A View from the Top with entrepreneur and Dragons’ Den star Sarah Willingham

The former panellist on the BBC2 programme discusses her interest in business from childhood and knowing your strengths with Zlata Rodionova

Willingham explains how she balances a busy family life with running her own businesses (Sarah Willingham)

What do you want to achieve from your business?” is one of the first questions Sarah Willingham asks budding entrepreneurs who come to her for advice.

For the investor and former Dragons’ Den panellist, who has began working in the restaurant industry since the age of 13, the motivation has always been to put herself first and to create the family lifestyle that she wanted. “I never ever had any inspiration or dream of becoming an entrepreneur. It was driven by my lifestyle choices. I was running the international department at Pizza Express in my late twenties but I really wanted a family and lots of kids. It was never going to be possible to have the life that I dreamt of on the path that I was on. I needed to do something of my own where I was in control of my time.”

Willingham, now a millionaire and mother-of-four from Stoke-on-Trent, had an interest in business from an early age. “I was always interested in why we all bought the same chocolate bar at lunchtime or the same pair of Nike trainers. At 13 I started working in a local coffee shop, I loved the social aspect of it.” Driven by her interest in food, business and travel Willingham got two university degrees, one from Oxford Brookes University and the other from the Ecole superieure de commerce de la Rochelle, a business school in France.

After a brief stint at Planet Hollywood, Willingham joined the management team at Pizza Express. “I was lucky to share an office with the CEO and the MD so I used to listen to all their chat and I never stopped asking questions. By the end of it, I thought, I get what you do; I felt like I could do it myself.”

She gave up her job in 2003, studied for an MBA at Cranfield Business School and raised the finance to buy the loss-making restaurant group Bombay Bicycle Club. “I was very lucky that I did that career shift early, before the kids came. By the time they arrived I was already well and truly on my path, at the time it meant I could do the 100-hour work week without feeling like I am compromising at home.”

A year later she successfully bought the ailing business made of six restaurants and transformed it into a profitable group of 17, establishing the largest chain of Indian restaurants in the UK. In 2014, she also co-established her own AIM listed company, NutraHealth, which has since acquired six businesses.

The most important lesson she learned by going it alone in business? Know your strengths. “One thing I learnt over the years is you can’t be good at everything. If you gave me a blank box, I would struggle to turn it into a very successful restaurant. What I can do is walk into a restaurant, almost anywhere, and go ‘with a bit of this and a bit of that we could have twenty of these’. I never ever contemplated starting my own group.”

One thing I learnt over the years is you can’t be good at everything. If you gave me a blank box, I would struggle to turn it into a very successful restaurant

Willingham banked her first million when sold the Bombay Bicycle Club in 2007 – but she is quick to point out that the decision wasn’t easy. “I have to be honest, the decision to sell was driven by my kids. I definitely had another few years in me.” After having her first child Minnie, Willingham learnt how to adapt her work schedule so that she could remain a hands-on mother, even breastfeeding during meetings. But after her son Monti was born it became too much to handle. “The problem for me came when I had another baby and my daughter was only 15 months old. Everything was fine with him, because I was taking him everywhere – newborns are very portable; as long as you have a bag of nappies you’re fine – but I was always leaving my other tiny baby daughter behind.

It was time for a change. “The balance was wrong and I took control. The money I got from the sale then gave me the peace you get when you know that it’s all going to be alright. It was enough to change my life and change the way that I work.”

Willingham became a household name after appearing on television as an expert in the business world. She started as a judge on chef Raymond Blanc’s BBC show The Restaurant, before joining Dragons’ Den in 2015. “At the time there were hardly any women sat on board level, so I thought I’d come for a screen test thinking I would never get it – but I did. At the time, I remember they asked me if it would be ok for me to disagree with Raymond from time to time. Now we are really good friends, of course. The Dragons’ Den experience also came out of nowhere but I loved it. The first year was tough, I was very excitable and it was a challenge to win a good candidate when you are in competition with the other Dragons. The experience was completely out of my comfort zone, and that was good and very healthy for me. I was constantly learning.”

Despite being a millionaire Willingham hates waste and is very careful with her money. She set up a personal finance site Let’s Save Money where she shares her advices with readers. “I switch energy, broadband and mobile providers every year. There I always new deals around, for [mobile] I started using Three Means Business, it offers free roaming in over 70 destinations, because I travel a lot, it’s ideal for me.”

Is she worried about Brexit and how it will affect her own businesses? “Terrified. My husband is Danish and I am an enormous Remainer. It has already impacted some of my own decisions to invest. Living in limbo is bad for everybody and we at least need to know what we are dealing with.”

Willingham recently invested in subscription service for gin lovers Craft Gin Club and coconut-product experts Cocofina. She says she is at her happiest when helping out young entrepreneurs turn their ideas into reality and make their business grow. “Starting your own business can be an extremely lonely experience. You need to surround yourself with brilliant people. There’s actually a lot of support out there whether it comes from larger business wanting to help or even someone down the street who does the same thing as you do. A lot of the problems you will see at the beginning, we’ve all seen when we started. It’s great to be able to shortcut the learning when you can.”

Despite her busy lifestyle and worries about the future Willingham describe herself as someone who can calm her nerves very quickly. “I react really very quickly when I get pushed in the wrong direction and it can go both ways. During the summer holidays it can be an absolute nightmare. I’m a mother of four kids and I feel like I lose control of my work commitments. Similarly, sometimes I find myself working too much and I’m not home in time to cook dinner for the kids.” So how does she relax? “I trail run, I travel and I cook, often with a glass of wine.”