Louise Maddy worked as a Senior Research Analyst, focusing on private equity fund managers and trends in the global marketplace, when she launched The Avocado Cafe, a market stall which serves dips and salad boxes all containing avocado. She now trades every Friday and Wednesday at the One New Change food markets.

First steps: "One of the first steps I took when setting up The Avocado Café was looking into whether the idea was viable and what competition there was in the London marketplace for an avocado-based business. I quickly discovered there was a gap in the market, so began researching and testing different avocado recipes and ideas. Once I was happy with my recipes I held a tasting session with friends and family to gain their feedback. I then went to my first market to test the water on the general public. Markets are a great way to get instant feedback from customers, and this market gave me the confidence to progress the business further. I took out a small loan from start-up loans, started promoting my business and also applied to the National Market Traders Federation (NMTF) first pitch competition, which involves pitching a product and winning a recurring time slot trading at a local market."

Time management: "It was certainly hard managing my time between my 9-5 job and my new business. There was about six months of finishing work and coming back to focus on the business every evening. I'd spend my weekends looking around different markets and developing new ideas. One week I worked around 100 hours, I was up cooking before work and rushing back straight after. It was getting too much so at that point I knew I had to go for it and hand in my notice. It was quite a scary prospect that I would no longer be earning a regular salary, but it allowed me to put all my energy into the business to get it off the ground."

Top tip: Use your time wisely. Setting up a business is very time consuming but make sure you take the time to get things right before you launch the business properly. Also try and get used to the long working hours as when you come to launch the business full time you will be working non-stop!

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