Scaling a business seems like the obvious goal. But what if growth without the right strategy leads to losing control?

In this episode of All About Business, James speaks with David Palmer, founder of Life of Fish, the modern London fishmonger that started as a lockdown pop-up outside a Peckham cafe, and has now grown into a multi-site retail and wholesale business built on sustainability, craft, and genuine customer service.

Together James and David explore the harder lessons of growth: why expanding too fast almost broke the business, how to know when to consolidate rather than chase new opportunities, and what it means to build something that runs on profit rather than debt.

David shares what he learned starting work at Billingsgate Market at the age of 14 with no qualifications and no plan. Climbing into bins at 2am and learning to fillet fish under pressure, allowed David to slowly piecing together a skillset he didn't realise he was building. The lesson he took from those years is simple: nothing you learn is wasted, and starting from the bottom teaches you things no shortcut ever could.

They also discuss what it really takes to build a product business in a traditional industry that nobody had modernised.

Timestamps

2:11 Leaving school at 11

12:56 The entrepreneurial pivot question

15:14 The breakthrough moment

17:26 The gap in the market

19:33 COVID lockdown launch

21:15 70 people queue

38:55 Lesson on over expansion

39:57 Turning down free rent

43:39 Hiring philosophy

Links

Follow James Reed on LinkedIn

Follow David Palmer on LinkedIn

Find out more Life of Fish and their products here

Submit your application to Reed’s Entrepreneurs Fund for a chance to a £20,000 grant HERE

All About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more HERE

This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk