Before starting Who Gives A Crêpe?, I was trying to work out what the future could look like for my daughter Mia, who is a young adult with additional needs.
Like many parents of young adults with disabilities, I worried about what would happen when education finished. Mia wants to work, be independent and feel part of something, but finding meaningful employment where she could develop at her own pace, with the right support, was difficult.
I didn’t want her future to be defined by what she couldn’t do. I wanted to create an opportunity built around what she could do.
At the same time, I was rebuilding my own businesses and had experienced firsthand how powerful it can be to create something for yourself rather than waiting for the perfect opportunity to appear. That planted the seed for Who Gives A Crêpe? Instead of waiting for someone else to give Mia an opportunity, why not create one?
The idea was to start a crêpe business where Mia could learn real skills through real work, serving customers, taking payments, preparing orders, communicating with people and building her confidence.
But from the beginning, I could see that this could become much bigger than just Mia. There are many young adults with additional needs facing the same barriers to employment. I realised we could potentially create a business that gives other young people those opportunities too.
The turning point came when Mia started thinking seriously about what she wanted to do after college. She told me she wanted to earn her own money and become more independent. As her mum, I could see that she had so much to offer, but I also knew that a traditional workplace might not always give her the time, flexibility and support she needs to learn and build confidence.
I initially thought I needed everything to be perfect before we could start: the permanent unit, equipment, funding and the whole concept finished. What I learned was that we didn’t need to wait. We could start small, test the idea at markets, learn from real customers and build from there. That shift in mindset made the business possible.
My biggest learning from Rebel has been that you don’t need everything perfectly finished before you can start.
My lightbulb moment was realising that we could start with what we had, find opportunities to trade, test the menu and learn directly from customers. That completely changed the way I approached Who Gives A Crêpe?.
We moved from planning a business to actually trading at London markets. Every trading day now gives us information we couldn’t have got from a business plan: what people buy, what prices work, how quickly we can serve customers, what equipment we really need and what we should change.
Rebel has also reinforced the importance of talking to people and asking for opportunities. So much of what has moved the business forward has come from conversations, introductions, and simply asking.
We’re still right at the beginning, but launching Who Gives A Crêpe? has already given Mia genuine experience in a real trading environment. She’s interacting with customers, learning how the business works and developing skills that can’t easily be taught in a classroom.
For me personally, it has replaced some of the anxiety I had about Mia’s future with something much more positive: a plan that we can actually build. I want Who Gives A Crêpe? to grow into a sustainable business that can eventually provide supported work experience and employment opportunities for other young adults with additional needs too.
I want it to be a great business first, not somewhere people buy from out of sympathy, but somewhere they come back to because the food is great and then discover that every purchase is also helping create opportunities for young people who need them.
If you’re sitting on an idea because you’re waiting for the perfect time, enough money or for everything to be ready, I’d say go for it. You may discover that you already have enough to take the first step. The most valuable thing Rebel gave me wasn’t a business plan, it was the push to start.
