Starting a new burger van business - help.

elmosmom

My dad was made redundant over a year ago and has had no luck in finding any further work.

He has seriously been considering starting a burger van business. We have scouted a good location and thats about it as we don't know where to go from there.

Does anyone have an idea of whats involved or where to go from here. Also is there any help with start up costs available as funds are low as he has been out of work for so long.

Thanks in advance x

saintjammyswine

If it helps, he may be eligible for funded training through either Skills Support for Redundancy or Skills Support for Unemployment through your local FE College. They are funds from European Social Fund, delivered through many (not all as it a tendered process to get access) FE Colleges. Is he in receipt of either JSA or ESA (WRAG)?

googler

Off the top of my head

Purchase & conversion of van, insurance, security, road tax, etc
Planning consent for location
Food retailer registration with local authority
Basic food hygiene training, or even advanced training
Storage of supplies, sourcing of supplies
Advertising

And, most important - a business plan, outlining what the initial and ongoing costs will be, balanced against expected income. This will tell him when he's likely to break even (if at all), and what the likely income will be once expenses are covered after that.

Has your father got any experience in catering? You haven't said as such ....

People are expecting more these days from 'street food' - look at the programmes on Food Network, and it's apparent that standard burgers just don't cut it anymore; you need something different.

Do a forum search for thread titles including 'burger van' and there's plenty of prev discussion, such as

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4401779

And 16 or so other threads

Evilm

If he intends to pitch at the side of the road he needs to allow for the council to ask him to pay a traders fee. A local place near me had this put on them suddenly and it cost them thousands.

scooby088

Also you need to consider not treading on other people toes a good friend of mine got everything signed off by the council, then had a not so friendly warning from another burger van owner.