‘The account was in minus': 35yo Aussie reveals how he turned his business around after getting hit hard by the pandemic

News.com.au

7 hours ago

Today, Alex Cadger is the proud owner of multimillion-dollar business, but he lost absolutely everything five years ago.
Mr Cadger, 35, runs successful catering business The Blonde Butler. He has been catering for as long as he can remember, first as a side hustle in high school, then on the weekends when he worked in marketing, and eventually full-time from 2015.
'It has always been a dream of mine,' he told news.com.au.
Mr Cadger can still remember the baffled response he got 10 years ago when he announced to family and friends that he was going to leave his safe and secure marketing job to focus on serving canapes.
'People thought I was crazy and absolutely mad,' he said.
Mr Cadger wasn't too concerned.
His weekend catering side hustle had reached the point where he was totally booked up for the remainder of the year.
He had reached a fork in the road – should he throw everything into his dream or retreat and try to find some work-life balance?
Mr Cadger chose to take a risk, a calculated one. He did some contract marketing work to support his flourishing catering business, and pretty quickly, even working casually wasn't cutting it.
'I remember sitting on my lunch break on a little casual job I had and my phone was almost combusting because it wouldn't stop ringing with clients wanting to make bookings,' he said.
'I was trying to manage a boss and business.'
He made the decision to quit trying to juggle both and just manage his booming catering business, with immediate success.
The business owner paid himself a moderate wage and funnelled his profits back into the business.
'Every time I got some money coming into the business bank account I'd purchase something for the business,' he said.
'I got a fridge, then I got a van, when I got a bit more money I put refridgeration in the van.'
He grew the business to the point where he had two employees and was serving the who's who of Sydney. Then the pandemic hit.
How does a business survive when there's a government-mandated lockdown and people are barely allowed to leave their homes, let alone attend events and host parties?
The answer is that it doesn't.
'When the lockdowns started our office phone was ringing off the hook … and I was just crossing name after name off the planning board,' he said.
The Blonde Butler fell apart overnight, and he had to let go of his two employees pretty quickly.
'I had to close it,' he said.
'The account was in minus during Covid.'
Mr Cadger was heartbroken. He'd worked so hard for years just to 'watch it crumble' within 24 hours.
'I felt quite depressed. I'd put so much time and energy into building a business and a brand,' he said.
He knew his business couldn't function during the pandemic, but he didn't want to give up the kitchen space he was renting, so he hustled hard to keep it.
'I ended up going to pack vegetables in a factory for a few months for $25 an hour,' he said.
'I felt quite depressed. I'd put so much time and energy into building a business and a brand.
Despite struggling, Mr Cadger knew that he couldn't just give up and he had to somehow push through.
In the end, he managed to pivot, creating cheese and wine boxes to send to people's houses during the lockdowns that helped sustain the business.
Eventually, the lockdowns lifted, and Mr Cadger was filled with fire to bring his business back to life.
'Watching it crumble ignited a spark,' he said.
Ms Cadger didn't do anything drastic to turn things around; he just preserved, kept investing back into the business and refused to quit until The Blonde Butler was back to thriving.
Five years later and Mr Cadger has 60 employees, a cafe, a restaurant, a wedding venue and over 10 vans.
'It took years to recover from but now I'm back on my feet. I'm super proud of what we've achieved and that we're expanding,' he said.