The Clubhouse Journal #1 - 8 Years In Coffee

Change is the only constant.

When I started The Clubhouse in 2018, I had no idea where it would take me, but I knew I wanted to create something that built a community, helped people and that changed my life from the corporate rat race. I knew change was going to be a part of my life but I didn’t know how it would become the over riding theme of the journey.

As I went through our 8th Anniversary it really struck me that the speed of change that was present when I opened has not slowed and if anything has intensified as I search for the ever illusive stability and calm.

I opened the shop knowing it wasn’t perfect, if there was one tip I had for anyone looking to start something, it would be, JUST START! Dont wait for the perfect idea or perfect plan, have a passion? Looking to make it your life? Then Just Start, you’ll figure it out, the perfect start doesn’t exist but starting is so important. I know it sounds silly, but so many people I have spoken to over the years have so many great ideas or plans that never get off the ground because they’re waiting for the perfect time, and that just doesn’t exist. This is a message I have heard from many different sources and it remains one of the most true. JUST START! You couldn’t guess how il prepared I was when The Clubhouse opened! No experience working in coffee, no coffee making experience, never ran a business before, had only light hospitality experience in pubs, no financial backing and recovering from a brain injury after a bad cycling crash just weeks before!

In starting this way I knew I was going to have to build and develop all aspects of the business as I learnt more and gained experience. This was the fun side of change, what fun new menu choices, coffee choices, opening times, marketing strategies and more. This was a great distraction from the fact we were taking no money, every week we'd try something different. Some ideas worked, many didn't, but every change taught us something but I knew that if I was learning all the time and putting that learning into practice we would grow, sales would increase and we would be ok. I guess this first 12 -18 months had 2 constants, change and graft. Working through the day to day, alongside building and developing was hard, hard work.

2020, the year that changed everything and in many ways the largest changes that saved The Clubhouse. Thats a whole other story, maybe we will delve into that one day but what I would say is that The Clubhouse Roasters wouldn’t have happened as quickly with out being pushed into it by the pandemic. This was a very visible example of making huge uncomfortable change, overnight we had to find a way of keeping the lights on, we created a website, a coffee bag brand, and set to roasting and delivering our coffee all round the local area in order to pay our bills and keep going. Turning into a wholesale/ e-commerce business was an enormous change and scared me to death! But without it The Clubhouse would have been another hospitality statistic, a great business killed off by the pandemic. That appetite for change that was nurtured in the early years, probably saved The Clubhouse then and was the biggest change we ever went through.

For years I thought if I just solved enough problems, eventually I'd arrive at a version of business where things settled down. The truth is, that day never comes. You simply get better at solving the next problem.

Fast forward to our 8th year, the change keeps coming and it’s not always comfortable. Knowing there is self inflicted change coming is one thing but the stuff that never gets easier to deal with is the kind of change , to quote Baz Lurhman, “the kind that blindsides you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday” I thought after 8 years there wouldn’t be many surprises but oh boy was I wrong! Whether its reacting to problems, dealing with the inevitable changing of the guard when members of the team leave, changing suppliers or fighting cost price increases, it never stops and I guess after 8 years, I have finally realised that in business and especially hospitality, change is the only thing that can be relied upon.

So as we set upon our 9th lap around the sun, I am going to work on embracing that unexpected change more and rolling with those punches, without the constant fear of something bad happening as can be the case when you start anticipating it too much! I am also going to keep on pushing forward with the planned changes and accepting that this is good business and promotes great growth both personally and professionally.

Hospitality can be a real pressure cooker at times, anyone who has watched The Bear knows that fever dream! Running in parallel to that, hospitality also has some of the greatest opportunity to develop, experiment and change. So we will keep moving, keep changing, watch this space the next 12 months will, as always, be wild.

Through all of these changes, one thing has stayed remarkably constant. People continue to choose to spend part of their day with us, and that's something I'll never stop being grateful for

Eight years ago I thought success meant reaching a point where everything finally settled down, Today I think success is learning to enjoy building while the ground keeps moving beneath your feet.

Until I journal again,

Kane :)