The founder of a large network of cafes has mentioned one of the biggest mistakes of her life: others call it a success story.

Daddy’s death shocked

At a management conference some time ago, an EBIT businesswoman agreed to share her life and the story of starting a business. She claimed that she believed there was a streak of entrepreneurship in every human being, but she just didn’t see or discover much about it.

Before telling her story, she asked those present in the hall to raise their hands, who consider themselves entrepreneurs, adding that if someone had asked her a while ago, she would never have raised her hand. According to her, for a long time the majority of the UK believed that there was only one businessman: Richard Branson.

“I compared myself to him and thought he didn’t have these genes. I thought that being an entrepreneur meant having some kind of gene, having a talent, a skill, and I didn’t have it.

I didn’t drop out of school, I didn’t earn a million, I didn’t do anything typical of the most famous entrepreneurs. I went the other way around: I became a lawyer, ”she said, adding that she believed that in life, in the best of cases, we had to do something that reflected on ourselves, but she herself had chosen almost the worst option for her .

“If we talk about my character, my optimism and enthusiasm stand out, but very quickly as a lawyer I realized that these qualities are not necessary in the law at all,” she said, referring to being in a comfort zone, saying that she lived there with success, but soon an event occurred in his life that changed everything.

“My 60-year-old father died suddenly of a heart attack and I remember the state of shock I found myself in. In fact, that was what I needed, something took my comfort zone and pushed me out of it. Sometimes we need to get out of it.

I remember after my dad died I thought I had a deceptive sense of security, it seemed to me that I was pretty safe, but it really wasn’t like that and I thought maybe I should do what I like, then every day 100 percent. hundred. It could be myself, but I still didn’t know what it could be, “he opened.

The businesswoman soon left the law practice and went with her brother Bob, who was working in New York at the time, for a short time.

The business idea was borrowed from the US.

Upon arriving in New York, he said he went to a cafe for a cup of Americano coffee and was pleasantly surprised, because he completely smashed all the myths he had imagined before.

“The idea that I had to do with the American coffee was that, when going to a restaurant, he had a fuzzy coffee. We British keep laughing at that.

But I remember walking down the street and smelling coffee there. Later, I went to a cafe and fell in love with that experience. I ordered coffee with milk and the barista asked me what kind of milk I would like, what kind of fat, if vegetable or lactose free and I couldn’t believe it. Then I thought how unreal it is to start my morning like this, “he recalled.

Upon returning to London, the businesswoman said she kept looking for work, but it was all replaced by a dinner with her family.

“My mom, my brother and I went out to dinner, and in the middle of dinner I told my brother that when he returned to London he missed cafes like New York, that he couldn’t believe we didn’t have them and that I would like him to Someone in London would open them like that, because it’s a great idea. .

When I said this out loud, my brother responded. The light came on. He always wanted to start his own business. It just flashed and told me it was an unrealistic business idea.

He said we have to bring American style coffee to the UK and my reaction was, “Wait Bobi. Than? ”She said, saying that she had tried to explain that she did not want to start a business herself, and then offered her a job with him.

“He asked me to do an investigation, and the next day I was no longer sitting at home, not trying to explore the market, but I just physically left the house and went to the nearest metro station.

One subway line was called Circle, it consisted of 27 stops, and my research was to get off at each stop and see what happened there. I remember there were sandwich bars and the coffee was just tragic. Then I thought they were people and called the gap in the market.

But what I’ve learned in life is that every time you come up with a good idea, a thousand thoughts come to mind that want to talk to you, but then I hit the “delete” button in my mind. All fear must be erased, you cannot dialogue with it. You just have to get rid of it, “he said in the report.

The next step, then only the future entrepreneur, as explained, was to dispel all doubts, but soon they and their brother realized another truth: that they both have absolutely no experience in building a business, they know nothing. about coffee, catering or retail.

“I thought it would be a huge inconvenience for us, but I didn’t realize at the time that being a stranger at the time was our biggest advantage. We were customers and we saw everything from the customer’s point of view.

At that time, my brother and I were trying to learn about coffee, we were going to train. We didn’t know how different the coffee was from the different countries, but we were excited, and after the course we had 27 espresso servings in one morning, ”he laughs.

This was followed by both writing a business plan and attempting to obtain a loan to start a business.

Named Life’s Greatest Mistake

Hashemi told a conference that they needed 120,000 to start a business with his brother. sterling loan, but it was extremely difficult to get.

“Most of the bank executives refused to give it to them and asked us if we were crazy trying to introduce coffee to a country that has a deep tradition in tea.

The banks rejected 39 requests for us and only one bank agreed to give us 120 thousand. Loan in euros.

Then we opened the first cafe in the UK and now there are 22,000, ”he said, but assured that the cafe did not have many customers at first.

“When the first bar opened, no one came. To cover the cost, we needed to make £ 700 and we only made £ 200.

My mom came to the bar to have as much cappuccino as possible. But we didn’t stop, we realized that once a person tastes our coffee, they will never go to another cafe to drink it. This is how we attract customers, we grow our business. We have grown from zero to 30, 60, 110 coffee shops in 5 years, ”he said.

“When we opened bar 110, we thought that large companies needed specialists, organization, and my brother and I sold our shares. They were valued at $ 50 million.

People think selling Coffee Republic is a great success story, but it was my biggest mistake. I did not have to sell my shares, “he admitted at the conference, adding that he believes the most important thing in life is for everyone to discover the entrepreneurial gene.

“When I got out of my comfort zone, I was forced to seek entrepreneurship,” she summarized.