Anyone can do it: building Coffee Republic from our kitchen table

220 Pages·13.676 MB·English

by  Hashemi, Sahar;Hashemi, Bobby

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ii ANYONE CAN DO IT
Sahar and Bobby Hashemi are the sister and brother
team who built Coffee Republic, the UK’s original high
street coffee chain. Giving up highly paid professional
jobs, she a lawyer in London and he an investment
banker in New York, they staked everything on a dream
– to create the best coffee chain in Britain. Eight years
later they are two of our most successful and high-
profile entrepreneurs.
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Thinking about starting the business of your dreams?
So what’s holding you back? Is it the fear of the unknown? If you are even
contemplating starting a business of your own, perhaps you feel ‘stuck’ where you
are now? But even being ‘stuck’ can seem better than facing that fear. That fear of
the unknown, of leaving that comfort zone. Entrepreneurship is like an uncharted
ocean. But ask yourself this question: Do you have the will and determination to
leave dry land and navigate the choppy and sometimes daunting waters that lie
before you?
If so, then Anyone Can Do It can help you tackle some of those fears, to answer some
of the elusive questions about what an entrepreneur must face when making the
decision to go for (what can sometimes seem like) that unattainable dream. Authors
Sahar and Bobby Hashemi are the dynamic brother and sister team who started
one of the most recognizable and high-profile brands in the United Kingdom today
– Coffee Republic.
Sahar and Bobby had to leave their comfort zones too, leaving secure jobs to take
the plunge. But this is not a business memoir nor mere corporate history. This
is a personal story about two ordinary people who ‘did it’, and who got it right.
Anyone Can Do It is an inspirational book that chronicles the start and evolution of
a genuine success story. Sahar and Bobby take you through their first conversations
(when the seed of the idea was planted), to writing the business plan, finding a
name, raising money, opening the first store, taking the company public and to
the present day when Coffee Republic turns over millions, employs thousands of
individuals and has over 100 outlets around the United Kingdom.
Anyone Can Do It offers a myriad of lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs and blows
apart the myth that only ‘special’ people start successful businesses. It’s written in
an informal style and packed with tips, advice and quotes. Throughout the text are
copies of original business plans, early brainstorms and the cruel and duly ignored
bank rejection letters.
Sahar and Bobby take the reader step by step through every aspect of starting a
business. The process for them wasn’t always easy but one thing is for sure, it was the
most rewarding journey either of them has taken.
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iv ANYONE CAN DO IT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v
‘Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell them
“Certainly I can”.
Then get busy and find out how to do it.’
- THEODORE ROOSEVELT
You see things and say, ‘Why?’
But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?’
- GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
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This book is dedicated to
The memory of our father
who taught us the value of hard work and commitment
Our mother
who taught us how to dream
Everyone who has ever worked for Coffee Republic:
It is you who have made this dream come true
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Copyright © 2002 Sahar and Bobby Hashemi
The right of Sahar and Bobby Hashemi to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published 2002
This edition published 2004 by
Capstone Publishing Limited (A Wiley Company)
The Atrium
Southern Gate
Chichester
West Sussex PO19 8SQ
http://www.wileyeurope.com
Reprinted December 2003
All Rights Reserved. Except for the quotation of small passages for the purposes of criticism and review,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except under the
terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP, UK, without the permission in writing
of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John
Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England, or emailed to
[email protected], or faxed to ([phone]. CIP catalogue records for this book are available from
the British Library and the US Library of Congress
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 1-84112-579-2
Typeset by Cylinder
Printed and bound by T.J. International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
This book is printed on acid-free paper
Substantial discounts on bulk quantities of Capstone Books are available to corporations, professional
associations and other organizations.
For details telephone John Wiley & Sons on ([phone]), fax [phone])
or e-mail [email protected]
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Acknowledgements
We have decided to write this book because we believe that we have
a story to tell and that in relating what we did and the things that
happened to us as a result, the reader will gain an insight into
the journey of entrepreneurship. For anyone aspiring to take that
plunge themselves, this book may prove useful because it’s a real
life case study.
We have approached our writing journey in the same way that we
set out on the road to entrepreneurship. We had no idea how to
tell our story when we started…we just knew what we wanted to
achieve. The rest we thought we could figure out along the way.
In the process of bringing this book to life, we were struck by the
similarity between the process of writing and publishing and the
process of entrepreneurship itself. It starts from the “light bulb”
– that moment when you know you want to write a book. Then you
research your book idea to find whether there is a demand for the
book in the market (market research), and then write it all in a
book proposal (your business plan). Somewhere along the line you
get the ‘aha!’ moment of finding a title. Then you go searching
for a publisher (raising finance), and once you’ve done that you
start writing the book (implementation). Then you have to sell and
promote the end result. It’s the same process and the same tools
that we deployed to start Coffee Republic. And it had the same
euphoric highs and heartbreaking lows.
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Just as it’s the case with the journey of entrepreneurship, you’re
immeasurably helped by the breaks you get from people you
encounter along the way and it is those people that we want to
thank here:
Friso van Oranje for coming up with the title Anyone Can Do It on
a cold January morning in Coffee Republic on Fleet street: a title
which has shaped the meaning and being of this book.
Mark Allin at Capstone for telling Sahar on an equally grey
January afternoon in Coffee Republic in Chiswick: “I really want
to publish your book: tell me what will it take for you to let me do
it.”
Keith Brody, our editor, for taking the sometimes anarchic and
always perfectionist whims and demands of an entrepreneur
(to whom writing doesn’t come easily) with good humour and
understanding.
Grace O’Byrne at Capstone for putting it altogether and turning
manuscripts, jottings and visualisations into a real tangible book.
Finally, a big thank you to the combined team effort at Capstone
and John Wiley: especially Katherine Hieronymus, Julia Lampam,
Oriana Di Mascio, Iain Campbell and Adrian Weston. Any creative
endeavour that eventually takes root in reality is the result of
teamwork and this book would have never materialised without
your efforts.
And finally we keep getting asked about whether or not we had any
mentors during the growth of Coffee Republic. Thinking about it
now, we did: our mentors were our non-executive directors: Nitin
Shah, Stephen Thomas and Nicholas Jeffrey. Thank you for giving
us support all the way.