Single-mindedness and determination are important attributes when you’re starting your own business. Many entrepreneurs have inspiring stories about quitting their well-paid stable jobs and starting from scratch. But what about those who made life-changing sacrifices to get an idea off the ground?
I lived in a shed to save money
Pippa Murray, founder of Pip & Nut, lived in a shed for three months to save the money to launch her business. “Living in a shed [with a bed, electricity and windows] in a back garden in Battersea enabled me to eradicate my overheads, quit my day job and, crucially, pursue my company full time,” she says.
Murray won the opportunity as part of an Escape the City competition, and the shed was located in the backyard of one of the founders. “I was able to store all my stuff in his house, and thankfully it never got cold because it was a really hot summer.”
Nevertheless, her change of circumstances was pretty drastic. “One minute I’ve got a secure job with a paycheck coming in every month and a normal London flat, and the next minute I’m living in a shed with the sole aim of launching a nut butter brand. But once I got over that initial shell-shock moment, it was an extraordinary experience. I met a whole load of fantastic people; I raised the funds for my company and I’m now launching the brand.”
Murray says it would have taken her a lot longer to save up if she hadn’t quit her job and moved into the shed for the summer: “There are so many things that you have to juggle when starting up a company, but when things are getting off the ground one major hurdle that most startups face, myself included, was the difficulty of quitting the day job while also paying the rent. For me, living in a shed and removing overheads was exactly the opportunity I’d be looking for.”
We lived off 50p each day and ate a lot of bread and tuna
Greg Duncan and Damien Kennedy, founders of Wheyhey protein ice cream, also quit their jobs and slashed their outgoings to raise funds: “We met at Brunel University in London and were both working full time [as a biology teacher and a basketball coach]. We saved like madmen. We sold our houses and car and moved onto the floors of friends’ and family’s houses,” says Duncan.
The pair did everything they could to scrimp and save: “When we started the company and had quit our full-time jobs, we worked three jobs each, literally anything to keep the money coming in – we weren’t picky – and bought discounted food.”
Duncan and Kennedy also slept on the floor of other people’s houses for six months. Says Kennedy: “This might sound odd, but it was actually quite inspiring. It felt like we were working towards something wonderful. It was kind of a naive excitement.”
The pair managed to live on 50p a day because they weren’t paying rent. This meant their staple meal was bread and tuna. They also relied on the kindness of relatives. “We had to beg and borrow £40k from friends and family. We then sought angel investment to keep the momentum going.”
I sublet my room and moved onto the sofa for 18 months
Five years ago Dominic Jackman, co-founder of Escape the City, was working in a lucrative job as a management consultant with a big firm, but felt disillusioned with his life. “I looked around me and thought, nobody is having a big impact on the wider world here.”
So Jackman started to look at ways he could escape from his corporate job. His idea was to create a business that provided opportunities and training to those thinking about leaving the corporate world.
“The idea of setting up a business called Escape The City came to me when I realised how many bright, interesting and passionate people there were in the City, and yet there were a lot of frustrated people who felt absolutely no passion or love for their jobs. The breakthrough moment was when I did an epic canoe of the Yukon river, and realised there were a lot of people doing these adrenaline sports who were all from corporate backgrounds. It made me wonder how many people wanted to escape their City jobs.”
Although Jackman was earning a good salary as a management consultant, he had no savings and nobody to lend him money to help start the business. “Also this was back in 2009 so there weren’t as many start-up loan companies or organisations at the time,” he says. “I had to come up with ways to save enough money to do what I wanted. If I cut back on all the essentials, I worked out that I’d be able to survive on around £10 a day, which would cover food, rent, and bills. So I paired back my outgoings, started cycling, stopped buying all those coffees, and made my own sandwiches. I realised that if I wanted to save, I’d have to stop paying rent. I sublet my room and moved onto the sofa. For 18 months.”
Jackman says surviving on £10 a day was “a bit of a first-world problem to have”. He adds: “But it worked, and it enabled me to start my company, so that’s all that mattered, really.” Despite being unable to participate in activities with his friends, Jackman remained optimistic. “I knew that I wanted to create my own startup more than anything and that it would involve sacrifices.”
Jackman didn’t quit his job immediately; he kept working as a management consultant to earn money, but he spent each night brainstorming with his co-founder Rob. He continued working in his corporate job for another year, and managed to save £6,000 towards funding the startup. “Once I quit my job I threw myself into it. I didn’t care if the plan failed, because secretly I knew that I was going to work too hard for it not to work. I’d rather have tried and failed and then gone onto something else than not tried at all.”
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