10 years!!
10 years of Big Bear Events (officially!)!!
I’m not sure I set out thinking I’d get here when I set out. 10 years ago my twins weren’t even 1, I could barely see to tomorrow in the depths of looking after them – let alone 10 years later. This is the longest I’ve had any career, I was a bank manager for 5 years, and a teacher for 3 so this is by far my biggest work commitment to date, one I can’t see changing over the next 10 years.
If you aren’t familiar with the origin story I’ll try and briefly explain it. As I said above, I was a teacher, expecting twins while living in Kent. I’d run 1 event with Saxons, Vikings and Normans (SVN, no longer going) where I was introduced to the 6-hour running format. I’d also done a few trail events and a couple of ultras with Centurion Running. I was loving these events as a runner, and looking at the organisers thinking “I think I could do that”.
When we found out we were having twins – a HUGE surprise – I knew I’d had to stop working to look after them for a while. Childcare would have cost considerably more than my head of year salary. I did enjoy teaching but I didn’t want to be out of pocket for the pleasure! We also wanted to move to a bigger house and be closer to family – hence the move to the Midlands. Having given my notice and barely surviving with little twins I had the idea that when we moved I could do my own version of SVN. I’m not sure why I’d decided that but I distinctly remember telling other members of staff that’s what I’d planned on doing once they were bigger.
Fast forward to a few tough months as stay at home dad with the twins and planning this was my “light at the end of the tunnel”. I’m sure many parents can relate, and if you’ve got tiny kids, especially multiples, it gets easier, I promise! I needed a job where I could still be around for the school run, not miss weekends and generally be “parent number 1” on emergency contact forms. I could see race directing as a possible fit – to then make those events midweek… genius!
I’m very lucky to have a beautiful, talented and intelligent wife who actually puts the food on the table and the roof above our heads – she massively supported me trying this. It’s not as though I could never work again, this couldn’t be a charity or a non-profit, it had to make some money. However, the freedom and flexibility of my schedule was appealing too. We decided I could give it ago – the initial outlay was small, we could keep everything in the garage and if it all didn’t work it wouldn’t bankrupt us. If it all failed we’d at least have some gazebos we could use in the garden! The idea was for this to all coincide with the 30 hours free-childcare as well, the twins could be at nursery on my event days and I’d start small and build over the years.
In September 2016 I registered Big Bear Events Ltd with the intention of my first event being in 2018.
That’s what happened! I had 5 events booked for 2018 at 5 different venues. I’d spent time with the twins visiting all the venues, and many others too, so I knew there was lots of potential for growth. The formula was the same, they nap on the drive to a different forest, I push them around a 5k course, we get a snack at the café, they nap on the way home. Perfecto! We’re blessed in the Midlands to have so many parks where this is possible.
With the initial events I went with the “if it’s not cost much you can’t complain” philosophy and I also wanted to limit numbers considerably for the first year. Much easier to fix a problem with 50 people than with 150… This meant every event in 2018 sold out at least 6 months before the events!
Selling out events is obviously amazing but when the entry is £16 and there are only 50 runners… I’m not making money! I was however building a reputation and showing it would work. It looked like we’d have to buy our own gazeboes for the garden as this didn’t look like it was going to fail!
That’s how it all started… I’ve rambled enough already so I’ll just make this point.
As much as the company has been incorporated for 10 years it feels like I’ve only hit top gear in the last 3 years or so. Year 1 was setting up, years 2 and 3 where building slowly and showing it could work. Year 4, 2020, was meant to be the year I took off with 20 events scheduled… but we all know what happened then! It cannot be overstated how much covid blew up events. All income stopped, all my events cancelled, and if this endeavour was to put food on the table, we’d have starved. Luckily, I had a few reserves in the business to keep the lights on while nothing came in and I limited what went out.
The return after covid was slow, long and mixed. Well attended events followed shockers – 40 entries to the Red Kite Challenge in 2021 being the worst of them all – it only really stabilised in late 2022/23. Since then things have been good, there are ups and downs, swings and roundabouts and all the other cliches but I feel Big Bear Events has it’s place in an incredibly crowded market. I try and take the best bits from the Big Boys and from the true grass roots stuff and mould it together to give the most professional artisan, hand-crafted events possible. It’s evolution not revolution for the foreseeable future.
That’s all to say thank you. Thank you to the support I’ve had from volunteers over the last 133 events, there has been literally hundreds of you and thank you to every single person who has entered an event, bought merch, joined the Big Bear Brigade, told a friend about us or even just liked a social media post. Every single tiny act of kindness has got me, us, to this stage. I couldn’t have done this without support from my parents, who have volunteered at every event I’ve done and my wife who has supported me at every step. Of course all of that support is for nothing without event entries, so thank you to every single person who has entered an event. Whether that’s one event or Brian who has entered nearly 75 and everyone in between, each is important.
Here’s to the next 10 years!