>>>> >>>> Sarah Willingham >>>> 1 CASE STUDY RESTAUARANT ENTREPRENEUR. The opening of a new door >>> The story begins >>>

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1 Sarah began her working life at the age of fourteen, working in what she refers to as the local trendy restaurant. She continued to work in the hospitality industry moving on to working in bars and other restaurants before and during her time at university. Sarah found her roles in leisure/hospitality enjoyable and self gratifying. She liked seeing her customers happy and appreciated that quick changes could be made to ensure this was the case. The story begins >>> Sarah was studying International Business at Oxford Brookes University her main interest being corporate finance. In order to complete her degree Sarah had to complete a work placement in France. Based in Paris and living in Larachel Sarah worked on the stock exchange as a runner. Although very exciting, the cost of living (particularly socialising) was high. Sarah supplemented her income with a part time job at a bar- restaurant not only did this provide extra money, it provided cheaper drinks during the week (always useful when you re a busy student!) The bar was well established with a good reputation in the local area. Its name was the Frog & Roast Beef and it opened a new door for Sarah. The opening of a new door >>> Planet Hollywood was in the process of building a new restaurant on the Champs Elysees in Paris. The architects contacted the owners of the Frog & Roast Beef for advice and explained that they needed people to help them. The owners of the Frog & Roast Beef put Sarah s name forward. Sarah was given the opportunity to contribute to the set up of Planet Hollywood Champs Elysees. Sarah jumped at the opportunity with great excitement and transferred her placement to Planet Hollywood. She enjoyed being a part of the team and organising the development of the restaurant. PRODUCED BY THE HIGHER EDUCATION ACADEMY WITH SUPPORT FROM THE DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION AND SKILLS 1

2 JEWELLLERY DESIGN London city placement >>> Planet Hollywood was in the process of building a new restaurant on the Champs Elysees in Paris. The architects contacted the owners of the Frog & Roast Beef for advice and explained that they needed people to help them. The owners of the Frog & Roast Beef put Sarah s name forward. Sarah was given the opportunity to contribute to the set up of Planet Hollywood Champs Elysees. Sarah jumped at the opportunity with great excitement and transferred her placement to Planet Hollywood. She enjoyed being a part of the team and organising the development of the restaurant. London city placement >>> On leaving university Sarah began working for Planet Hollywood again. It was her responsibility to set up Planet Hollywood in Disney Land Paris. She had a great deal more responsibility at this stage with the title Site Coordinator. She worked alongside the Project Management Team using her strong organisational skill to put the plans in place. Sarah believes the ability to multi task and organisational skill are natural you are born with this or you re not and suggests that she was not actually using her degree at this stage in her career. The focus was managing people and acting as an intermediary between cultures. Sarah loved the responsibility and thrived on both the excitement and the challenging nature of the role. Sarah later moved to Planet Hollywood head office in London where she focused on the development of European franchises. After two and half years Sarah s role was made redundant and it was time to rethink what was next? What s next >>> Sarah decided that she still wished to work in the restaurant business and was still interested in working for a chain. She was now looking for a chain of restaurants that had the potential to expand internationally. She approached both Prêt Manger and Pizza Express as both had solid brands that Sarah believed could do well abroad. Sarah began working for Pizza Express as Head of International Development. The focus centred on European acquisition and development and later focused internationally. Sarah now faced another huge challenge that had a huge impact on her decision to become an entrepreneur. Another huge challenge: Open Pizza Express in Tokyo 2

3 Sarah arrived in Tokyo in July to face a bare site consisting only of one brick. She looked with excitement and anticipation as the realisation that this would be a restaurant in November came hurtling towards her. Sarah embarked on a very steep learning curve as not only did she have to set up and run the business, she had to manage other people to ensure every single task was completed to a strict deadline. Sarah was enthused by the idea that there was too much to do and loved learning about the business and managing the money involved. The restaurant was opened on time and Sarah felt great satisfaction in her achievements. Sarah had a few key learnings from this experience: Appreciation for different people and what they have to offer Never be afraid to ask questions Always surround yourself by people who know what you don t Be efficient by understanding your strengths and weaknesses and identifying them in others. At this point Sarah was ready to move on. She went to Pizza Express and explained that she was ready to leave as the company was no longer committed to International Development. A new position was offered working for the board, the central focus being strategic finance. Strategic Finance position >>> Sarah began working on the future strategy of the business. She worked on a few acquisitions, new concepts and worked to leverage the brand by using different distribution outlets. (railways, supermarkets etc). Sarah loved the role and particularly enjoyed buying businesses, negotiating and increasing profitability by identifying improvements to the capital structure. Sarah believes that it is worth paying good money for good businesses as long as the structure can be changed and value can be added very quickly. The share price for Pizza Express fell and the company changed its focus moving from acquisition and focusing on the core brand. It was time for Sarah to have a serious think about her future. Sarah suggests that sleeping on the problem is crucial as things can look less exaggerated in the morning. 3

