Chat Ed : Good evening everyone and welcome to our live webchat with Steve Butcher and Lindsay McNally who are the brave pair from tonight’s Risking It All. Steve and Lindsay’s dream was to start an upmarket restaurant from scratch offering modern English food using fresh ingredients, local and organic where possible. Neither of them had any experience in the restaurant business and Steve had only ever cooked for family and friends. They’re here to answer your questions…
Lindsay : Hi everyone.
Russ : Hi Lindsay
Nick : hi
Louisa : Hi Lindsay
saliha : hi
Simon : hi
Lindsay : We've been getting lots of emails and phonecalls throughout the programme. We watched it for the first time tonight as well you see.
slitster : hi
Steve : Hi all!
Russ : First I'd like to say how brave Steve and Lindsay have been and what a fantastic job they are doing
maureen : are you making a profit yet?
brady : u breakin even yet?
John : So, how is it going now guys?
DenisM : How is business now?
Natasha : How are things going now?
DenisM : How is business now?
Lindsay : We're still not making a profit, no. But business is good and we had got quite a few forward bookings even before the programme went out tonight.
Steve : And we've got a lot of regular customers.
Jon Jon : How long ago was the programme made?
Steve : It was made from May 2004 up until 3 weeks ago, so about 16 months in all.
john r : great programme did not see what Kent village it was in ?
Steve : Ealham
drpepper : Did you start your venture based on a romantic notion or from a commercial point of view
Steve : Romantic notion. I think everybody has dreams and everybody dreams of doing something different and all it takes is a leap of faith to follow your passion. It requires a lot to risk it all and actually do it, but now we've been doing it for nine months we're trying to turn it into a commercially viable business.
morgan : Do you think that it would be easier to run a restaurant in a larger town?
Sarah Graham : Surely now your celebs you'll be over run with trade!!!!
Lindsay : It would be busier, not necessarily easier. As we speak the phone is just constantly ringing, so hopefully yes, Sarah!
DenisM : Steve did you find it hard to accept advice? You seemed a bit defensive to some advice or was that just how the programme was edited?
Chris Griffin : How was your relationship with Martin - was his advice a help
Lindsay chuckles
Lindsay : I think I can answer that! I think it was how the programme was edited. Steve is very good at taking advice. It was edited to give it a bit more spice let's say ;)
Steve : Chris - Our relationship with Martin was pretty good and relaxed. His advice was a good reinforcement of what we had already planned. It was quite comforting to know that somebody experienced was happy with our plans.
craig : Would you have preferred for Gordon Ramsay to have been giving you advice rather than the guy who was on the show?
Steve : Gordon Ramsay is the master! So yes!
chrissie : My partner and I have started a business recently and it has really affected our personal relationship how did you guys cope with the pressures. I too left a well-paid job and feel resentment that my partner takes total control!!
JR : how has the business affected your personal relationship
risk : did your project affect you relationship
Mark12 : Hi! How did your relationship hold up????
Steve : I think it's a balance of skills and the partnership you've got. We've very opposite; my weak points are Lindsay's strong points. We respect each other from a working perspective too and I think that goes a long way.
Carl : did you ever cut corners in terms of quality of produce?
Lindsay : No. We've never strayed from what we believed in right from the beginning, which was fresh and local.
tommy : Hi guys, first thing to say is, I feel famished after seeing that!
kes : Steve, did you have any experience in restaurant business, before you started?
Lindsay chuckles, excellent tommy!
Ruby : Steve....did you know how to cook before?
Steve : None at all.
Lindsay : He has actually run the kitchen as head chef while our chef has been on holiday and not one person has noticed a difference.
Steve : I'd never had any formal training other than a one-day at Rick Stein's seafood school.
Lindsay : He's always been a good cook though - very creative.
dave53 : can Lindsay cook?
Lindsay : I can cook, yep. When we first got together that was the only thing we used to argue about - who was going to cook. But with Steve's creativity I learnt to take my place and now I just peel potatoes!
Temisa : Do you have any regrets about starting the business, I too am going thru a difficult time with my own business and sometimes wonder if i did the right thing giving up a well-paid job
Lindsay : There's more to life than money, Temisa and when you start your own business you have to have that at the back of your mind to get you through those first few challenges. But the rewards are immense and then, after a while, you can start thinking about making money again.
denisefromwigan : Would you like to go back to your old jobs or not?
Steve : No way denise. That was one of our reasons for doing this - to escape the corporate 9-5pm thing that destroyed me. Lindsay loved her job by the way though.
Jeff : Well done Guy's ....All I kept hearing was how good the food was
David : Do you do corporate banquets, i want to put it on the company card!
