Advice please - starting catering business

yumyums

Hi everyone. My first post on this board so be gentle!

I'm thinking of starting a small business making celebration cakes, bread, pastries etc. I probably won't have a shop front but will make things to order instead. Using my home kitchen won't work unfortunately because of pets.

My biggest worry is how to find a kitchen I can use. I would rather not share a kitchen or use a restaurant's kitchen in their off hours as I'd like to have it laid out exactly how I want and keep all my equipment there too.

I've been told that you can get units on an industrial estate / business park. Does anyone know anything about this? Do you have to find a unit that's already designated as a kitchen or is it possible to set one up as a kitchen from scratch? What other options are available to me? Sorry for all the questions but I'm completely lost. Would it be best just to go to a commercial estate agent and tell them I'm looking for a property that can be used as a kitchen?

Savvy_Sue

If it's not already set up as a kitchen you would definitely need an inspection from Environmental Health - even if it is set up as a kitchen a recent inspection would be a very good idea.

You yourself need to do some Food Hygiene training. I'd start by googling to see what's available locally. And I'd also get in touch with Businesslink if you're in England - say if you're not and someone will tell you who to contact. Oh, and if under 25 The Prince's Trust is worth contacting.

paulwf

Good general sources of information are Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, Restaurant magazine (both readily available at WHSmiths) and forums such as https://www.cateringforums.net .

To search for suitable properties use something like https://www.businessesforsale.com . If you walk around your town centre and look at the boards of shops for sale you will get a list of the main commercial agents in your area. You haven't got anything to lose by contacting them so you might as well take that approach.

To be honest I've no idea what restrictions there are on change of use, in the high st you can't just change from retail to restaurant without being granted change of use but I'm not sure what covers your kitchen and whether that applies to an industrial estate. A quick call to the council or a property agent should clarify that though.

In any case you would be better off with a purpose built kitchen as stainless steel units are expensive plus you will need tiled walls, a suitable floor, and plenty of electricity and water connections. Equipment can be purchased at auctions or there are suppliers that specialise in second hand, see the first paragraph for links.

For your business to be in any way viable you will need to be supplying shops as well so you will need a suitable vehicle, you can't just put stuff on the back seat of a car.

As Sue says get your basic food hygiene certificate, this is a 1 day course from your local college at around £60. Again to echo Sue the actual cooking is the easy bit, you need to be an expert in marketing, accounts, web design etc or be prepared to outsource these. Make sure your business plan is absolutely solid, Business Link will help you here.

Pennywise

I'd have to echo every word of paulwf's advice above.

Taking things slightly further, why not look out for something like a recently closed down sandwich shop or pie shop, takeaway or very small cafe - there's always shop fronts that are closing and re-opening, especially in a recession - you could easily shutter or board up the front shop windows and would have less worries about change of use planning permission.

If they've closed down, you shouldn't have to pay for any goodwill, and may not even have to pay for the equipment contained within it if the landlord has repossessed it or the tenant has just walked away or gone bankrupt, as the landlord won't have been the one who paid to have the equipment installed and may be glad of someone taking it on as it is rather than facing the costs and hassle of clearing it out and refurbishing it himself.

My first office (accountancy practice) was an ex pizza/fried chicken takeaway - it was on the town's main street, but I got it at a very low rent (£50 per week) with no ongoing for the lease, no goodwill and nothing to pay for the equipment. The equipment, concrete floor, wall tiling, extactor hoods/fans, were all still in place - I did a deal with an industrial kitchen firm for them to take it all out and re-skim the walls etc free of charge, them being able to resell the equipment, and I was left with a lovely blank office that had cost me nothing. If you look around, I'm sure you could find something similar - perhaps if it had fyers etc you didn't need, you could "trade them in" against equipment that you would need, but I think the real benefit is the floor covering, tiles walls, water and power supplies, all of which have to be beefed-up for commercial use.

As a slightly whacky alternative, have you thought about a catering caravan/trailer? There's usually a lot of those for sale if you look in Exchange & Mart or Dalton's Weekly or maybe the online business sales websites. Usually, the problem with trailers is finding a good pitch, but in your case, all you need is somewhere to park it. Again, they're usually done up to the basic standards leaving you to put any extra equipment in. I'd say it would be a good start costing you very little to get going, and you could move onto something more permanent if the business took off.

yumyums

Thanks for all the really helpful replies. I have a few more ideas to look into now.
I've already got my food hygeine certificate thankfully and I know a bit about the basics of what the kitchen should have eg wipe clean surfaces, separate hand-wash facilities. This is what put me off doing it from home as I don't know how anyone could manage to get their personal kitchen in a state suitable for business! Am I right in thinking you shouldn't have any wooden surfaces and you need separate fridges for personal food and ingredients for your business?

I am probably moving to Wales and was trying to work out the equivalent to Business Link there as it only seems to cover England.

I like the idea of finding a closed down shop - I'll have a look into this, as well as the idea of the catering trailers. I'll also take a look at some of the links posted. Thanks everyone!

yumyums

Oh I forgot to add...
Is it a bad idea to go into this sort of business without any experience of the business side of things? I haven't even worked in catering before so would it be best to try to get some work experience first?
I am good at the cooking bits but I understand the record-keeping side isn't too straightforward with having to ensure that all your ingredients are traceable etc. I don't know the first thing about running a business so would it be extremely risky to try to start out on my own?

paulwf

yumyums wrote: »

Am I right in thinking you shouldn't have any wooden surfaces and you need separate fridges for personal food and ingredients for your business?