4 Over a month Sarah came to the conclusion that she did not want a board position even if it was offered, she did not want to work 9-5 anymore and wanted to have ownership and greater responsibility. She decided strategic acquisition was for her, but she recognised that there were gaps of knowledge if she were to do this herself. After a lot of talking to friends, family and previous work colleagues she applied for the MBA at Cranfield University. Sarah used Economist League Tables and MBA websites in establishing that Cranfield was for her. The MBA >>> Sarah embarked on the MBA with a view to buying her own business. She was focused in what she wanted from the course and appreciated the strong element of self reflection. Sarah believes the key to being a good entrepreneur is understanding yourself and developing a team of people that can fill in knowledge gaps. The MBA helped Sarah develop a network of contacts and close friends. Faculty and tutors also offered guidance and advice that was invaluable in helping her understand the acquisition process in greater detail. The MBA also provided guest entrepreneur speakers of successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs which offered great inspiration for Sarah. She believes that entrepreneurs are motivated by subjects they like and it is not that they can t do certain things it s more a case that they don t want to. And this time of person likes controlling and understanding what they are doing. Sarah suggests that a theme ran through her course: "Conviction of knowing what you want to do and knowing I m going to make this happen and I know what I want to do." Thinking about acquiring a company >>> Three months into the MBA Sarah had begun to truly investigate how to start up her own business. The Inland Revenue website was particularly it gave insight into the idea of tax efficiencies. Whilst at Cranfield and developing her business plan Sarah utilised Faculty to help with forming her plans and to ask advice. She also read other peoples business plans to aid the development of her own. 4

5 When identifying the companies she wished to acquire she utilised Companies House and research by Dunn and Bradstreet. Dunn and Bradstreet carry out research into a variety of companies. She also utilised the accounts of companies in the last five years to help understand how they had grown and to identify possibilities for future growth. In conjunction she identified directors of prospective companies and researched their background. This helped formulate the appropriate way to approach the companies. Within four to five months of the MBA Sarah had identified the business which she wished to purchase. She wished to acquire a chain of restaurants in South London. Sarah had identified that this chain had the greatest potential in terms of the ability to add value to the business. At this point she began to approach potential investors with a plan as to how she would add value to this business. Sarah used her background in restaurant development to add credibility when approaching venture capitalists. Her background was also crucial in using existing contacts to develop new contacts within this arena. She was introduced to every bank and venture capitalist that she approached by existing contacts. She believes that this was crucial and more effective in enabling her to reach the people that could finance her business. What does the presentation to potential investors have to include? What is the clear opportunity? What is the business today? Where do you want to take it? Who is the team? How much money is required to invest? How will it be invested? When will the entrepreneur exit? When will the investors get their money back? A key learning when approaching venture capitalists is that they are buying you as a person, more so than the business plan itself. 5

6 Putting in the bid >>> After identifying the company and putting a team of investors and an advisory team of lawyers, marketing/pr and finance Sarah put a bid together. The bid was formulated following a valuation of the company and identifying the potential growth of the company. Sarah found a number of barriers when trying to purchase the family restaurant chain in South London. Nervous in approaching the company, which meant she spent longer in deciding how to approach the company. Sarah became too focused on the owner s emotional involvement with the company and spent too long procrastinating. Outbid by rival Putting in the bid >>> After identifying the company and putting a team of investors and an advisory team of lawyers, marketing/pr and finance Sarah put a bid together. The bid was formulated following a valuation of the company and identifying the potential growth of th Learning >>> Do not try and deal with every single issue focus on the necessities Be more mercenary and get to the point more quickly. A new job offer >>> At this point Sarah was quite disappointed but was not deterred! Two days later she was offered a fantastic job with Norwich Union as Head of New Business. She decided to take a holiday and was seriously considering taking the position. She slept on it and slept on it until one morning she awoke to realise she definitely did not want to work for someone else and shocked at herself for even considering it. She wanted her own business! 6

7 A new acquisition >>> Sarah put together a new team of both investors and advisory team. She had more money to play with and more experienced people on her side. She put a new bid together for a worldwide chain of restaurants and used what she had learnt from the previous bid. She is still waiting to hear the result of the bid. Present Day >>> She has been approached by the first family run restaurant chain to put another bid in for the company. She agreed to put a higher bid together with her new team. Sarah has now acquired a chain of restaurants in South London and is looking to grow the businesses. Future advice >>> When starting your own business think about who you know. Somebody will have the answers, don t try and do everything on your own. Surround yourself by people who inspire and challenge you Lose the ego, don t be afraid to say I don t understand Understand self, in terms of strengths and weaknesses What has Sarah got out of these experiences? A roller coaster of emotion from gleeful, exhaustion, anger and excitement Confidence development in over coming obstacles A real sense of achievement and independence Overall a great deal of pride and of course anticipation what will happen next? 7