Portsmouth coffee entrepreneur shares start-up business tips ahead of 'Founder Friday'

Virgin StartUp is holding an event on Friday, January 6, for those looking to start their own commercial ventures, in which budding entrepreneurs can book a slot with a business advisor. All slots have now been taken, but Victoria Poon from Portsmouth has shared her experiences of starting a business.

Data collected by the non-profit, which works with the Start Up Loans Company to deliver government loans, predicts a ‘surge of interest from Brits who want to start their own business’ on the day which it has named ‘Founder Friday’ and a 50 per cent increase in loan applications in January.

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Victoria founded Alpaca Coffee in March 2020 and last January got a loan from Virgin Startup. She has since found the resources offered by the company useful and plays an active role in the ‘founder’ community.

Victoria said: ‘I started the business because I ended up falling in love with speciality coffee while I was living in Bolivia and then I saw a gap in the market for a plastic-free speciality coffee brand.

‘When you’re just starting out, it can feel like you’re not quite sure what direction to focus on.

‘Advice I would have liked to have had is to take a more structured approach to the things I was doing for the business.

‘For example, understanding what channels I could sell through. I think it’s normal for a lot of entrepreneurs, it feels like a jumbled mess that you just kind of have to wade through.’

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Speaking about pressures added by the cost of living crisis, the 28-year-old added: ‘Start small, test your ideas, see if there’s a market for your product. Don’t over-invest too early because things like branding and other aspects of the business can get quite expensive.’

Virgin StartUp managing director Andy Fishburn said: ‘As a New Year begins, we have historically seen January to be a peak period for founders looking to get their business idea off the ground.’

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According to the Virgin subsidiary, a quarter of 2,000 adults surveyed planned to start a business in 2023.