We are not exactly winding down for the season just yet. The last day off is a distant memory, but 2014 is nearly done, and we will be hibernating for a few months while we try and kit out the still unnamed Bedford, our new van. It’s been a weird year, with the first half full of vehicular agony and the second half over before we had really come to terms with it, but despite everything, I think we have pretty much done street food.
So what next. We could probably tick along quite happily for the next 20 years, drifting to festivals, lamenting our elderly van, making a reasonable living and not really having time for a life. The Jabberwocky has supported us financially for 18 months, so it can probably go indefinitely now. But that’s not enough. So rather than selecting a path for expansion, crafting a business plan and being all strategic and risk averse, we’re giving everything a shot.
Next Logical Step 1 – Event Management
You know the traders, you know the spaces, why not put two and two together and have a stab at putting on your own event! I talked about this last week, and it’s harder than it looks. Not just because maybe no one shows up, but because when it actually comes down to it, no one cares about this event as much as you do. As a trader it was the organiser’s job to make people show up. As an organiser you have to find and motivate people you have never met to come to somewhere they have never been and spend money with other people. Still, together with the other members of Scoff we are giving it a go. This weekend, only 3 sleeps away (sleep – ha!) we will know.
Logical Step Option 2 – A Second Unit
Bertha maybe? Biddy? Belle? The Bedford, if our calculations are correct, will be our next unit. Eventually we will get round to the conversion. People keep wanting us to serve them toasties elsewhere. This is most inconvenient. Once we have sorted it out though there will be nothing stopping us charging across the countryside in two knackered old vans. Except possibly the size of our kitchen. If only we had a larger kitchen with more space to prepare food…
This is a kitchen. Needs a little sprucing up.
Next Logical Step 3 – Bricks & Mortar
It’s a whole new league of commitment, and sadly a project over which we haven’t got a lot of control. If we get a premises it makes sense to have it in Leamington or Birmingham, as those are the two places we have a solid local following. Birmingham is out, because I have more interesting things to do with my life than the M40, M42 and M6 every day. But Leamington property comes on the market and is gone like a flash, so this is an ongoing quest to, it would appear, meet and annoy every single property owner in Leamington until they eventually give up and just hand us some keys.
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