Interview with an Entrepreneur

by Melis Blackford

Introduction

Melis Blackford interviews Paul Brealey of Lemon Jelli

Paul Brealey is the manager of Lemon Jelli. His business sells juices, milkshakes, teas, coffees, pizzas, crêpes, cakes, salads and breakfasts. Lemon Jelli is located in Newton Abbot and operates from a market stall in the Indoor Market, a mobile Citroën H Van and a café in Queen Street.

 

How long have you been running Lemon Jelli? 

Lemon Jelli has been running since 2007. It started off as a small café in Totnes selling juices, smoothies, coffees and sandwiches but it wasn’t very successful. I had the idea of selling our produce such as crêpes and drinks, at festivals using our French Citroën H Van and it worked! People liked this unique idea a lot and the business has been successful to this very day. 7 months ago, after owning a stall in the market for a while, I decided to expand the business to a café/bistro/bar in Queen Street.

 

What motivated you to start Lemon Jelli rather than work for an existing company?

I am motivated by a few things. The first is making sure that I am the best I can be. The next is creating employment for people; this is very important to me. Another thing is simply to be successful.

 

How have you made Lemon Jelli so successful?

I have made Lemon Jelli successful by focusing on what our customers think is attractive and desirable and also by being conscious of the point-of-sale and structure. For me, it is important to be moral and buy local and Fairtrade produce. It's also important for the ethics to be correct and to have an appropriate theme for Lemon Jelli; a French theme. Another key factor is to be prepared to work really hard and I have learnt to embrace technology and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, to advertise Lemon Jelli.

 

What top 5 tips do you have for people wanting to start their own business?

In my opinion, these are probably the things I say would be the most important to consider:

1. You need to establish the need and market for your product/business.
2. You need to ensure that you are profitable and can afford to enter the business world.
3. You must stay focused on your original goal and don’t lose sight of it.
4. You must be prepared to adapt to your customers' needs and preferences.
5. I think it is very important to choose your key staff carefully as they must be reliable and responsible.

And now a question for Melis:
Is starting a business something you would like to do, after talking to the entrepreneur? 
I think that starting a business would be very difficult and challenging because you would need to be able to cope with criticism and adapt well. Although this sounds tough, I think that creating my own business sounds like a possible career option for me because I enjoy Business Studies and I think I would enjoy the challenge.