- Cafe's are enjoying a bit of boom in the UK at the moment and research suggests that people choose convenience of location over brand of coffee they drink, but that overall the quality of the coffee is the most important factor, even more so than convenience.
- Anyone can start-up their own cafe, you don't need any specific qualifications. You must register with the local authorities and at some point you will likely be inspected for food hygiene at some point so it's a good idea to make sure you know HACCP procedures well, as well as for the safety of your customers, of course.
- The business is as much about cost control as it is about the quality of the food and drinks you sell. This means you need to be very on the ball about how much you are spending and be sure any money spent will go towards making profit.
A bit of simple information there but it all adds to build up the big picture I suppose!
There is a vegetarian deli business up for sale not far from my house so this afternoon I went over to have a chat about the ins and out of running the business and to make enquiries about how much they are asking for the place.
After a very tasty veggie burger I plucked up the courage to ask the owner about the sale of the business and what kind of prices and terms were involved. She was thankfully very open about the sale and told me the history of the place and how she had borrowed from the bank and her Dad to buy the leasehold of the place back in 2001, and with some free business support from a local service she set up shop without having worked in a deli before in her life.
She was also very honest about the business side of things and explained how the place wasn't doing very well at the moment due to there being another 3 cafes on the same stretch of road. She was very up-beat about it though, saying "I'm skint, but I'll never go hungry - look at all this great food I can take home with me!"
I've been to one of the other cafes on the road and it's a very nice place. Fronted by a huge window, it's very inviting from the outside and when you walk in you're in the middle of an art gallery showcasing a variety of local artists' work. The cafe itself has a clear, corrugated plastic roof so it feels very open and light for what is only really a small space and the food is excellent. One of the other cafes is quite a traditional looking tea and scones kind of affair, very cosy with table service. The last is a greasy spoon cafe, probably great at what it does but not the kind of business I'd like to run.
It was really good to actually speak to the owner, I think on reflection it's a little worrying to hear how she's struggling to run a business very similar to what I'd like to set up myself. There are definitely things I would like to do differently to her though and I'm very excited to see whether I could make it work.
