Money & Me: ‘I’m not taking a salary to save my business’ – The National

Money & Me: ‘I’m not taking a salary to save my business’ – The National

Money & Me: 'I'm not taking a salary to save my business'. Kim Thompson, 56, is the founder and managing director of Raw Coffee Company, a boutique roastery supplying cafes, restaurants, businesses and households in the UAE.. The New Zealander has lived in Dubai for 23 years and started Raw Coffee in 2007.. I left home at 15 to go to nursing college, completely unprepared for the adult world.. [After becoming a registered nurse], for the first six months I would spend my salary before it was to last a month.. For the hours worked, the money I earned felt criminally underpaid.. We left New Zealand to go and live in the Netherlands and then we moved to Bahrain with DHL and eventually to Emirates .. I was still very much trying to be a mother, but I definitely had time to be working.. Back then all coffee was imported, so there were no fresh roasters .. My partner [Matt Toogood] didn't join me for two years.. I made the original investment, but we were both very lucky that we had spouses getting a salary every month.. I didn't take a salary for the first five years and Matt didn't