Setting up a new business

H

HouseHunter

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I am looking some advice from people who have set up their own business. I have been through a vast number of websites, some very useful and some not. However, there's no substitute for experience.

My partner and I are both in full time employment. I intend to stay in my present position but my partner is planning to leave to focus full time on the new business. We are adopting a successful business model from another country but adding a new theme based on the cuisine of my partners country of birth. Its a take away joint basically but with significant differences. Obviously I dont want to go into great detail, nor do I think many of you would be that interested.

We are in the process of developing our business plan, researching the market and so on. What I am trying to get a handle on is the realistic costs of setting up an outlet for fast food/take aways i.e. how much (ball park) do you need to get off the ground. I appreciate that this is hugely dependent on numerous variables. We are looking at either Dublin City or south dublin (Rathgar, Donnybrook, even Dun Laoghaire). Footfall is obviously important but our concept is more gourment orientated and based on the original model, encourages customers to make an effort to come to you rather than being reliant on passers-by.

I appreciate that this is very vague but I am only looking for some examples for similar new starts in the aforementioned areas. Also, any other advice e.g. references, websites, and agencies, would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!
 
Firstly do you have planning permission ? A call to the area planner where you intend to locate can be of benefit he/she will tell you the likley chances of getting planning there.Are you familar with food regulations hassap etc.A completed course would be of benefit.Fitting a kitchen for a take away situation can cost alot 50-100k ,maybe cheaper if you can lease all equipment for a fixed cost per week(BETTER OPTION)
.keeping the health officer/planner on your side is your biggest worry ,so ask their advice before doing any major works.Will you have to pay for a lease ? If not thats a great bonus ,I think with take away model, if the product is good enough people will travel or ring orders for delivery.keep a good budget for advertising ,marketing etc as I think its the one place you can really get great business from.Deposits for shop rent(3months deposit 1 month in advance),shop front signs 2-5k internal front of shop fit out (up to you )2-5k ,kitchen 10k-50k insurance 2k,biggest expence is going to be equipment for kitchen ,tile your kitchen or stainless steel with moveable kitchen counters etc for easy cleaning,extraction is of big importance too.
BEST OF LUCK HOPE IT GOES WELL !
 
HouseHunter said:
I am looking some advice from people who have set up their own business. I have been through a vast number of websites, some very useful and some not. However, there's no substitute for experience.

My partner and I are both in full time employment. I intend to stay in my present position but my partner is planning to leave to focus full time on the new business. We are adopting a successful business model from another country but adding a new theme based on the cuisine of my partners country of birth. Its a take away joint basically but with significant differences. Obviously I dont want to go into great detail, nor do I think many of you would be that interested.

We are in the process of developing our business plan, researching the market and so on. What I am trying to get a handle on is the realistic costs of setting up an outlet for fast food/take aways i.e. how much (ball park) do you need to get off the ground. I appreciate that this is hugely dependent on numerous variables. We are looking at either Dublin City or south dublin (Rathgar, Donnybrook, even Dun Laoghaire). Footfall is obviously important but our concept is more gourment orientated and based on the original model, encourages customers to make an effort to come to you rather than being reliant on passers-by.

I appreciate that this is very vague but I am only looking for some examples for similar new starts in the aforementioned areas. Also, any other advice e.g. references, websites, and agencies, would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

First of all, congrats on making the decision and pressing ahead - it's a big step.

First thing I'd say is that you should do some "real world" research, as you'll only get so far on the net. For example, premesis will be key, and probably the major cost: talk to some estate agents doing commercial properties to get an idea of rents in particular areas. Talk to owner/managers of (non-competing) businesses of similar size in the location you're after to get their perspective.

Will you be preparing food on site? this can be expensive if you're planning to operate in a high-rent area, as it needs to be done in a separate area: there's a lot of H&S issues that need to be considered in the area. See http://www.fsai.ie/ It will be very expensive to fit out a premesis for this, if it isn't already done. Maybe consider splitting the business into two sites, one for prep and one for vending?