Steve : Corporate banquets for 26 with individualised menus. Just drop us an email to arrange it: bluevinny@aol.com
Natasha : you need a website now!!
Steve : It's up Natasha! www.bluevinnyrestaurant.co.uk
Grant : Would you consider moving premises, so that you could make more profit?
Rachel : Have you expanded?
Steve : We'd consider opening another premises, Blue Vinny 2 maybe, but we certainly wouldn't move, but we might expand. But not yet - still lots of work to do here.
Scotsdave : How long are you willing to give it, if you still aren't making a profit after over a year?
Lindsay : We WILL make a profit before the year is up - we're getting closer and closer. Our business plan said we wouldn't make money for the first two years and we're ahead of that.
Lee Graham : Did you ever consider throwing in the towel when the competition from across the road arrived?
Lindsay : The competition that they were talking about only actually stayed at that location for about a month. The chef moved on. But we always felt that what we were doing was good enough to keep our customers.
Carole : I admire you both, I actually started a Cafe with hardly anything, I am always looking for ideas now to get me through the winter months
Lindsay : That's nice that you can relate it to your own lives. Try curry evenings and steak and kidney pud nights in the winter we've found they go down a treat.
Adam Pimperton : What advice would you give to other potential entrepreneurs?
Richard : I am looking to start my own animation company soon, what is the best advice you could offer a new business venture explorer?
Lindsay : Follow your instincts and believe in yourself. But make sure you have someone there to give you back-up and support, not necessarily financially, but it's a lot easier when there are two of you rather than just one of you on your own.
andy : I was going to open a restaurant but my favourite cheese is 'ASDA MILD CHEDDAR'. Not quite the same ring! ;0P
Lindsay laughs!
Lindsay : No, I'm afraid we've stolen the best cheese name.
Grant : Just had a look at your website & it looks very professional. Well done.
Ravenstorm : Have you or do intend to acquire food awards i.e. AA rosette etc..?
Steve : To be quite honest it's not our intention to go for them, they have to come from their own fruition. You can't try and match all the criteria of all the food awards. The AA said our menu was too complex, without having eaten here. So no we're not going out looking for it but if it comes to us it will be an added bonus. Obviously I'd like to have Michelin stars like any chef. If it comes to us, all well and good.
mark : Why risk everything you have and own.......was it a real buzz to do so?
Rachel : Did you enjoy the experience even though you didn’t make the money you hoped to?
Steve : Absolutely. It was a real buzz learning from scratch. We designed and built the restaurant ourselves. It was a huge achievement and very rewarding. It's been a real life-changing experience and well worth it. Not easy - by any stretch of the imagination, but very rewarding.
Chat Ed : Our half hour with Steve and Lindsay is almost up, so last few questions now...
amy : do you have any regrets?
Louisa : What would you do differently next time?
bb : Reflecting on your experience, what would you do differently?
Steve : No regrets - life is too short for those. That's what this venture does for you - when you are learning from scratch you learn by your mistakes along the way.
Louisa : Excellent philosophy
Steve : We'd have a bigger kitchen area and a bigger bar area - those are our main stumbling blocks. We'd like to be able to increase sitting capacity too, but that's not possible.
nak : Do you feel you have improved your quality of life?
Steve : Ohh... really difficult question. We don't have much spare time at all and we don't have any money, we used to have lots of holidays and now we don't have any...
Steve laughs
Steve : The fact that we are working together has improved our quality of life because we like being together so the answer to that is that our quality of life is...different.
Chat Ed : Our half hour with Steve and Lindsay is now up folks…
Julie R : guess not enough time to answer all questions but would like to wish you the very best of luck and we'll come and see you sometime
Sarah : good luck in the future
Louisa : Hope to see you for dinner soon!
Robbie : Steve Lindsay, my name is Robbie Williams, yes the real one no crap. watch ya show and wanna wish you all the best.
Jesper : Good luck to both of you!
Paul Thompson : well done both of you...
PeterL : Good luck - fantastic job!
Mat : Good luck to you both!
Lee Graham : good luck
Louisa : Thanks for the chat - look forward to seating!
Freddy : enjoy
Jono : well done
Steve : But life is a journey and adventure and you have to do these things to find out what it holds.
ema : good luck
Beaky : Good Luck...thinking of you both
Lindsay : Thanks for all your support and positive comments. We were a bit worried about the programme having been filmed for so long. Our only disappointment was that Steve's kids weren't in it. The challenge now is going to be constantly delivering what we set out to deliver if the place becomes far busier.
amanda : I thought the show was great
Yakster : Lots of Luck and love to both of you, now settle in and make some babies! Cheers.
Lindsay : D : Thanks for inspiring us - good luck
Lindsay leaves the room
Steve leaves the room
