Starfish Sessions with Matin Miah

On this month’s edition of Starfish Sessions, Lorraine Payne sits down with Matin Miah, Regeneration & Development Specialist to discuss balancing an interim career in the public sector alongside running a successful food and restaurant business, the lessons that he learned and what he would do differently with hindsight.

Please do introduce yourself: Who you are with a brief Summary of your career?

I’m Matin Miah, I’ve been in the regeneration industry for nearly 30 years, primarily in local government. I began my career in East London and spent the first 22 years of my career working in a variety of permanent positions, and since 2017 I have been an interim manager, with my most recent role as Assistant Director, Regeneration & Economic Development at London Borough of Hackney.

What led you to move into the interim market?

In 2015, I opened my first restaurant and spent first couple of years juggling the business and my full-time, permanent role but it was clear this wasn’t sustainable, so I made the decision to focus solely on the restaurant business and at the time I thought I was done with regeneration.

It was very daunting to step away from this career, but I knew I wanted to grow the restaurant business, so I spent one year focusing solely on that. To my surprise I found I was missing local government, all the networks I’d built over the years. I never felt fulfilled focusing entirely on Rudie’s so I started reconnecting with colleagues and managed to secure a 3 day per week interim assignment which allowed me to split my week between the two ventures.

Initially it was difficult to manage the two alongside one another but I was very open and honest with my client about the business I had, I found that it’s important to manage their expectations from the outset.

Can you tell us more about what inspired you to open your first restaurant?

I love food, my dad was a chef and I loved cooking at home. While I was working in local government, I was dabbling with the idea of being a chef myself but the finances just didn’t work out.

My wife’s parents are from Jamaica and I remember when we first met she told me if the marriage was going to last I would have to fall in love with Jamaica and that wasn’t hard to do at all! I fell in love with the food and culture. After returning from frequent visits to Jamaica I was always craving jerked chicken and I couldn’t find anywhere good back in London, a place to chill and have a good time with good Jamaican food, drink & music (the island vibe!).

We came together and thought why not open a Jamaican restaurant? I still remember the moment where we sat down and it came together.  It was the weekend of Notting Hill Carnival and everyone went but I stayed at home to write the first one page business plan. It took me one year from then to the point where we opened our first restaurant in Dalston, Hackney. It was a true labour of love, I had some great people, good chefs and a good team.

Can you talk us through your mindset behind taking a career break to develop your restaurant brand?

We changed our business plan from restaurant to street food which led us to grow from 2 sites to 9 sites in a short space of time. I knew I couldn’t focus to the best of my ability on both things, I was working 9-5 at a council and then 5-10pm at the restaurant. I felt I needed to go all in to truly realise the potential of the business.

You are now back working as an interim manager, how have you managed to juggle your interim career while running a business?

After 9 years in business, I’ve learnt you can either be very operational and let it consume you, or you can build a business where you’re the owner and provide a strategic overview but create a good team underneath you.

It’s hard to let go, it’s my baby but I learned if I wanted to enjoy my life it’s what I had to do. I learned that a key part of my job as a CEO is recruitment – to hire the best people and let them get on with it. We try to create an atmosphere where people can develop and grow and feel part of the family. It’s a real team effort.

The biggest thing I learned that improved my quality of life in business is not to micro manage and always be sweating over the small things.

How do you manage the workload and pressure that comes with both roles?

Compartmentalising has been important. Recently I completed a senior interim role working mostly 3 days a week, but it was actually a 5-day job working compressed hours. I had to work smart; I trusted my team to deliver because I knew I had limited time. I put myself at a level where I can add value and I trusted my senior managers to deliver against their objectives.

It’s given me clarity about the sort of roles I now go forward for. With the operations in place with my business and the right structure and brief in place for interim roles, that really helps.

You now have Rudie’s open across a number of sites. Are there more plans to expand further?  What’s next?

Over the last 9 years we’ve managed to open 15 sites (and some closing inevitably). We restructured the business in February and rebranded to Dub Pan. We have a smaller portfolio of 5 locations now, some are restaurants and some are concessions in food halls. We also do a selection of music festivals in the summer. I’m not in a race to grow to a maximum number of sites anymore, it has to fit with my lifestyle, work and business.

What advice would you give to someone thinking about a start-up business? 

All business owners to some extent need to not be phased by the challenges. You need a sense of being headstrong and have the confidence to take leaps.

What I wouldn’t have done with hindsight is perhaps open my first restaurant in the same location / premises having to spend so much on lease and fitout, as I now know it could have been done a lot cheaper. I think I was a bit impatient; and emotionally driven by the idea of my dream restaurant. Now we do street food, stalls and festivals. I spent a lot of money with those who were “experts” and at the time I considered it necessary but looking back it probably wasn’t. Starting small and scaling up is the right approach, build a base and foundation rather than trying to run before you can walk.

What’s proudest moment of your career?

Despite the risks & challenges, opening my first restaurant without a doubt. It was a huge labour of love. To do that whilst working full time in a different industry and taking that challenge was one of the bravest things I’ve ever done.

Professionally, delivering the New Deal for Communities programme in Ocean Estate. I was only in my 20s, it was a high profile regeneration job in Tower Hamlets and I really wanted to make a difference. I was given the opportunity to lead on a £200m regeneration scheme in a deprived neighbourhood, similar to where I grew up. It was extremely challenging but at the end it has made some big difference to the community.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

If I hadn’t gone down the business route, I would have undoubtedly been far more ambitious on my own growth within local government.

However, I’m pleased I followed my passion and stayed motivated. If I was in the same position, I’d have done the same thing again, maybe I would’ve done it sooner. I had thought and spoken about it for a long time and the longer you stay somewhere, your lifestyle becomes fixed, so it’s hard to break away from that. If there is something you want to do – go for it, sooner rather than later.

Ending on a fun question, what would you recommend from Dub Pan’s menu?

We’re famous for our jerk. To get our own formula right, we travelled across Jamaica visiting many of the best ‘jerk centres’ on the island. They have massive charcoal pits where they cook jerk chicken, pork, anything you can think of. The food that comes out of it is incredible, and we wanted to replicate that as closely as we can based on Jamaican tradition. It’s food I love and I never get bored of it.