Baa Bar

As part of the launch of our Guide to Business Resilience, we reached out to a number of smaller business owers to find out what business resilience meant to them.

In this interview, we speak to Elaine Clarke, Founder of Baa Bar, about what business resilience means in her industry.

What does business resilience mean to you?

Never giving up. Taking an open minded, can do approach, no matter what challenges arise.

To be resilient in business you need to also look after yourself and have a team of people around you, people who are onboard with the journey.

Create your support network if it isn't there already in your team, mentors, advisors, friends, we need people around us.

Being open to ideas also helps, there is usually a way forward, even if it’s not the most obvious path. And as a wise mentor of mine once said; 'What goes up, must come down, and vice versa.'

It’s important that you keep that in mind.

Thirty years in business has taught me that good times are always followed by difficulty and challenge. Nothing lasts forever.

I've weathered financial crashes, recessions, pandemics, changing culture and trends.

That’s the name of the game. Resilience is required and to expect otherwise would be naive of me.

What kinds of changes have you made to reduce overheads in the current climate?

We are continually looking at ways to keep our costs down whilst retaining the quality of our product and standard of service.

We consider opening times and days, menu revision, product offer as part of this exercises.

Ultimately though, you have to hold your nerve where possible and make investment where needed as that’s what keeps the business progressing.

How has the energy crisis impacted your business?

Hugely, like everyone, our bills have more than tripled. Its mind-blowing.

The financial impact and erosion of profit is unfathomable.

Despite our best efforts, there is very little we can do.

I think its made us consider the instability and risk associated with just keeping the lights on more than ever before.

There is a definite appetite to consider alternative approaches to energy based on this.

Perhaps this focus can help businesses to move towards renewables.

What is your approach to debt and finance?

Finance is enabling, it can helps you to grow, offers a contingent for tough times and can be a safety net.

We have always financed where needed but this can leave you held to ransom by creditors too and that’s not a good place to be.

Sometimes banks can be impersonal and hard hitting and I don't feel that it is the best approach for a small businesses.

That’s something that has changed over the years, the traditional ‘relationship banker’ doesn’t seem to exist anymore.

How do you nurture your customer relationships?

By listening to the changing needs of customers and moving forward with them.

The customer needs to be happy, to feel that they have been looked after, having great service is the making of any business and when that falls down all is lost.

People buy into people and people want to feel valued.

It’s the basics and businesses should never take this for granted.

No matter how good things are or how busy you might be, bad news travels fast and word of mouth is the best form of marketing there is.

What measures have you taken to attract and retain talent in a tough climate?

Number one, we look after our people. We are a family business and our teams are part of that family.

We take an individualist approach to people.

Some roles are easier to fill than others but the most important part of our strategy is keeping the great people we have happy and enabling them to develop and recruit future talent.

How important is innovation and technology in future proofing your business and give an example of where you've invested in it?

We are always investing in technology to keep things working in the most effective and efficient way.

After lockdown, cash became non-existent practically which meant our staff tips did too.

We invested in a system that allowed customers to tip easily on their card and this revolutionised tips for our teams, they more than quadrupled overnight.

I'm always open and willing to try new things, it’s important to stay ahead and technology enables us to do this.