Sandwiches
I don’t usually cover food related businesses because you will more than likely need to get a license, may need to be inspected by food inspectors, and can easily get sued if someone gets sick after eating something you sold them. Having said that; a license is not that hard to get (especially if you don’t need a liquor license), and you can implement quality controls to ensure that your food will not poison your customers.
Look around any business or shopping district in the world and you will find restaurants and snack vendors, the concept of selling something cheap and convenient to eat is at least as old as money and probably pre-dates it. If you need any more convincing then look at www.sirivatsandwich.com/history/history_eng.asp , hopefully you will be as motivated as I was when I heard Mr Sirivat speak a few years ago.
If you decide that this is the business for you, I would start by understanding what it takes to get a license. There may be different licenses for street vendors than for restaurant owners and you will want to know how long the process takes, whether you need any specific qualifications etc. Remember that qualifications are never a barrier when you are starting a business, simply employ someone with the right qualifications or take them on as a partner.
The worst part about this business at the start is that you will need to get up very early to make the sandwiches, and even if you don’t make them yourself the chances are that you will need to supervise them being made. If it is just you selling then you will probably be able to get away with getting up an hour earlier and starting to sell at breakfast time, just before people go to work, and then again at lunchtime. This makes the sandwich business ideal for people like students and stay at home mums and less ideal for those of us with normal business hours. You can of course hire help for the selling part if your hours do not allow you to maximise sales.
If you want to avoid the early starts then another option is to run a “Subway” type model where your customers choose the ingredients and you manufacture the sandwich in front of them. You will be able to serve fewer customers and will require a cool display cabinet to do this, but you may also be able to charge a premium.
Once you have your licenses and are able to sell you have the following options: -
Open a stand/stall in a fixed location
Drive between locations
Sell to existing snack bars and restaurants
Open a shop
If you have a great location in mind, such as the car park on a large industrial estate, or the corner of a main shopping area, and there is no reason not to operate there then go for it. You may find that once you pitch up there is not as much business as you first thought, or that there was a reason you hadn’t identified earlier not to operate there, hence the lack of competition. This is not a problem, simply move to another location, make sure that you have a list of places to pitch before you start.
Another option that I have seen work well in the UK is to have a truck or van fitted out for selling the sandwiches and to drive from location to location. This works well in a dense environment such as an industrial park where you can switch locations every 15-20 minutes. As long as you keep the same schedule every day people will soon get into the habit of coming out to you.
KFC started out when the original owner of the recipe Harlan Sanders sold his famous fried chicken to restaurants on a consignment basis. He earned something like 5c for every piece of chicken sold and the restaurant kept the additional profit. You can replicate this by offering to supply to existing businesses. Many small outlets that specialise in drinks outsource their food requirements to a central kitchen. If you can persuade the owners that you have the appropriate set up and quality controls then there is no reason not to pitch for this business.
The first thing that most of us think of when we think sandwiches is a sandwich shop. The likes of “Pret a Manger” and “Subway” prove that the model works and is sustainable, but equally the moment you open a store these are the guys you will compete with. My advice would be to scale a mobile model before considering a shop, but if you have experience in the catering trade, understand how to control key costs etc then a chain of sandwich stores may be the answer for you. As an indication setting up a Subway in Taiwan costs about US$100K all in before you start paying royalties to the Franchise owner, and you will not retire off of the profits from one store.
You can start literally by buying your stock at the supermarket. You will increase profits of course as soon as you move to a wholesale outlet such as a cash and carry and this will be more convenient in terms of sourcing professional packaging etc.
As you grow you will want to source your own packaging consistent with your brand, and you will probably start to contact bread distributors etc to ask for direct deliveries and bulk discounts. This can all be done in stages, the first steps are to identify your market and prove that you can make sales. Even buying stock at retail prices you will make money by selling the finished sandwich, and you can eat the leftovers which will save you money on food!
When you buy your stalls/stands/vans or shop fittings you don’t need to buy new. There are plenty of failed operations out there selling their equipment for a fraction of the new prices. Keep your eyes open and your ear to the ground.
If you plan to make the sandwiches first thing in the morning then don’t leave them sitting around un-refrigerated until lunch time
There is no point opening this business if it is just to earn an income (or extra income) for yourself. The work is not exciting and you will have to deal with copy cat operators and other frustrations which would probably make it a short lived operation. If you take a leaf out of Mr Sirivat’s book though you will set yourself up so that you can run multiple outlets and leverage other people’s labour to maximise your profits.
Whether you choose a mobile or fixed location model think about branding. Have your employees wear a uniform, paint your stands, or vans the same colour etc. Make sure that you are visible and recognisable.
This is a competitive business because the barriers to entry are minimal. Other operators will turn up on your pitches, or open next door to you. Make sure that you focus on keeping your costs low and processes smooth and you will outlast them.
Don’t miss out on deliveries to offices etc. Drop leaflets regularly at office receptions or pay someone to do this for you. Some occupations such as equity traders are unable to leave their desks at lunchtime but still need to eat.