Starting a food business?

[Frimley111R]

One of my brother-in-laws has always enjoyed cooking and has done some 'chef' jobs in the past but would like to stat up something on his own. TBH this is a bit out of area of experience but I've given him some pointers in terms of starting to think about it more seriously, which are:

Who is your target market? Weddings? Small events, kids parties, dinner parties? Think about this as it will often mean unsociable hours for many events (evenings and weekends).
Where will you prepare and store food?
How much help do you need to serve it or are you just going to deliver it and people eat it cold/reheat it themselves?
Where do you source the equipment you may need to do this?
How do you deliver food? (Vehicle? - you could hire a small van on a daily basis to begin with)
What food preparation standards do you need to adhere too? (Check with council)
Where could you start? For example you don't want to start with a wedding for 200 people, you want a small little event, perhaps a dinner party where you arrive and cook for them.

Is there anything else I have missed (probably!)? And more usefully, has anyone actually start up a food business?

Thanks

Edited by Frimley111R on Wednesday 16th November 07:22

[Simpo Two]

Frimley111R said:

you want a small little event, perhaps a dinner party where you arrive and cook for them.

I hereby volunteer my services as tester. Or should that be taster?

[markcoznottz]

Seems to be a trade the council leans on heavily, plus massively saturated at present.

[davepoth]

Start with the council. They should be able to give you a copy of the standard they would assess the business against so it will give you a big guide as to what to do.

[BoRED S2upid]

Is he any good? Does he have mass catering experience? Experience cooking his own menu and sourcing ingredients?

Huge difference to turning up at work cooking a dish that the head chef has made and bought the ingredients for to being able to cater for 50 or 100 from scratch.

If it's no to any of the above he needs to get more experience nobody will take a risk on him without experience.

[Frimley111R]

Yes, I believe so but the plan is definitely to start small, it's not a race. I can't remember all his experience as it goes back a few years but he's passionate about it and is currently working in job that he doesn't enjoy and so this is his plan to move his career onwards.

[anonymous-user]

Frimley111R said:

Is there anything else I have missed (probably!)? And more usefully, has anyone actually start up a food business?

Thanks

Whilst I haven't started a food business, my suggestion to your brother-in-law would be to look first at his potential competition and try to find a company which appears to successful, has a good niche, and then form a plan around replicating as much as you think is good about their business.

Many startups fail by trying to be too innovative; trying to create a product or service which doesn't yet exist. Hence they don't know if there is a market for their new proposition.

If the new business is based on replicating an existing successful business you will know that the biggest risk about market demand won't be an issue.

Whilst the established businesses in the market will have the advantage of a good reputation etc, new start-ups can be leaner with lower overheads and hence can offer better pricing, better flexibility etc allowing them to compete.