Words from the Wise: The Be At One founders
Business secrets from Leigh Miller, Rhys Oldfield & Steve Locke, Be At One founders
Recruit the best people Bars are people, not places. When find we a site, the first question we always ask is who we are going to get to run that site. We are aware that people come to see us because of the people working behind the bar, whereas lots of bars and restaurants open up and staff are almost an afterthought.
Failing is all part of being successful It is OK as long as you learn from the experience and do not use it as a reason to give up. We have picked ourselves up and dusted ourselves off a number of times over the years. You get to know that feeling quite well.
Have patience, stick to your guns You build a business one guest at a time. We just focus on what we do and make sure guests have a great time and tell a friend and come back within three months. As we get longer in the tooth we can be patient. We don't expect a site to explode when we first open it. We just stick with it.
We generally know best Too many times we go round the houses when we know what to do from the start. It sounds like an arrogant thing to say but the majority of times, we just know best. We have been doing this for a few years now. We don't want to be autocratic owners - we want to empower people. But it is a fine line balancing that with things you have seen many times before and know instinctively need to be done a certain way.
Beware energy sappers This comes from Clive Woodward's book Winning! where he talks about the fact that in the England rugby camp there were energisers and then there were sappers. It is very important to us that we isolate sappers very quickly and we only have energisers in the business.
Nobody is more important than the guests Anything we do must be tailored towards them having the best time because they will tell their friends and come back. If you don't have that goal then you really shouldn't be doing it.
Good decision, bad decision
Good Recruiting a head of operations a few years ago. It was something we considered for a while but it was a real turning point for Be At One. The person we hired brought in discipline, systems, and drove all aspects of our operation. That allowed us as directors to focus working on the business rather than working in the business.
Bad Any decision we have taken, we have never regretted. But if there is one bad decision we made it was trying to save money by not employing professional services. In the early days we bought a site and we chose not to take our architect on site before we acquired it because he charged by the hour. We subsequently discovered that a passageway to the fire exit to the rear was too narrow and would limit the capacity of the site. We were fortunate that there was the opportunity at the rear to rent land and build a new fire escape. But we wasted a lot of time and money rectifying a problem we should have been aware of.
a short history of Be At One
Early 1990s Three founders meet at TGI Fridays
1998 They raise £60,000 and buy a rundown restaurant on Battersea Rise, south London, which becomes the first Be At One. It makes a £50,000 profit in the first 10 months of trading
1999 Be At One Wandsworth opens. It has a restaurant and rent is five times as high. It is not such a success and is sold 18 months later
2001 Be At One Richmond opens
2004 Sites open in Covent Garden and Balham
2007 Be At One Hammersmith and Be At One Putney open
2008 Sites open in Soho and Clapham
2009 Sites open in Spitalfield and Shoreditch in the City
