Goodbye Palace Events Ltd. Hello Freelancing.
The start of February 2025 brought the news that the my application to strike Palace Events Ltd off Companies House had been successful, receiving the ‘final gazette’, marking the end of my journey running a business since 2020. Below is a round up of my thoughts on this and during my time as a business owner. Partly as a means of self reflection to look back on, partly to give some awareness to those interested in the reality of business failure. With 60% of businesses failing within their first three years, this is busy club to be part of!
Being a solo founder that launched and self financed a business in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic is something I am incredibly proud of, giving me invaluable skills in event conceptualisation, finance, leadership, marketing and much more!
Launching as The Outdoor Picture Palace, the business primarily organised outdoor cinema events in the Lake District, in incredibly beautiful and dramatic venues. Highlights for me included screening Top Gun on top of a mountain pass, JAWS on the shores of Lake Windermere and taking hundreds of audience members in a 4x4 Land Rover taxi journey up to the UK's Most Extreme Cinema, inside a working slate mine!
Everything with my business was always done to an incredibly high standard, so as my events grew, so to did the need to provide a high quality food and beverage offering to create a rounded evening experience alongside the films. This lead to the formation of Palace Events Ltd, to offer our equipment and services to 3rd party event organisers and included: mobile bar and pop up pizzeria (serving premium authentic Neopolitan pizzas), turn key cinema hire packages, AV hire and furniture hire to the wider event industry. Customers across the UK included:
CarFest | Ourea Events | Love Trails | Candleight by Fever | Trail Pursuit |
London Climbing Centres | Outsider Events | Turf |
‘Neo Pizza’ in full flow, trading as a standalone food concession at a 3rd party event. ©Kieran Fallows
Despite being a resounding success for customer experience and operational delivery, the business failed financially - quite spectacularly! After much deliberation throughout 2024, I decided to close Palace Events Ltd. To cease something that I conceptualised, lived and breathed obsessively, created employment through and quality event experiences was emotionally incredibly tough. However the longer I tried to make the business profitable (even working part time to top up cashflow, to reduce the deficit), it became an essential but harsh choice.
Whilst running my own business I absolutely relished the challenge that several people forewarned me it would be! I miss the stress, round the clock working and pressure. I will be going for 2.0 when the time feels right.
In closing these musings, I’d like to thank the venues I worked with (Windermere Jetty Museum, Honister Slate Mine, Leighton Hall, Lakeland Climbing Centres), the staff who brought the events to life, the audience members who bought tickets and The Kings Trust for their invaluable Enterprise Programme which truly gave me the belief to launch the business!
I am now looking forward to returning to my passion, working to deliver sports and adventure races in a freelance capacity. Alongside my work as a sports instructor in skiing and mountain leading in the UK.