16/09/2026
I’ve never really told this story before, but in my first week of running Local I completely fu***ng cracked.
Not struggled a bit.
Not had a bad day.
I mean properly lost it.
We’d been open less than a week.
Local consisted of me, two drivers — Steve and John — a couple of phones and a business I’d somehow convinced myself I could build.
Then Saturday came.
Before lunchtime, we were basically fully booked for the night.
Steve and John were absolutely flat out and the phones just would not stop ringing.
There was no app back then. Every single booking came through the phone.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
And for hours, most of what I was doing was telling people:
“Sorry, we can’t give you one.”
The problem was, people didn’t really know how small we were.
They’d seen this new taxi company called Local appear and understandably assumed we had a fleet of cars sitting there ready to go.
We didn’t.
We had two.
As the night went on, the calls kept coming.
People were disappointed.
Then people started getting frustrated.
Then, because it was Saturday night and alcohol was starting to join the conversation, some of the calls got nasty.
Proper abuse because I couldn’t produce a taxi that simply didn’t exist.
And eventually I snapped.
I ripped the phone lines out the wall.
Launched the handsets across the office.
Flipped the desk.
Walked out!
And sat outside with my head in my hands.
I can still remember exactly what I was thinking.
“Not even a week in and this has fu***ng broke me.”
“I can’t do this.”
“This isn’t for me.”
I felt sick.
Stressed beyond belief.
And absolutely convinced I’d made a massive mistake.
It was probably only ten minutes.
Felt like an hour.
There wasn’t some inspirational moment.
Nobody came outside and gave me a speech.
Nothing about the situation had changed.
I still only had two drivers.
We still had far more work than we could cover.
The phones were still going to ring.
And some people were still going to give me s**t.
I just eventually had a word with myself.
I’d started this.
And I decided there and then that I wasn’t going to let anything beat me.
So I went back inside.
Picked the phones up.
Plugged everything back in.
Put the desk back where it belonged 😳😂
And started answering calls again.
Same problems.
Same pressure.
Same abuse.
Just this time I’d made my mind up that I was staying.
That night changed something in me.
I made myself a promise that I wouldn’t be beaten by this.
And over the seven years since, that promise has been tested more times than I could count.
There have been periods where I’ve thought:
Is this actually worth it?
Times I’ve wanted to walk away.
Times when running Local has completely taken over my life.
And there have been genuinely good opportunities where I could have sold it and made life a hell of a lot easier for myself.
People occasionally ask me why I don’t.
And the truth is, it’s difficult to explain unless you’ve built something yourself from absolutely nothing.
Local isn’t just a company I happen to own.
I remember when there was no fleet.
No app.
No established customer base.
No reputation.
Just two drivers, some ringing phones and me trying to figure it all out as I went.
Thankfully, a lot has changed since that first Saturday.
Drivers have trusted us with their livelihoods.
Staff have helped carry the weight of it.
And thousands of people around here have trusted Local to get them where they need to go.
I’ll never take any of that for granted.
But one thing hasn’t really changed.
It’s still me behind the scenes.
I still answer the phones.
I still dispatch.
I still notice when something hasn’t gone right.
I still probably care far more than is healthy sometimes 😅
And the photo on this post isn’t staged to make me look like some big business owner.
It’s literally me today.
Headset on.
Sitting at the desk.
Taking bookings.
Seven years after I sat outside with my head in my hands, ready to quit because I genuinely thought I couldn’t do it.
I’m not telling this story because I think flipping a desk is something to be proud of 🙈
Looking back, I was overwhelmed, inexperienced and completely unprepared for what running this business was actually going to demand from me.
I’ve grown a lot since then.
Local has too.
But I am proud of what happened ten minutes later………I went back in.
And I suppose that’s why, when people ask when I’m going to call it a day, I never really know what to tell them.
Because seven years ago I made a promise to that lad sitting outside with his head in his hands.
I wasn’t going to let this fu***ng beat me.
Seven years later, it still hasn’t.
And I still owe him that.
