About this episode

James Reed interviews David Palmer about the challenges of scaling a business sustainably without losing control.

Scaling a business seems like the obvious goal. But what if growth without the right strategy leads to losing control? In this episode of All About Business, James speaks with David Palmer, founder of Life of Fish, the modern London fishmonger that started as a lockdown pop-up outside a Peckham cafe, and has now grown into a multi-site retail and wholesale business built on sustainability, craft, and genuine customer service. Together James and David explore the harder lessons of growth: why expanding too fast almost broke the business, how to know when to consolidate rather than chase new opportunities, and what it means to build something that runs on profit rather than debt. David shares what he learned starting work at Billingsgate Market at the age of 14 with no qualifications and no plan. Climbing into bins at 2am and learning to fillet fish under pressure, allowed David to slowly piecing together a skillset he didn't realise he was building. The lesson he took from those years is simple: nothing you learn is wasted, and starting from the bottom teaches you things no shortcut ever could. They also discuss what it really takes to build a product business in a traditional…

People in this episode

Host: James Reed

Guest: David Palmer

Topics covered

• business growth
• sustainability
• entrepreneurship
• customer service
• over expansion

Keywords

• business growth
• sustainability
• entrepreneurship
• customer service
• over expansion
• lockdown business
• fishmonger

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Life of Fish

Places: Peckham, Billingsgate Market

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