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Dad-of-two Ryan Panchoo, 44, is one of thousands of Brits who’ve set up a side hustle with his passion project going from earning just £250 a year back in 2014 to over £500,000 today
One dad-of-two has shared how he grew his side hustle to become a £500,000-a-year business.
Amid a backdrop of rising rents and increased cost of living, new research from tech accountancy firm Sage reveals 47% of Brits of all ages now have a side hustle on top of their day-to-day job. As side hustles become more lucrative, a massive 92% of under 34s said they intend to transition their side hustles into full-time businesses.
Dad-of-two Ryan Panchoo, 44, is one of thousands of Brits who’ve done just that, with his former side hustle looking to turn over £500,000 this year. Ryan set up his side hustle selling doughnuts all the way back in 2014 when he worked as a project manager at a property investment company earning £40,000 a year.
Ryan's doughnuts were not just bog standard, they are vegan and gluten-free. He told the Mirror: "It was born out of frustration really, my children were allergic to gluten and dairy and I hated seeing how unappealing their options were when we were out and about. I decided to create a doughnut recipe that was not only safe for them but also didn’t taste disappointing.”
Ryan first started experimenting with recipes in 2011 and after three years he finally perfected his recipe and Borough 22 was born. At first, Ryan was baking and selling his doughnuts in his spare time around his full-time nine-to-five job. He would spend his evenings and weekends baking in his southeast London kitchen and driving across the city delivering doughnut orders to customers who had found him through social media.
Over the first year, Ryan only managed to make around £250 from his business which although not bad, didn't even warrant Ryan to report it as income to HMRC. The dad of two didn't give up and continued to work at his business. It soon started to take off when he managed to get some local independent traders to stock his doughnuts. Building his social media presence also helped the business grow and in this third year, he managed an annual turnover of £12,000.
However, things changed in 2017 when he was made redundant. At this moment, Ryan decided to work on Borough 22 full time rather than look to get another job. He said: “I’d been earning around £40,000 a year, so giving up the safety net of a monthly salary and launching a business was the scariest thing I’d ever done. But I’d regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t try. It was either sink or swim.”
From then, Borough 22 only went from strength to strength with exciting new flavours and recipes being added to the lineup including the original glazed doughnut, raspberry jam filled, cinnamon sugared, and cereal milk glazed. Alongside this, the sweet treats - which you can get fried or baked - are now being stocked in Selfridges in London, Birmingham and Manchester. The business has also won a whole host of awards including Best Free From Food Product 2023, a Great Taste Award, and a Great British Food Award. Ryan also managed to win Pastry Chef of the Year last year.
One of the biggest challenges Ryan faced as Borough 22 grew was the admin and tax side of the transition. He said: “I was initially doing everything manually. I had a spreadsheet for every customer invoice and all my costs like money, I was spending on ingredients and train fares.”
For those also looking to step up their side hustle game, Ryan says investing in accounting tech was one of the best things he did. said: I was scared to spend money on it, but I quickly realised that it would save so much time and money in the long run. I got Sage accounting software in 2020 which meant I could focus on the parts of the business I actually like.” After 10 years, Ryan is still very hands-on with the business and still spends his mornings in the kitchen baking and testing new flavour ideas.
