Diary of a start-up: The Alchemist Cocktails’s Kirsty Gurr: Halfway Houses, Wonderful Weddings and a Vintage Van

Our ‘Diary of a Start-Up’ series follows the progress of 1000th Transmit Start-Up loan recipient and founder of The Alchemist Cocktails, Kirsty Gurr on her entrepreneurial journey.

In our last post, Kirsty told us about preparing for her first festival Audio Soup and establishing her brand. This post brings us to month four in Kirsty’s startup story. We caught up with her about halfway houses, wonderful weddings, websites and the trials and tribulations of owning a vintage van.

“After an amazing July, August has been somewhat more of a grind. Just as the summer sunshine was making an appearance, my van (Rita) took a turn and was admitted to the garage.

"I knew vintage van parts were hard to get hold of, but it turns out, the parts have been next to impossible to source. It wasn’t until the end of the month that we got Rita back up and running – although she did make the occasional appearance for special events in between repairs and servicing. Despite the rainy weather, one of these outings was to serve hot drinks, milkshakes and smoothies in Haddington for the Haddington Pipe Band.

“Rita was also able to make an appearance at North Berwick Golf Course as a halfway house on the 9th tee, serving lovely cocktails all day to the golfers.

“When Rita was finally fixed she made her comeback spectacularly at the Edinburgh wedding exhibition. I was really glad we made it as I’ve had 2 enquiries about weddings already which is so exciting.

“Right at the end of the month we also hit another milestone – launching our website, www.thealchemistcocktails.co.uk. It’s great to have a website live and is another great outlook for us to receive enquiries through.

“In terms of what’s to come, I've also been asked to fill in for a cafe that's shut down at Cockenzie House every Friday in September. So all in all the journey is going well – despite a few bumps along the way!”

To find out more about our start-up loans, visit our Loan Calculator page.