Welcome to the first ever episode of Change It Up Business, the podcast show for start-ups and budding entrepreneurs who are looking to hear inspirational stories from entrepreneurs who run their own business, many of whom have gone from being employees to employers!

Hosted by business owner and entrepreneur Claire Priestley, each episode will focus on the many questions, challenges and up and downs of running your own business.

In this episode, we are joined by Claire Ryan of The Edge Gin, a micro gin distillery in Cheshire. Claire Ryan and her husband set up The Edge Gin after leaving the entertainment world in 2018.

We look at their journey so far including the effect the Coronavirus has had on their still-new business.

[05:30] Claire Ryan and her husband were cruise ship entertainers before they dove in to the world of gin. What made them make the change? One thing they realised was that after years of performing on ships, they weren’t all that employable on land…a very common problem amongst cruise performers.

[13:20] Why is community over competition better than hating on your competitors?

[16:12] Running a gin distillery is bound to have its bumps in the road. Claire Ryan talks about the things that haven’t worked so well so far.

[18:14] Let’s talk Coronavirus. It’s been a struggle financially for The Edge Gin as they would usually do weekly markets which were their biggest stream of income for the company. They obviously haven’t been able to do them for months now, so how have they adapted?

[22:52] Can the look of a bottle really have that much of an effect on how a product sells? 

[26:00] What are the three things that make Claire Ryan the happiest?

[28:00] If Claire Ryan could go back in time before setting up The Edge Gin, what would she say to herself?

Don’t forget to follow The Edge Gin on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.