How an accidental entrepreneur has grown his business with support from EnterprisingYou

Andy Fletcher set up Axes to Ashes, a mobile axe throwing business, in Bury six years ago after considering moving his family off grid in Canada. In preparing for this he learnt about axe throwing and Axes to Ashes was born.

His business has gone from strength to strength. We spoke to him about his journey building the business and how EnterprisingYou and GM Business Growth Hub has helped.

Why set up an axe throwing business?

It was probably about six years ago now, my wife and two children at the time, were planning on selling up moving to Canada and living off the land, completely off the grid. At the time I was a health and safety manager for a group of companies. It was a well-paid job, secure industry, but we just thought, let's get away from it all. But rather than going out there and struggling, because obviously living remotely you can’t nip down to your local Tesco, I began to train as a survival instructor. One of the modules in the training included axe throwing, which I really enjoyed.

A friend of mine was doing a charity gig for mental health and a children’s leukaemia charity. He said, would you mind coming down and doing something funky? And I said, right, we'll do some axe throwing.

Whilst at the charity gig, people started to come over to me. They all said we have events on, would you be able to come do the axe throwing at our events? And it went on from there!

How has the business grown since then?

We started out doing two gigs through a food drink festival for year one and then in year two we picked up four, and then for this year they’ve asked us to do 14. We are clearly doing something right. We’ve got seven weddings booked in for this year as well as other inquiries.

We are building a fixed axe throwing venue and smokehouse, that will mean, irrespective of the weather, people can come and have a throw and get something to eat and a couple of drinks. Something different from the norm.

How has EnterprisingYou supported you in getting started?

I was at a networking event at the Village Hotel in Bury. I met people that told me about what the Business Growth Hub could do. Long story short, I was put in touch with Paul Norris, Enterprise Specialist with GM Business Growth Hub. He became my advisor and we met on a regular basis, and we discussed various topics, different options. He was a great sounding board for bouncing ideas off. It was nice to have.

If you're new to business, you don't know everything and you come across stuff which is a bit confusing or daunting. Having someone who has been there, done that, got the T-shirt, is quite a valuable resource especially considering its funded by local and national government.

What happened after you’d built up a solid foundation?

I got to a stage where I'd found my feet and then Paul said I think now I need to move you over to Jamie Foggon, who's part of the Innovation team and had ideas about product development.

I had already designed the kitchen axe, which has proved popular. Jamie said you could really do with something to compliment that. So why don't you do a BBQ set? I already had in mind of doing a portable BBQ, but then why not do something simple first, while still getting the name out there. So, a BBQ set. That’s currently on the back burner, what with the venue build. That's something we'll be looking at for maybe mid to end of this year and possibly launch next year.

You recently won Start up Business of Year, what it was like winning the award?

That came last year. I had finally decided to pack in the health and safety job in 2023 and go full time with the axe throwing. I jumped in with both feet and started working for myself and it’s just picked up pace, and then last year, it was the nomination for Entrepreneur of the Year. We went to London in December, we won and that was absolutely amazing.

I seem to have found a niche and the way we run things seems to really work.

I was also on BBC Breakfast. It was at the Well Being Farm near Bolton, they were doing a feature on British weather. The Farm rang me and said do you want to do a bit of a live axe throwing on BBC Breakfast TV!

What would you say about the support you’ve had from EnterprisingYou and the wider GM Business Growth Hub?

My experience in general with it has been really positive and some of the people I've met through going to the networking events have been very helpful as well. The support and advice I got from Paul and then James has really been valuable with developing my business. They provided me with confidence I was on the right track and gave me ideas and advice on how to go further.

I got in touch with GM Business Growth Hub after being told about them at an event. I certainly will do the same with anyone I meet who has a small business.