Sandwich Delivery
Scott Saunders
I asked last week for advice on starting a sandwich delivery business, and
thanks for your comments. I thought this would be a good first step to my
ultimate goal of opening my own cafe or sandwich bar because of the
experience I'd get preparing food, figuring out what people like to eat,
dealing with customers, managing a small business, etc. Also, I could work
out of my home (assuming that I set everything up correctly and it met
required standards) and there wouldn't be so much risk involved in terms of
the business not working out.
Am I going about this in the right way, or should I maybe focus on planning
my cafe and raising the money needed to start this, rather than start with a
delivery business? I don't have any experience with running a business,
dealing with food and I've never worked in a cafe or a similar place.
Do I start a delivery business mainly for the purpose of gaining experience,
or do I work in a sandwich bar for a while? Do I study for some kind of
catering course? What will prepare me for running my own place? I know that
I like food and would love to run my own business and specifically a
cafe/sandwich bar, but other than that I don't know much about the industry.
My girlfriend and I want to do this together, and potentially we could put a
good business plan together, but what bank manager is going to loan us money
if we don't have experience in the food business? We can hire people to help
us, but that is a cost that starting out we couldn't afford. Even if we had
the money from our own savings to open our own place, would we really know
what we were doing? We could learn but we'd have to get it right from the
start.
Thanks for reading and I'd appreciate your comments, especially if you've
been in a similar situation.
Scott
Mike Arnold
"Scott Saunders" >
My experience of sandwich businesses is that they usually fail very quickly
unless there is special selling point. It is almost impossible to beat the
supermarkets on price and to get reasonable volumes it is usually price you
need to compete on. The only successfull sandwich delivery business I have
come across in the last ten years started fairly big with half a dozen
employees and three delivery vans. They have at least doubled in size
since.
I deal with a lot of food business that start up and then fail. Often it
seems to me because the owners haven't got the right experience. Its not
just the food you have to produce but it has to be marketed and you have to
make a profit. I have to say its often a problem with pubs and you can
usually predict their downfall when you see the number of items on their
menu. Too many and it either means the food is fried/frozen (etc) and no
one wants to eat it or it tastes great but there is huge wastage.
So bottom line is to get that experience by training at a college, if
possible, but also practical experience in a successful business.
To give you some idea of the problems in starting a successful food business
in my area over 33% of the 600 food businesses change hands every year.
There is one pub that is inspected every 6 month and in the last 5 years or
so I have never seen a new owner more than once.
However many of the owners just like the idea of running a food business,
they don't actually know how to do so. Its not all doom and gloom though
because this means 400 of the businesses are at least doing OK. If you get
the training you may well be one of those that stays the course.
Mike
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> My experience of sandwich businesses is that they usually fail very quickly
> unless there is special selling point.
You might try looking into a franchise such as the one offered by Subway, or
dare I say copy their concept?!
Scott Saunders
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> Thanks, but I like to be original :)
Good for you, but dont try to reinvent the wheel.
Scott Saunders
quicker than standard "round" wheels.
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