Starting Up A Fast Food Business! Eating On The Move Has Rarely Been As Popular And It Can Be A Rewarding Vocation .
Producers No Comments »It’s interesting to look at the French attitude towards food in general and especially the Glorious French Luncheon of the preceding number of decades. Your average Frenchman of a couple of years ago was not the type to take a floppy , curling sandwich back to his office desk when lunchtime came around and munch it down in short order before continuing with his work. Nor would he be likely to dash down to the burger van and come back chewing a gob full of gristle with onions and then knuckle down to spend the rest of his lunchtime playing a web based PC game before he went back to his day job .
Lunchtime, and often every mealtime in the France of a number of years ago was a revered time. Lunch would last for hours and nothing would get in the way of Le Grand Cuisine. Finances would not be an object , three courses, wine, delicate desserts and fine cheeses and an excellent coffee would be de rigueur , not an occasional treat.
Even in La Belle France these days have rather sadly gone and now it looks like we are all into the realms of Fast Food, like it or lump it. But whether you actually like it or really hate it there is plenty of scope to make a living out it! Most people are busy nowadays and while this may be the decade of the TV celebrity chef , how many of us really do follow through the recipes on Masterchef for our working lunch ? Not a lot I venture to suggest!
Franchises are quite popular as fast food businesses as the Franchise For Sale market will bear witness to . There are a lot of Franchises on the Franchise For Sale market that are generally to do with supplying or providing fast food and snacks and it looks like the Home Based Franchise format is especially suited to fast food. A good example here is Charisnack which is a Home Based Franchise that supplies healthy snacks to retailers and claim that there is “no experience required” to run this franchise. Right now the products retail at a little under a pound each, so not an expensive sale then. Also, and most importantly , they will find your customers for you. If you are similar to me and find the prospect of cold calling dozens of businesses to get sales a little bit daunting then this may be one for you. It’s not an expensive franchise either, currently asking £9950 + Vat on a part time basis.
A Fast Food business can be set up on another basis rather than a following a Franchises format as any roadside lay by will tell you. Opening a mobile burger business , if done properly , can bring you in a substantial ongoing income. There are a few rules to be observed though. You are not exempt from HSE(Health and Safety Executive) or HACCP (Hazard Analysis And Critical Control Point) rules , just because you’re a mobile catering business. Amongst other things this means having at least one basin for just washing hands and maybe others for food preparation, amongst a pile of other conditions. A good start is the Nationwide Caterers Association as they have a lot of information available for free. There is information there about finding your spot, catering for organisations and finding out about opportunities within the mobile catering business generally .
Possibly a more expensive option is setting up in your local neighbourhood in a retail premise based enterprise . Having said that you don’t have to move around and you have a more stable business . It remains to be seen what type of fast food business you decide to start though, and an idea I have often thought about is to start a business around savoury food spiced with chillies. Nobody knows exactly why but British men, after a few drinks need to indulge their burgeoning appetite by stuffing themselves full of meat or vegetables flavoured with chilli. Now a business purely based around chilli flavoured meals on a take away basis should appeal specifically to this sort of customer and since chillies exhibit an addictive property then you should get loads of repeat customers! All the best with your fast food business ideas.