The vital lessons I learnt from buying a pub - Sunday Times

The same skills that have brought me success in business have been just as valuable in running a passion project

Should you find yourself in the beautiful village of Nun Monkton in North Yorkshire, don’t be alarmed if you spot me dashing out of the local pub and across the village green, carefully balancing trays of Estrella beer and tandoori monkfish. Because even though I part-own the award-winning Alice Hawthorn, I have to book four days ahead to get a table, so am often compelled to become my own home-delivery Deliveroo.

Since 1853, the pub — named after one of Britain’s greatest racehorses — has been serving the community where I live. Like so many across the country it has been a focal point for our 250-strong village. But for a long time it was unloved and aimless, serving ready-meals and an uninspiring range of drinks. That was until, over-confidently, I stepped in, buying it for £525,000 more than a decade ago just as it was about to become another great British pub closure victim (since 2000, we’ve lost a quarter, about 15,500).

I never wanted to run a hospitality venture, but it’s a bit different when you’re using your business lessons to help your own community. That’s why I rather naively joined the local parish council several years ago. I know how important these panels are, but after two years of endless frustration, overseeing how tens of pounds get spent on small projects, I’ve vowed never again.

We’ve all got a favourite (but frayed) pub, shop or restaurant. Perhaps it’s a charity close to your heart that could do with some organisational muscle. Maybe you’ve always wanted to bring some expertise to the local school board or community centre. If you’ve achieved great things in your professional life, you could choose to use those lessons in a different way.

For me, that’s been the humility to correct mistakes as fast as possible. For instance, it took me ages to find the right people to run the pub. First, I got a neighbour in, lent him £50,000 and let him run it rent-free. A year later, I wrote it off as a failed investment. Then a couple from York came in but decided their other restaurant was more important. That failed, as did a succession of managers and chefs with my oversight.

It was only when I thought about what made HomeServe such a success that I found the right formula. I faced up to the brutal facts, rapidly pivoted and found a better solution. I had to find proven leadership with skills I didn’t possess, give them equity in the business and proper accountability, before setting them free to make their own decisions. In my case, a husband and wife team who have brilliant abilities in the kitchen (him) combined with a fabulous business brain and front-of-house skills (her).

Use your network of close contacts to find the right people to take on those leadership roles and inspire change. For instance, my wine merchant, Johnny Pearson, tipped me off about John and Claire Topham and, thanks to them, turnover is now about £150,000 a month, having been £20,000 when I took over (although the financial benefits are less important to me than just making my village pub great). They own half the shares in the pub and, until we turned a profit, I bankrolled the losses. We’re all also hugely indebted to my ex-wife, Kate, who did an amazing refurbishment job on the pub, then turned a derelict barn into a private dining room and added 12 bedrooms.

Which brings me to another business lesson: copy what works and enjoy second-mover advantage. As a family, we toured the Cotswolds to assess other pubs and hotels, finding inspiration at Lady Bamford’s pub-with-rooms in Chipping Norton, the Wild Rabbit. Then we took our lessons home and put them into practice.

The venture has also been successful because we’re always listening and learning. Being a great leader is about taking advice from those closest to you, especially customers, and then gradually refining the business so that you offer not just what you think is right but what they want, too. Evolution and not revolution. That way, word-of-mouth recommendations become even more important than expensive marketing, which was a difficult lesson for me as an ex-marketeer.

And while none of us is in this to make a huge profit, healthy finances ensure we’re sustainable, which is as important for a local charity or school board as it is a thriving pub. Don’t feel guilty about making money from a passion project, because that’s how you’ll help it stand on its own two feet. It’s the same principle with my Enterprise Trust charity, which helps those from less fortunate backgrounds achieve their business ambitions, and HomeServe’s apprentice training academy. Profitability will hopefully mean all of these exist long after I’m gone.

Pivoting when it matters, learning from mistakes, taking hard decisions, finding a great leader, listening to customers, using your networks, evolving gradually, long-term sustainability and encouraging everyone to work towards an agreed vision — the same things that have brought me business success have been just as valuable in my passion project — admittedly by accident rather than design. Advice that I hope inspires my Sunday Times colleague Jeremy Clarkson, who’s just bought his Oxfordshire local, The Windmill, near Burford.

Today, my passion project is devoting a day a week to Business Leader and helping inspire entrepreneurs to achieve breakthrough growth through peer-to-peer groups, masterclasses, company visits and case studies.

Sometimes the thing to which you can add most value is on your doorstep, a place where you can utilise your business skills in a more socially conscious way. Maybe it’s the Scouts, Prince’s Trust, Young Enterprise or a local community venture — a passion project is about solving problems, delivering a great experience and improving on it through continuous learning, providing opportunities for others to achieve their ambitions.

In the end, I’ve learned two valuable lessons from my community-led experience. First, the skills you develop at work are just as essential outside of it, you just need to apply them in a different way. Second, avoid local parish councils.

Richard Harpin is founder and chairman of HomeServe, and growth partner and owner of Business Leader magazine