Christiana’s side business is a tribute to a love of good food and live music. Launched in 2017, Eats & Beats is a supperclub which promises fresh flavours, breakthrough performances and fine fundraising efforts.
The bassline of the business
With sold-out events and guests such as Great British Bake Off’s Liam Charles and Selasi Gbormittah, Eats & Beats prides itself on three key fronts: celebrating the diversity of London with refreshing food fusions, providing entertainment, and raising money for local charities.
“Eats & Beats was created to fill a void in the supperclub world, fusing two things people love most – music and food – as a vehicle for social good, all while drawing on my skill and passion for event planning and bringing people together. We have gained amazing traction since our launch.”
Working full-time as a Child Protection Lawyer, Christiana’s biggest passion is doing good. She believes that having a genuine love for what you do is the foundation to success, and will help strengthen commitment to setting and achieving goals.
Genuine passion is the fuel you need to draw on when things are going great, and when they’re challenging.
“Helping to make a positive impact to those around me is what drives me everyday, whether this be in my nine-to-five career as a Child Protection Lawyer, within my social circle or with Eats & Beats.”
This co-founder explains that finding the time to start and grow a side business can be challenging, but raising money for heartfelt causes is what makes it all worthwhile.
“There have been occasions where my role as a lawyer has been so demanding that it has impacted the time I have been able to invest in Eats & Beats. To combat this, I set both daily and weekly tasks for Eats & Beats and ensure I am committed to completing everything necessary.”
As we all know, ideas remain just that until one lights a match under it.
Perseverance has helped Christiana in her business journey, and she believes integrity is also an important characteristic to have - allowing her to build trust and a reputation that speaks for the brand.
“My team and I just went for it. We figured out every element step-by-step, piece-by-piece; the sponsors, ingredients, quantities, venues, entertainment, logistics, web presence. We got things right, we got things wrong, but learned every time - more and more with each event.”
Starting a business is not for the fainthearted. Your passion has to be constantly fed with commitment, focus, determination, organisation, through the highs and lows.
With those learnings, Eats & Beats has become a well-oiled operation that manages to raise money for charity and turn a profit, to facilitate its central goal of helping others.
Collaborate, create, connect
This London-based supper club is all about bringing people together, so when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the Eats & Beats team had to consider how to adapt and stay relevant.
“We couldn’t hold a supper club for two years due to social restrictions. During the lockdown, we had to learn to be more creative and proactive with our social media content so as to keep our followers engaged and grow the brand.”
Having an online presence helped Eats & Beats to show that they mean business, securing sponsorship from local and globally renowned brands for goody bags, raffle prizes and competitions. This continues to ensure the events raise the maximum amount possible for important charities.
We were contacting brands and organisations and felt it was very important to have a professional email address.
A professional email was a must, allowing Christiana to collaborate with brands for her VIP events. It was music to her ears when she heard about GoDaddy’s perfect package for her startup.
“It was difficult to contact brands with a personal hotmail or gmail account. It just seemed unprofessional. We didn’t want to go into junk mail and felt a professional email would make us much more appealing.”
GoDaddy was recommended to Christiana by her brother, who also runs a successful business. Currently in the process of building a website with GoDaddy, she meanwhile embraces the Microsoft 365 and Professional Email package, enjoying the 24/7 technical support, 99.9% uptime and advanced security. A quick and easy set-up meant she was up and running in minutes.
Microsoft 365 just makes things simple. It was such a quick process and prompted me to get started.
“I would absolutely recommend GoDaddy. They are really approachable and no question is a silly question. Client care is so important to me and I was immediately impressed. The customer advisor was really patient and made me feel valued and appreciated. I just felt comfortable putting my business in the hands of GoDaddy.”
Feeling inspired?
At GoDaddy, every customer is a VIP. Eats & Beats synced up with GoDaddy for success on repeat, and you can too. We’re all about empowering every idea, business, side hustle or nonprofit cause to claim their place online and look great at the same time. If you're inspired by Christiana’s story and ready to start your online journey, we’re standing by ready to help.
