01/09/2026
🔥 THE REALITY OF BEING SELF-EMPLOYED… 🔥
Well… Poynton Show (Official), what a weekend! 😅
We thought we’d give you a little bit of an honest insight into what actually goes on behind the scenes when you run a small food business.
After 2 days of preparation, we set the trailer up the night before, grabbed around 6 hours sleep, then we were back at the trailer for 6am ready for a full day.
Serving from 8am until 7pm — battling rain, mud, tiredness and everything else the British weather could throw at us… but we kept the music on, the smiles going and did what we do best. 🍕🔥
And then comes the bit nobody really sees…
💷 PITCH FEES, STOCK, STAFF & OTHER OPERATING COSTS: ~£1,000
💰 TOTAL TURNOVER: £1,059
📈 PROFIT: £59
Yep… £59.
Two days of prep, a very early start, a 11-hour service, a wet and muddy field and a whole lot of graft…
£59 profit.
Now, before anyone thinks we're having a moan — we're not. 😂
This is the reality of being self-employed. Sometimes you absolutely smash it. Sometimes you don't. Sometimes you work incredibly hard just to come away knowing you've barely covered your costs.
The rain obviously didn't help with footfall, but there was another factor that made things difficult — market saturation.
There were 4 pizza traders at one event, all competing for essentially the same customers.
We think this was probably a small oversight by the event committee. But rather than pointing fingers, getting annoyed or blaming others, we'll take the experience for what it was.
We take the wins with the losses.
And there were definitely some wins ❤️
We met loads of fantastic people, served some great food, got our name out there and learned a hell of a lot about running Smoke & Fire at a large event.
Most importantly, we're still here. We're still learning. We're still improving. And we're still absolutely loving what we're building. ❤️🔥
Who knows… maybe next year we'll be able to play a small part in supporting mat & john with the Food Traders Organisation and help make things a little smoother for both traders and event organisers.
Because at the end of the day, we all want the same thing:
Great events. Happy customers. Happy traders. And small businesses that can actually make a living doing what they love. 🍕❤️
A massive thank you to everyone who came down, bought a pizza, had a chat, got muddy with us and supported Smoke & Fire.
£59 profit might not sound like a huge win… but we're still standing, still smiling and still firing up the oven. 🔥🍕
Onwards and upwards.
Smoke & Fire ❤️
