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Quilty’s Football Yarns 38
Starting a business from scratch. The Hackney & Bethnal Green Link.
Returning to London after being away working in Houston, Texas, I arrived home with a plan. I would start my own business. One based on the relatively new ‘Free Newspaper’ concept which of course is driven by advertising. London at this time, especially Hackney was in the doldrums in terms of its economy. The unemployment-rate in 1984 was 12% and returning to the UK, I was listed among those unemployed. My mates from Leeds University, Brian Beacom and Bren McLaughlin, were both across the ideas of ‘Free Newspapers’. Brian was up in Johnston in Glasgow, while Bren’s brother Paul, was in Stretford Manchester. The ‘free-paper model’ was one that eventually proved to be one of the original disruptive technologies. Most localities had long established, weekly ‘pay’ newspapers. We had the Hackney Gazette and East London Advertiser. Around the country it was a similar story, and most were prime targets for something involving a knew way of viewing newspapers as a product.
Interestingly in late 1984 we were on the cusp of a major shift in printing / publishing technology, who knew that such a year could be the one that threw up a revolution in the manipulation of news copy, that changed a whole industry? Desk top publishing was just about to take major strides and it would undermine, generations of ‘skilled’ printers, who were relied upon to pick and form the lead letters for the print press. While my idea, the ‘Hackney & Bethnal Green Link’ and Brian’s ‘Johnston News’ used old technology, Bren’s brother Paul McLaughlin was into desktop. He took the opportunity to raise funds from the Prince of Wales Trust and got a crucial start on everybody else.
Technology aside, starting a business from scratch was daunting. My old mate from Hackney College, Saul Jacob liked my idea and we decided to enter into a 50/50 ownership partnership. Saul and I went up to Glasgow to see Brian’s newspaper operation, which gave us a good insight into running a paper. Looking back, I think we had about a thousand pound each to put into the start-up. We approached the Hackney Enterprise Board for help. Their job, in a time of high unemployment, was to encourage, guide and ultimately fund start-ups, such as ours. The first requirement was to come up with an initial Business Plan. They gave us some advice on putting that document together. Basically, our vision was to publish a Community based paper with a run of 22,000 copies. The product would have 16 pages, some colour elements and be distributed to much of Hackney and some of Bethnal Green. Being in such a low socio-economic area, our Target Customer Profile tended to fit a low-income demographic. It wasn’t a problem because that was exactly who lived in this area.
Delivering our Business Plan to the HEB we had to ask for the amount funding we wanted. The HEB assessed the idea and finance application. Looking back across the years I have related this story many times. We requested 35,000 pounds, in hindsight way too little! We were absolute ‘greenhorn’s’ generally in business, but in publishing in particular. The money would come in the form of a loan that could be drawn down. In reality we needed a professional advertising manager, a professional paste-up person and someone to run an office professionally. We should have gone for 150,000 pounds! Proof that the HEB could have been persuaded is evident in another idea they backed. This idea revolved around having a central computer library data base for clothing and tailoring patterns. East London was massive in the rag trade with thousands of small to medium clothing producers. The guys with the technology start-up, established a computer based, data base which would enable small-producers to come and access the patterns for thousands of clothing items. The HEB actually gave this start-up business 350,000 pounds! A whole set up of a brand-new computer system and hardware. Not just that, but the business, in a year of operation, never actually opened its doors to trade for one day! Although they had a great idea the owners never actually made a connection with their potential customers, the rag trade owners in East London. A massive marketing fail. Reflecting on this, I believe the HEB got a good run for their money, with the LINK.
One good decision we did make was to go with a Limited Liability company for legal status. We bought an ‘off the shelf’ company called Emeliss Ltd. Saul and I would take on particular roles in the business, which was to be located in the Old Metropolitan Hospital building in Kingsland Road, De Beauvoir. We took a unit in what was a shared facility building. All kinds of service and small manufacturing firms were based in there. Saul was responsible for Advertising and Distribution while I did production and the journalistic side. Both of us were starting from scratch on what was an uphill challenge. The HEB provided us with valuable Financial and Marketing advice which would normally cost 200 pound an hour if paid for. In addition, we were appointed a ‘white knight’ / business mentor / adviser, Phil Rotherham who would provide many hours of free input to get the newspaper off the ground. Phil actually gave us a van to use in the business. Sadly, within a year he had passed away and Terrie has reminded me of a tragi-comical event that followed his passing. Saul and I had to return the van to his son because it formed part of his estate. While there we were invited to Phil’s funeral service in the Strand. Appreciative of his help we both went along to the service. Unfortunately, we were there at St Mary le Strand Church, while Phil’s service was down the road at St Martin in the Fields! Once the realisation set in, we made our excuses and left, having mourned someone completely unknown for half an hour.