Good starting point for general info and training for this kind of enterprise is the county enterprise board, see http://www.dlrceb.ie/ for example.

Speaking of training: do either of you have any experience of catering and/or food (for consumption) retail? If not, I think you'd be crazy not to get some (even a part-time job somewhere will give a feel for the business and the issues facing it). For some reason food/catering/retail are industries that people with no experience imagine they can just leap in make a sucess of it. Sorry for labouring this point, but it's a bit of a hobby-horse of my wife (who's run her own catering company for the last 15 years). The stats of failed startups in the sector would seem to confirm it, though.

I presume you've researched the competition? Two things I'd say here: a lot of startups make the mistake of looking for an area (either physical location or sector) where "there's no competition". From experience, if this is actually true, it's usually a reliable indicator the market for what your selling doesn't exist. Trying to develop a non-existant market is an expensive business and not a job for a start-up: you'll probably run out of cash before you manage to do it. More usually, if you don't see competition, you're not seeing who your real competitors are (i.e. your viewing the market too narrowly). I'm rambling a bit here, but the main point I'm trying to make is that you want to operate in a market where there's some competition, but it's not suturated. Don't be afraid of competition (no need to be so secretive either about your plans too: it's unlikely it's so earth shattering someone's going to run off and do it before you get the chance to).

Looking at competition will enable you to estimate sales, both in terms of unit price and volume. You will almost certainly not be able to charge a premium over the going rate, unless you have something very unique (unlikely).

Estimating sales volume is a bit trickier, but you can look at number of hours opened and average number of customers and average spend (direct experience is invaluable here). Don't forget that competitors have had years to build their sales volumes though.

Estimating costs is somewhat easier, as you can always talk to various suppliers to get estimates.

One final thing: keep costs down as much as possible!

Best of luck!
 
I think one of the most important things you can do before you commit yourself to big overheads with premises is to test the market. This is particularly the case when you say that you are offering something new to the market. Is there a way you can get some real live feedback from your target market? Perhaps by taking a stand at a market or festival or something similar where you will get a large throughput of traffic and you can get some quick feedback. This will be of much greater value than doing more abstract market research.

The guys that started up Innocent smoothies did something similar, they brought samples of their product to a festival and had two bins one marked yes and one no. They then asked all the customers if they should give up their day jobs to make smoothies full time by voting with their empties in the relevant bin!

Once you have proven the concept at this level then the next step might be to rent a starter unit somewhere, I think the [broken link removed] offer short term sites so you can get in and give it a try without losing your shirt.

Finally make sure that in all your preparations you give thought to how you are going to market the busines and get new customers as at the end of the day you can have the best service in the world but with no customers you will go out of business fast.

Good luck,

Matt

Business Growth and Marketing
 
Hi Maybe I can help you an bit? I just had a couple of years opening a Mexican restaurant in town and as an American coming from living in France I was a TOTAL newby at ANYTHING to do with 'consumer based retail' business (my business background was building international OEM software companies)....and BOY oh BOY I learned a WHOLE lot; the GOOD, the BAD and the UGLY of doing busines in the greater Dublin area...in anything to do with property, planning permission, planning retention, VAT, employee law, dealing with bad landlord situation, investor relationships, dishonest (& honest) estate agents, lots and lots about shareholder rights, the responisbility and legal aspects of Irish Company Directorships, HACCP (agghhh)....., cashflow, getting cash credit-lines, start-up capital and so forth.

Within the first year we received amny positive reviews, we won the 02 Ability Award for Leadership for our work with handicapped workers, we were voted the best studant meal in Dublin, we were invited to cook on TV3 Ireland AM and some other really good things. I sold the restuarant a couple of months ago.
Let me know if I can help.
Deborah
 
Thanks a million guys for all of this. It all sounds like very sound and practical advice. I will be acting on a lot of it.
 
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