knows what a burpee is. A lot of commercial establishments have cottoned on to this fitness obsession and have crammed customers into their small, ill-equipped spaces – regardless of capacity. But there are a handful of gyms doing the unexpected, such as London’s MCP, a car park turned training space that works out the mind as well as the body in a brutal yet rewarding way.
“It’s raw,” explains head coach Ryan Lea as we stand by the Punishment Bell (if you ring it during class it results in a severe workout for everyone but you – or only you, depending on how Ryan feels). “It’s meant to be for you to come in, not worry about what’s going on in your life outside. We’re in a seven-foot cage, there are no mirrors, no phones, no fancy things. It is just you and the workout, so you can focus on one thing, which is quite tough these days.”
And raw it is. There are no loud dance soundtracks, no PTs high-fiving you, no cheesy slogans – it's just old school hard work. The day I train as part of its ‘Grunt’ class, we’re not just squatting or deadlifting, we’re flipping tyres – an all-over body workout that tears my shoulders apart. Simple, but incredibly effective. By the end of the session everyone is ecstatic that they’ve managed to flip a 240kg tyre up and down a track. Which is one of the main reasons MCP plans such events: to instil self-belief and confidence. It’s not just for masochists, it’s for everyone.
“I believe people can achieve so much more than they think. When you share that workload, it takes you to another level,” Ryan says. “We believe in every single person, rather than saying, ‘ah you’re the best so we’ll just look after you’.”
The belief doesn't end with the clients though, because every trainer pushes each other to their limit. When they're not completing marathons on the assault treadmills or working out for 24 hours to raise money for charity, they're testing every workout they put their clients through, because they wouldn't want to make you do anything they wouldn't.
I might leave battered and broken, but my confidence has never been stronger.
Secret to success: An emotional connection is stronger than vanity. They’ve ditched mirrors in favour of looking deep inside yourself to find the drive you didn’t know you had.
Brewing Good Times At Beavertown Brewery
In the last decade, the UK’s beer palate has developed significantly, evolving from ‘whatever’s cheap and fizzy’ to ‘is this organic amber ale sustainably sourced?’. At the forefront of this revolution is Beavertown, a business idea that started off as home brewing in a 25-litre rice pan in the owner’s kitchen. Now it's set to open up Beaverworld this summer, a 129,000 sq ft single unit set on 6 acres of land, which will produce 90 million pints a year.
If you haven’t tasted the beer, you’ll have definitely seen it, as it boasts one of the most striking artworks on the market, designed by Creative Director Nick Dwyer. “Our branding is super important to us,” says Logan Plant, CEO of Beavertown, as we walk through its current brewery in Tottenham Hale, analysing the artwork of his Gamma Ray can. “Nick has changed the landscape of beer design and art, and the relationship between the two. I remember before we hardly sold any beer, I went into a bar and I asked how the Gamma Ray was doing. The bar man said everybody keeps pointing at the fridge asking for the spaceman beer. They didn't even know what it was, but they loved the look of it.”
But it’s not all style, there’s substance too. A lot of effort goes into making the taste stand out from competitors, evident from the technical lab in the brewery, which experiments with exciting flavours. They also launched the Tempus Project, for which they create unique brews that will exist only once, from wild-yeast fermented golden ales to whisky-barrel-aged stouts.
It’s this dedication to its craft that has won Beavertown a legion of fans, from winning 40% of beer sales at Tottenham Hotspur's stadium, and 3,000 people lining up to celebrate its brewery birthday party, to one woman getting a skeleton hula girl tattooed on her back, based on one of Nick’s designs.
“Beavertown is more than just a beer,” Logan tells me as we stand on top of a shiny new beer vat, looking out over the construction of Beaverworld. “It's about bringing people into our world. If you can take them on a journey, give them an amazing product and a good time, you'll create a relationship and longevity thereafter.”
Secret to success: Create a bond with your customer. Don’t just give them a product, give them an experience.
Begin your entrepreneurial journey with Mercedes-Benz Vans, for those born to lead not follow
