"I can tell you now, it's a lot harder than football, I've been playing football all my life, it's just a matter of going out and having a go and doing your best."
That's how Ipswich winger Stephen Hunt summed up his first year in business. The Republic of Ireland international spoke to Bobby Kerr about his Wexford-based gastro-pub 'Tides' before his Championship play-off semi-final against Norwich.
Hunt's decision to move into the business world is part of his plan for life after football. He said that the notion of planning ahead for life after your playing career had come to him some six or seven years previous.
He reflects on the decision: "I heard someone on the radio saying to try and plan ahead when you've about three years left in your football career, and that made me think, where could we go? I had a house in Rosslare and I really enjoyed the area. It's a bit more stressful, the area, now I can tell you."
Before Stephen took over the coastal pub it was called Brady's, once he bought it he changed the name to Tides Gastro Pub.
"It was a renovation project from the first go and we had a few places in mind that we wanted to model it on and we set off doing it and we tried to stick to the budget and the budget wasn't too bad actually, when it comes to that we did a good job trying to keep it below the budget," Stephen said.
One thing that Stephen acknowledged was that he certainly couldn't approach his customers with his on-the-pitch mentality.
"The biggest thing obviously is in the business you're going to get some complaints. So it's to make sure that they're happy and generally not to bite back. In my professional in football I play aggressively I always like to have an argument to wind the player up so that I can get the better of him that way. But in the business side you have to be all ears and apologetic, and in fairness I've done OK at it, I'm happy enough with the way it's going."
Tides is in the finals of the Gastro Pub of Leinster and should they be successful in that Stephen could have a double header on May 25th as the National Gastro Pub Final and the Championship Play-off Final are both on the same day.
"It's on the same day as the play-off final, so hopefully we'll have a double result but genuinely just to win the Wexford one it was like winning the World Cup to me."
Outside of the business world Stephen is on a high after reaching the Championship play-off semi final with Ipswich. The 33-year-old hopes to make the most of his remaining playing days saying that he could three years left to play professionally still.
"I think I've planned for the future I do plenty of work for Tides and then I suppose in two or three years time see where I am in my football, you never know you can get on a hot patch in football and go again and hopefully I can play for the next two or three years and if my body allows me - I'll continue to play football for as long as I can."
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