Your local environmental health department are there to help, feel free to pick their brains when it is time to view premises. People have this view that EHO's are trying to catch people out but in reality they would rather work with businesses and prevent problems rather than sort them out afterwards. Ideally all surfaces should be stainless steel and chopping boards should be plastic and colour coded (red for meat, green for veg etc).

Personal food should be wrapped/sealed and have a date sticker on it just like everything else in the fridge, and make sure if you are a real MSE fan and live off out of date "yellow sticker" supermarket food you don't bring that in. As it is just you I can't see the need for a separate fridge.

paulofessex

We looked at starting a catering business from home some years ago and we had pets (2 dogs) at the time. We got in touch with the local council's enviromental health department. This lady came round and inspected the kitchen and her report to us was as long as we added an extra row of tiles around the back of the work tops, added a seperate wash basin for hand washing and to ensure that the dogs were not in the kitchen at the time of working it would be ok.

So may be worth just asking them to do an inspection for you, will certainly keep costs down when you are just starting up.

Don't forgot you will need the relevant insurances, and not sure if usual house insurance would cover catering business from home

Good luck with your venture

Savvy_Sue

yumyums wrote: »

Oh I forgot to add...
Is it a bad idea to go into this sort of business without any experience of the business side of things? I haven't even worked in catering before so would it be best to try to get some work experience first?
I am good at the cooking bits but I understand the record-keeping side isn't too straightforward with having to ensure that all your ingredients are traceable etc. I don't know the first thing about running a business so would it be extremely risky to try to start out on my own?

:eek: Speaking personally, and as a very risk averse kind of person, I think you'd have to be pretty nearly insane to start any kind of catering business without any catering experience OR any experience of running a business.

Running your own business really is nothing like working for an employer. You can't take a day off sick if you've got an order due, you can't put the blushing bride off a week if rats get into the kitchen and eat all her marzipan roses, you can't afford to lose ANY business early on. If there's a disaster - and as yet you have no idea how many potential disasters are waiting to happen to you! - you still have to deliver the goods.

And that may mean throwing money at the problem, which wasn't in your business plan - to hire someone to help out because you're at death's door, to hire another kitchen because EH have closed yours down, to hire a van because some numpty ran into the back of you.

And unless you LOVE all the marketing, advertising, and bookkeeping, you'll have to pay someone to do them for you. Or learn to love them.

I'm sure you know that in theory. But until you've seen what the practical implications of that are, and worked out whether you'll love the cooking side of things as much at the end of an 80 hour week as you do at the start, it would IMO be a very risky thing to do ...

I know I'm like a wet flannel, and I apologise. I hope someone enthusiastic will come along and say "Take no notice of Sue, here's what you need to do ..." :rotfl:

Savvy_Sue

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I know I'm like a wet flannel, and I apologise. I hope someone enthusiastic will come along and say "Take no notice of Sue, here's what you need to do ..." :rotfl:

I see some of the more enthusiastic and knowledgeable people have already been along and cross posted with me.

paulwf

yumyums wrote: »

Oh I forgot to add...
Is it a bad idea to go into this sort of business without any experience of the business side of things? I haven't even worked in catering before so would it be best to try to get some work experience first?

Getting work experience will be very beneficial and I would suggest spending a year in the catering trade. If you decide it isn't for you you can then just walk away so even doing it for a month to get a "taster" could be good. You'll need to be physically fit and able to stand in very hot kitchens for long stretches of time and lift heavy pots and pans...when you set up on your own it may be 35 degrees in the kitchen but you will still need to bake bread and cakes if that is what customers have ordered.

Kitchen standards vary enormously so the worry is you might pick up bad habits so try and work for a chain or professional company that has proper systems in place. You should be able to learn:

- How to work at speed. For your company to be viable you will need to be able to work at twice the speed you do at home, and you will be dealing with much larger quantities. Getting your head round cooking for 50 not 2 takes a while and if you don't speed up you won't get the job finished.

- Correct hygiene, storage of ingredients, deep cleaning techniques, temperature logging, checking in deliveries, date rotation...all simple stuff but a 1 day hygiene course isn't the same as putting it into practice.

- Cost of goods. The gross profit margin (GP) or cost of goods is what catering companies live and die by. You will need to get used to measuring everything you use to keep the profit margin consistent and a uniform end product. Even if you work for a chain and don't get involved with profit margins you will find that everything is weighed or you use a certain scoop size or a certain pack size so that costs don't creep up.

I am good at the cooking bits but I understand the record-keeping side isn't too straightforward with having to ensure that all your ingredients are traceable etc. I don't know the first thing about running a business so would it be extremely risky to try to start out on my own?

Doing the Business Link courses which are free is a good start and accountants can be a good source of knowledge. The risk can vary enormously depending on your personal financial position. Personally I think the most important thing for you is to not get tied into a lease at first, so that if it fails you can walk away without having to pay rent for the next 10 years!

Produce a business plan (business link will help with this) before you go too far...this is a fairly weighty document and will take some time to compile but good planning will highlight any risks and minimise them. If you have any weak areas you should be able to buy in help, for example hire a book keeper to do your invoices...you don't have to be good at everything.

Running your own catering business means you need a lot of stamina and as with anyone who is self employed the business will have to continue even if you are feeling unwell, your partner wants a holiday, your kids are sick and off school etc...it will have to be your No.1 priority so make sure you are comfortable with this.

Even if you are the best chef in the world you will fail unless you can provide excellent customer service, can deal with costings, and are confident marketing your business and pitching to clients. So make sure you are happy being a business owner as well as a cook.

I hope none of that puts you off, from your previous posts you seem passionate about food so I think it is a good choice. Feel free to post here if you want to go through any details to put your business plan together.