A husband and wife team opened a clean-eating restaurant in Seaham with support from the North East BIC.
Paul and Linda Barron, who are adventurers at heart, launched Clean Bean restaurant after being inspired from their travels around the world.
The duo took inspiration from places they visited including Indonesia, Tasmania, Nepal and the US among others to create a restaurant for people who value the concept of clean-eating and to dispel the misconception that healthy food is bland and boring.
Linda said: “Our menu includes only fresh and high-quality ingredients – sourced from local suppliers, where possible – without the unnecessary flavour enhancers, preservatives, refined sugars and other chemicals.
“And all of our menu is entirely gluten-free, which is unique, as I believe we’re the only restaurant in the area which can say that.”
To launch the business, Linda – who previously worked in recruitment – sought start-up advice from the BIC.
She added: “When working in recruitment I always supported other people with their dreams and we knew it was time to fulfil our dreams of going self-employed.
“We had the passion and knew there was a trend in people wanting to be fit and healthy, so it was the right time to start the business, but we needed help with starting up.”
Paul said: “We were delighted to work closely with the BIC, who helped us write a business plan and signposted us to funding.
“They also shared their experience of seeing what businesses have done well and what they haven’t done well during the start-up stage.
“The team at the BIC were always there for us and we never felt alone; their support was very important to us.”