The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Fired up by starting pizza business
profile: John King tells the story behind Wild Fire Pizza
Q How did you start in business?
A I had been thinking of starting a food truck for some time. I found an old horsebox on eBay and decided to go for it. It took about a year to renovate in my free time.
Q How did you get where you are?
A I started as a chef in the French Alps in 1998 and have worked in restaurants, chalets and hotels.
Cooking took me to many countries but it wasn’t until I stopped travelling I could think about starting a small business.
My first encounter with a woodfired oven was when working in New Zealand for TV Chef Simon Gault. It was a great way of cooking and I thought that at some point I would get one for myself.
Q Who has helped along the way?
A My fiancée has been a great driving force. I was also in contact with the people at Business Gateway Fife who were great to talk problems through with. They helped me at key stages.
Q Your biggest mistake?
A Many mistakes were made while building the horsebox. It could have been done a lot cheaper, but was a learning process.
Q Your greatest achievement?
A Getting my business up and running. My fiancée and I both have full-time jobs so, along with the pizza business, it has been challenging finding time for everything.
Q What do you hope to achieve?
A We have just had a baby so our immediate focus is on her, our day jobs and Wild Fire Pizza.
Eventually I would like to grow the business and possibly build another trailer but for now we have our hands full.
Q Do you want to recruit in future?
A We are putting a team together. Until now we have been working in the trailer ourselves and getting lots of help from our friends.
Ideally we would be looking to employ a number of people on a part-time basis. As we are not operating every day it is difficult to employ any full-time staff but as we grow that should become easier.
Q What’s the hardest thing about running your own business?
A There are lots of things to consider, such as organising events, maintaining a social media presence, keeping track of accounts and searching for ways to improve things.
Q Any advice to wannabe entrepreneurs?
A Work out the figures as accurately as you can, and then be prepared to put a lot of time in.
I would recommend using Business Gateway Fife as it is a great place to start. I attended a number of their business start-up courses for free, which gave me a good idea of what I wanted to do and how to go about it.