Re: Plan a small business: Food Take away shop
First of all it depends on where the business is being opened. Secondly, 50,000 pounds can never be a fixed capital. In my experience, you always have a tentative figure and must plan to put in more later, because as you move towards opening up your cafe, restaurant etc, different hidden costs come up. Especially if you're opening a restaurant, there's so many things that seep your money, especially kitchen related. For a restaurant, the most important area is a fully function kitchen. If you won't have a functional kitchen, how are you going to produce good quality dishes to serve up your customers.
Food safety and hygiene is paramount. Be it in the UK or UAE. Establishments get surprise inspections from inspectors and if the kitchen amongst other things, is not up to the mark, they can fine you and even ask you to close down.
Outdated advertising strategies I don't think there are any. Any kind of outreach is good. Be it contemporary media methods or social media these days. If you advertise in a newspaper, that's still good. If you make an advertisement for television, that's good too. If you make a leaflet or pamphlet and get it across to people through newspaper delivery or handouts, even that's good. But however, I would say, because of the digital age, you have to push your brand and establishment on the digital platforms. Social media marketing is very important these days and it helps boost word of mouth marketing too. People tweet about your restaurant, write a review in a blog, see your advertisement on Facebook etc.
Stock what do you mean? As in supplies? You have to do a credit note agreement with suppliers. You get deliveries at the start of the month, you check for ingredients quality, you send back some (if they aren't up to the mark) and retain only the ones that match your needs. At the end of the month, you send your supplier a little note reminding them about how much quantity you actually kept to yourself. They will send over an invoice. You will pay and get the receipt.
As for equipment, it depends again on what type of restaurant or cafe it is. What are you going to serve? If you are going to mainly be serving up burgers. Then you need a grill. You need a convection oven. You need a deep fryer. You need a chiller. A freezer. You need a salamander, to keep your cooked food under, so it remains hot. If it is a restaurant that is Asian in nature, then the equipment differs slightly. You would need a Bratt Pan. To make stocks, soups etc in. You would need rice cookers. You would need an actual cooking range, because you'll be frying most of the time. What equipment is a must, is freezer, chiller and salamander. Rest depends on what the restaurant or cafe will serve.
Legal procedures differ from country to country. Every country and not only that, but city's municipality has different legal procedures etc for restaurants and cafes. Serving food in mass to people is a big responsibility and the government department wants to make sure that it is done in a correct way. Even Abu Dhabi's (the capital of UAE) food safety and hygiene regulations and laws aren't as stringent as Dubai's. You have to follow everything by the book. No short cuts when it comes to legal procedures. As for health and safety, coordinate with the local municipality. They provide assistance, they provide instruction manuals etc.
Legalities related to food and hygiene include, having done the food safety level one course. That is a must, no one without a level one can enter a kitchen. If you are going to be handling food and instructing others what to do, you need to have a PIC (Person In-Charge) level 3 food and safety course certificate. This is applicable in the UK as well as Dubai. I got mine from City & Guilds London. Your kitchen should be clean at all time. You should have a pest control contract. You should have a grease trap cleaning contract. You should have at least one insect killer in your kitchen and you should have all the required fire extinguishers. Your kitchen door should have an exit sign on the top etc.
Thanks Dubai wali , its a great insight . Lets get some help from you in planning a small shop .. Lets say we have a capital of £50K. How would you suggest we move forward? What are the first few things we need to do concretely to set the shop and get it up and running?
Lets say we have already created the generic business plan , menu and advertising strategy. Now to add finer details to it.
What advertising strategies work best ? what are outdated ones and what are the new ones that can bring good results ?
What about finding stocks? best way to buy stocks? what machines are an absolute must?
Legal procedures? health and safety food inspectors ? what kind of stuff should be check up to ensure we remain within the legal framework and dont get sucked up by food inspector visits every few days ..
Looking forward to your input :)