With unemployment so high in East London we actually took on eight workers who would get paid by the government, an amount above the unemployment benefit. They came to us and got all kinds of publishing, advertising, journalism and general office experience. The LINK started as a monthly then in a while went fortnightly. We outsourced the printing to a family business in Bow. All good until the day we went to visit them one day, and realised their operation was complete chaos with the various pages of the paper all around their warehouse. The type-setting, we were still on old tech, was produced up in Glasgow because there it was just a third the price. The only draw back was that I’d have to go to Kings Cross station at 4.00am to pick it up off the night train. As was the practice at the time we had to also join Trade Unions in order to avoid ‘aggro’ around producing a publication. I joined the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) while my partner Saul joined NATSOPA the production union. For a newspaper dependent on advertising it was not really a good idea to have no expertise on board. I was no salesman, but Saul was. The only problem being that as a yiddisher boy he couldn’t resist doing a deal. Unfortunately, we made the initial business decision of heavily discounting the advertising. What was listed as 600 pound per page was reduced in practice to 300 pound. Once you sell through discount it is nigh impossible to get that customer to pay full price. Even more importantly we were not accessing revenue from Hackney Council because someone there, a councillor had a bit of a vendetta against me. He believed that my political background was to do with right wing politics, which untrue. The damage was done when he blocked access by us to council adverts for six months. What went in the Hackney Gazette should also have come to us but he blocked it. This cost us quite a few thousand pounds at a crucial establishment phase of the business. A funny true story emerged from this council road-block for the LINK. Good friend, Leslie Harrison, who ran the Acorn Pub in Queensbridge Road, said he actually knew the councillor. More than that, the bloke actually worked/moonlighted weekends at the Daily Mirror, quite a well remunerated occupation. Leslie was also well connected at the Daily Mirror, and said he knew the bloke and would have a word. A few days later I was at my mum’s when there was a knock on the door. It was the councillor. I didn’t know what to expect but the conversation went like this.
Councillor: “Steve, it is Steve Quilty isn’t it.
Me: “Yep, that’s me, what do you want?”
My defences were up but I was ready to have row with him.
Councillor: “Mate I’ve come to apologise, there has been a big mis-understanding. You guys are entitled to Council adverts. I have fixed it.”
Little did I know but the Daily Mirror work allocator had told him that unless he stopped blocking ‘a local bloke trying to run a business’ he would never receive a single shift again at the Daily Mirror! End of story problem sorted. One of my best memories of the LINK revolved around my future wife Terrie and one of my life-time friends the late Tony Fuller. The first edition of the LINK took me nearly 36 hours to cut and paste-up. Something I could do today in less than an hour on a computer program. Standing in front of my paste-up board I was almost hallucinating with tiredness after so long. In the end Terrie stepped in and finished the job and making it ‘print ready’. Tony Fuller was a natural artistic talent. He was actually working in graphic design but had a real talent for writing. He actually started one of the first Football fanzines The Spurs linked ’Cockerdoodledo’. Tony was vital in forming our ideas on what the LINK would look like. He wasn’t a partner but gave invaluable input and did a lot of the photography.
The link actually ran for 18 months. The product improved as time passed. However, Saul and myself were still virtually working for nothing. One story illustrates our lack of experience. Saul secured a whole page advert form ‘Mr Bubbles Car Wash’ It was a car with bubbles emerging from inside. Little did we know that the ‘blue bubble copy’ we received would actually disappear when printed. Blue copy does that, any experienced printer would know it and that is why ‘pen marking’s’ were always in blue on artwork, they disappeared when printed. In this case when the advert ran in the paper, it came out as was a just a car, no bubbles! It cost us a run of 3 x 600 pound’s lost revenue.
I was actually enjoying the journalistic side of the business. You had the power to create and give prominence to local news. My journalist union card also got me access to my beloved Tottenham Hotspur press gallery on match days. I covered Paul Miller’s Testimonial game interviewing him at Spurs Cheshunt training ground. Even better than that my hero Glenn Hoddle sat in on the interview, as I interviewed East London boy Paul. The actual game was Spurs v Glasgow Rangers which was Graeme Souness’s first game as their manager.
As 1986 progressed, it was clear that in spite of all our efforts and improvement, we were struggling not only to make a profit but were getting in debt while working. I remember Terrie saying this to me. We were getting married in the September. With this in mind we decided to cease trading with Emeliss Ltd and the LINK. Saul and I went to the HEB and explained our situation. We actually owed nearly 20,000 pounds on the loan. We also had insurance/ endowment policies secured against our company overdraft. Unbelievably, the HEB offered to write off the outstanding loan. On one condition. We didn’t go up the road and start a similar business within six months. Looking back we were so lucky. On the spur of the moment I went to our new, reliable printer and paid them the 7000 pounds bill we had with them. I realised that by the end of the week we would be unable to pay them and I felt bad about that. He was very surprised me coming in to pay early but I desperately wanted to avoid the LINK ‘knocking’ someone who had been so supportive. We were still owed money by a few customers but I was advised not to chase it because it would just disappear back against the HEB loan. It was a difficult decision to finish something we had created. You have a lot of ego tied up in such a time commitment. As fate would have it, the return of our ‘endowment overdraft security’ of 15000 pounds, would in 1992 provide our first house deposit in Australia.
The last edition of the LINK appeared in September 1986, just as Terrie and got married. As luck would have it, the London Stock Exchange had just undergone massive change, later referred to as ‘Big Bang’. My cousin Johnny Hill who still worked there since the 1970’s, got me a job with his firm Wood Mckenzie, in their back office. History was repeating for me and I was thrown back into the world of suits, ambitions to be a trader and a very well-paid job. And this opportunity I gladly took.
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