Love and enterprise best kept apart
Salvaging a business relationship when a romance fails is hard work, but it can be done, writes Katherine Feeney.
Nobody gets into a relationship expecting it to fail. Be it business or personal, partnerships are optimistic enterprises.
But sometimes the wheels fall off. And it’s what happens next that counts.
So how do you continue running a handful of successful bars and restaurants with someone you’re simultaneously breaking up with?
It’s a scenario Brisbane’s Bonnie Shearston and Tom Sanceau have experienced first hand. They were living their shared dream but found success in business came at the expense of their relationship.
Having met in in the ski-fields of Chamonix, France, the London couple scraped together savings working hospitality careers across Europe while nurturing a desire to open ‘‘the best bar in town’’. For this cosmopolitan pair it could have been any town, anywhere. But in 2008 they picked Brisbane.
‘‘Because it had a chilled out vibe, wasn’t too hectic, great people,’’ says Tom.
‘‘And it had so much potential – there was only a handful of small bars at that stage.’’
Once in Brisbane, and pulling shifts in the local scene, they met another couple with a similar ambition. They joined forces, nabbed one of Queensland’s first small bar licences and, in 2010, opened Canvas at Woolloongabba. It was named Best New Bar at the Australian Bar Awards the following year.
By the end of 2014 their business partnership was thriving. Unfortunately their personal relationship wasn’t.
The pair called time on their romance a few months later, just before their fifth venue, West End gastropub London Fields, opened to the public.
‘‘When we moved to Brisbane, we moved as a couple … and now we’re just business partners,’’ says Shearston.
‘‘I think it was the business that helped bring about the breakup. If there was someone thinking of going into business now who was in a relationship, I’d probably advise against it.’’
Sanceau adds: ‘‘I’m actually very surprised we’re still working together. I wasn’t a very nice human to be around – but we’ve managed to come through that.’’
Shearston says she knows many couples who embarked on a similar journey and went on to lose everything. She says it was mutual respect, openness, trust and a willingness to communicate that prevented a similar fate.
‘‘You’re not with someone for nearly 10 years without being really good friends. It was just uncomfortable for a while. But as much as it wasn’t fun, we both knew that, fundamentally, we could work together, and there was just no point to throwing that away … Anyway, now Tom’s moved-in next-door to me.’’
Currently the pair own just two venues, Coppa and Red Hook, with a combined turnover of A$3 million (NZ$3.3m). They are keen to expand to Asia, and possibly elsewhere overseas – a feat they believe they may be more likely to manage now they’re no longer a couple.
But both of them are just relieved to have found a place of relative calm for now. Sanceau is developing an interest in exercise and is travelling a lot. Shearston has more opportunities for friends, rugby and her motorcycle.
‘‘We came out to Australia together,’’ says Sanceau.
‘‘We had a plan and a vision. There are still things that we want to do together. We’ve gone on from the difficult stage now.’’
Shearston adds: ‘‘I don’t look back at anything we’ve done over the past eight years with regret. I’m immensely proud of what we’ve achieved; we’ve given it our best.
‘‘Now we’ve got a chance to stop and smell the roses.’’ –Brisbane Times