Take away business beginner

FrankC21

We're planning to start a takeaway business, preferably selling spicy chicken wings and chips with bacon and cheese

BACKGROUND: No experience running any kind of business, but i have worked in hospitality sector for number of years mainly in the kitchen. I have fair bit of idea around health and safety regulations.

Steps we have done so far is we are going to to do the LEO programme for starting a business. I have noticed that there's not much places selling spicy chicken wings around our area just typical pizzeria and Chinese takeaway.

Questions about premises, I have seen retail units around our preferred area rent average €700 - €1000, but I have not seen any commercial unit with a kitchen, can a retail unit be converted into a takeaway shop if I am just renting it.

Gloomtastic!

If it get’s planning permission you do it but not without. The change in planning takes months and a lot of landlords will want rent for that period.

It’s a buyers market when it comes to retail outlets but having another takeaway nearby may help your case - or hinder it if the council say there’s too many fast food joints in the area.

Remember, if you don’t ask, you don’t get……😋

Citrus_8

Agree with the above.

I think you should have at least 20K at minimum to start this kind of business. You won't get profit straight. You even won't make a big income until you build clientele. You'll need to account all this loss in the first year. 15K would be just for first months rent, utilities etc, it's actually a very low money. The more the better (easier to start, less stressful).

That's Leo course isn't very good - will cover basics only and maybe give some ideas of what to be aware of, but most of it is pretty obvious, logic and may be found online.

Start making a business plan already! You can find lots of templates based on the industry.

Start thinking of a website or FB/Insta page. Name, logo, signage design, sign itself will cost the money.

Then you need to think of how many people and what hours you'll be opened. Account the wages, assets, inventory, supplies, find suppliers etc etc. Cover that in your business plan. This helps - it's your homework. If something goes wrong, you will be already familiar and at least will have been through about the possible solutions while if you haven't done a business plan, things can seem chaotic and any hour wasted when business is opened but still starting is a lot of burned money and lost possible income.

Think of entity (sole trader, Ltd). If Ltd, you'll most likely need an accountant's help.

Not sure how much of it you have thought, but less us know if there's something more you want to know, have opinions about.

My sister is running a small business as a sole trader (not food related) and I helped her to build the website etc. It took time, everything takes longer than planned.

Citrus_8

https://www.revenue.ie/en/starting-a-business/index.aspx

https://www.thinkbusiness.ie/articles/how-to-start-a-small-business/

https://www.eurostartentreprises.com/en/business-advice/start-a-business-in-ireland-in-8-steps

These links may help if not seen yet.

mrslancaster

Find a good accountant as soon as possible, money well spent. They will advise on everything, business plan, cro & revenue registrations, vat, payroll & company taxes, filing obligations, banking/overdrafts/loans, employment law if you're hiring staff, advice on correct record keeping, gdpr etc. Solicitor for lease on premises & insurance broker for cover on premises/equipment/public liability etc.

Food premises need to register with HSE before opening & comply with fire safety & food safety law, haccp training etc, info on the FSAI website. As another poster said you might need planning permission if the premises you find is not already operating for food. Marketing & web development. Theres a lot involved OP but you'll get there, best of luck.

Dempo1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117718158#Comment_117718158

I certainly wish you well but I fear trying to convert an existing retail unit into any type of food service business is extremely expensive and time consuming. Notwithstanding planning, Change of use permission and cost of fit out (€20k very ambitious) you've also got to ask yourself about location. A takeaway business needs to be central.

I had a Bistro in a very busy tourist location for several years back in the early 2000"s, I'm a chef so was able to use my experience and my physical working the business meant a substantial wage cost absorbed but I went without for a long time, I should say my premises had accommodation for one and that was a financial life saver in terms of no additional personal accommodation costs.

I also took over an existing more basic & awful type food business (coffee shop) but had a head start in terms of not having to worry about planning issues, but did have substantial development and upgrade costs. It took 18 months to develop a completely new upscale business.

At a minimum, I'd be looking for a unit that is already or was a food business and start from there. An accountant on board crucial at the start and then carefully deciding what your business model will be and menu on offer. Registration requirements also important to get sorted early, Health/Food safety , Fire, and insurances. Also do not forget rent is only one aspect of premises cost, rates etc have to be factored in.

Banking too and Payments systems need to be considered, it's a very tough business model for banks to support and keep in mind, setting up a business account is not as straight forward as setting up a personal account. Do not make the mistake of trying to operate a business via a personal account, your accountant will explain the reasons why.

Do not make the error of offering too much variety, Focus on less and focus on quality and in this day and age, delivery options may have to be considered, packaging and system set up can be expensive to set up initially.

Be under no illusions on not only costs of set up but expect no profit for up to two year, if you've done your projections and can cover your costs with Conservative projections for 2 years you have a chance of success. A simple trick I did was forecast for less days you actually intend to trade weekly, get all your projected annual costs, devide them into monthly, weekly, daily on a spread sheet, put in a projected turnover, you'll have peak and quite times and expect to be in red for some months, at end of year if your breaking even or achieving small loss on projections that positive, as you develop the business the idea is to achieve profitably moving forward.

Unless you have the resources and indeed the confidence with experience any food business very, very difficult to succeed in but with a unique offering and quality you have every chance to succeed.

Just a final thought based on your menu ideas, have you considered a Food Van set up rather than full commitment to an expensive Retail unit 🤔 whilst there are still costs, permissions etc needed, it would seem to me a lot cheaper to set up. I know some very successful food concepts that started this way and now have very successful franchise businesses.

Good luck

FrankC21

Thank you all for wonderful input, we're also thinking of a food van/truck as we don't see any around main town centres.

Questions:

*If we do run a food van/truck, how does the permit works? If permit is granted, Can we just park anywhere within a boundary or just one specific spot?

*I googled restaurants and takeaways around our area and there's about well over 60 restaurants including the main fast food chains, is it saturated, that's a lot of competitions, to give you the exact idea its in Drogheda.

FrankC21

I was reading about food truck/van around the Internet in Ireland, came under casual trading license and reading through it the county council bye laws, I can only set up at a casual trading pitch designated by the council and there's isn't much space mainly near the seaside and most of them spots have already been filled.

mrslancaster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117738057#Comment_117738057

Maybe food markets in different areas instead of a fixed site? If you prepare food at home for resale theres strict rules on that too. https://www.fsai.ie/food_businesses/starting_business/home_business_food_stall.html

FrankC21

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117738289#Comment_117738289

Hi,

Yes I read about that, if we do use our kitchen at home for food preparation it needs to be at a certain standards.

We are still trying to weigh the pros and cons between a fixed spot opposed to mobilising around food markets, events and festival.

I've contacted IOMST in regards with casual trading and they can only give me limited advice as I am not a member. They said to contact the county council for designated casual trading areas and there's a big chance that there are already existing businesses operating and if that's the case we will go into waiting list, unfortunately it might take a couple years until we get a spot, no way.

So he suggested to go privately into markets, events and festivals, no licensing needed just liability insurance and health & safety permit to operate. Our concern with this is having consistent customer, if we have a fixed spot/takeaway we'll have a higher chance of getting consistent/regular customers opposed to food truck/van/stall going around food markets, events and festival.