Hard Work Before Sunrise: My Reality as a Business Owner
, by Andrew Blake, 2 min reading time
They say the first year is the hardest when you’re setting up a business — and I can honestly say I’ve found that to be true.
The Red Squirrel opened in June 2025. I took on a little shop unit on the edge of Carlisle and launched our website at the same time. On top of that, I was working two days a week at Centre Parcs to help pay the bills. That meant the shop could only be open three days a week.
A huge chunk of my time has gone into learning SEO (search engine optimisation). Search engines don’t automatically show your website to people — you have to help them understand what you sell and who it’s for, using the right keywords, tags and content. It’s been a slow process, and promoting the website so people can actually find it has taken far more patience than I expected.
Promoting the physical shop has been just as challenging. Even after a few newspaper articles about the opening, footfall stayed really low. A few customers popped in and said they’d tried to visit before, but assumed we were never open — because they’d come on the days I was at my part-time job.
So I made a big decision. I left Centre Parcs and started working shifts at a supermarket instead. I now work four shifts a week, each starting at 4am. It’s not glamorous, and it’s definitely exhausting, but it means I can open the shop five days a week and keep on top of the bills.
Doing an early morning, part-time job alongside running The Red Squirrel is hard work — but I’m determined to make it a success and make my family proud.
And truly: I appreciate every single order we receive. I still pack each one myself, and I always include a handwritten thank you note with every dispatch — because it means the world that you’ve chosen to shop with us.
