Last crash killed my career ... now my firm makes £20million a year

I REMEMBER the meeting with my managing director. It was heartbreaking.

He told me I was lucky because I was let go early; the labour market would only get tougher. But losing my job at Lehman Brothers was still a massive shock.

It felt like my identity. I’m Adam Taylor and I work at Lehman Brothers. What would I say now?

Some people said I should get another job immediately but others suggested I take a step back — so I had about three months off.

I finally accepted a job as a management consultant but quit six months later. And that was when I thought of starting my own business.

It was a lonely time, but the Prince’s Trust Enterprise programme provided structure and support.

There is a lot of strategy in choosing a business idea.

I would tear out articles on industries that were booming or policy changes that might create opportunities.

I’ve got three sisters and we always had pets at home. At one point we had two dogs, seven cats and a goldfish. I was always lugging heavy bags of pet food back from the supermarket.

No one was doing home delivery in 2009. The petfood industry was worth £4 billion a year but online sales accounted for just 1 pc of that. So there was big growth potential.

The next step was to decide whether I wanted to self-fund or raise money. I didn’t have much money so I chose the latter — but I still own 100 pc of my company, so my strategy is not dictated by shareholders.

The Prince’s Trust lent us £5,000 for test trading. We went to market stalls and anyone in the street with a dog. And we bought a cheap website but nobody would buy from it because it was on page 20 of Google.

So we sold on Etsy, notonthehighstreet, eBay and Amazon. Now, those represent only about 5 pc of our online sales — but it got the ball rolling. As we grew, brands began giving us funding to market their products.

This year is our tenth anniversary. We have about 70 staff and will be turning over £20 million this year.

■ ADAM founded PetShop.co. uk in 2010 after losing his job at Lehman Brothers during the 2007-08 financial crisis.