I opened up a cafe for the first time… I thought I’d be rich in six months – but here is where I went wrong

A woman who opened a first-time cafe thinking she would be rich in six months has revealed what went wrong with her business.

Sally Paton, 61, decided to quit her job in London and open Sally Sue’s Sandwich Bar in Dartford, Kent, with the aim of getting rich quick.

However, Mrs Paton says her shop is now on the verge of closing, as sales have dropped by 50% and the cost of supplies has doubled.

Before opening the sandwich shop, Sally worked as a wholesaler in Covent Garden, London for 25 years. She admits that her sudden career change left her ill-prepared for her new challenge.

She says she even bought the building for the sandwich shop without informing her husband.

Mrs Paton said: “I’ve always wanted to run my own shop. I saw this empty shop on my way to work one day and thought I just had to do it. I didn’t even know what I was going to sell.”

“I thought I would be rich in six months. I had all sorts of plans about what I would do with the money. I would buy a new car.

“I just wanted to grab a kettle and do everything myself.”

However, the new shop owner was surprised at the amount of money she had to spend to set up and get her dream location up and running, with the cost of a coffee machine and fridge costing her a whopping £7,600.

She also admitted that the fact that she didn’t have much experience in the role worked against her, as she earned just £23 on her first day.

Sally added: ‘I didn’t know what I was doing. As it got busier, friends would come in and stay and make sandwiches and help me.

‘I worked sixteen hours a day. I lost two stone in three months.’

She then asked her husband to help her by boiling eggs and making sandwiches for the next day, and eventually she started using suppliers herself to get her sandwich fillings.

This led to growth in the business as Sally began receiving orders for corporate events and gained a reliable stream of local clients.

Sally says she has seen customer numbers halve after people returned to working from the office, while the cost of supplies has doubled

Over the past eleven years, the staff has grown to eight people, including her daughter Sasha, who says she loves her job immensely.

“I like everything,” she said. “I like the customers. They’ve become friends. I like the staff. We have so much fun.”

In fact, she says she was barely affected by the pandemic, as she received government funding and made a profit by delivering to customers who were temporarily unemployed and to people who were working from home.

However, Sally says she has seen customer numbers halve since people returned to the office, while the cost of supplies has doubled.

She has had to lay off half her staff, but she doesn’t dare raise her prices.

She complained: ‘If I do that, no one will come, I understand that. We’re all in the same boat.

“People don’t have money, but I just ask people to come in and buy a bag of chips so we can survive.”

Holding back tears, Sue added: ‘I’ve been here 11 years and I don’t want to close. It’s like giving away a baby. If I had to lose this, that would be exactly what it would feel like.

“I don’t want to be rich anymore. I just want to stay open.”