I have found another investor to help with the funding of my takeaway. YAY.
I have had a few problems getting my takeaway up and running, I won't bore you all with the on goings of money but it is a big problem.
To open any type of business you have to have money behind you, not a few hundred you need a few thousand and this is something that I don't have.
In the UK most small business fail in the first 2 years of opening and this is due to them not having the money to stay open.
I have talked to a lot of people who own takeaway and they have all told me the same, as well as the capital to buy you need money to fall back on just in case.
A guy who I know told me the first 3 months of him opening he didn't take any profit, in fact he was operating at a loss and this was putting a strain on him as he had to borrow funds.
The great thing about been in the industry I am in there is a lot of people to talk to and give advice and if you meet the right people they will also help you as much as they can.
A guy has come forward and told me that he would like to help, this isn't free but it is worth taking up the offer.
He has told me that he will put an extra £10,000 in to my takeaway but at a price, I have to give him the money back (which is a given anyway) plus he wants 15% of the takings we make weekly.
You have to remember for me to save up that kind of money doing what I am doing right now I wouldn't get far, in fact it would take me about 5 years to save and that is too long to wait.
I have worked in many takeaways doing different jobs, from driving to cooking and they can be little gold mines if you reach the right ordinance.
I know a guy who bought an already trading shop that was taking £500 per week, the shop was failing big time and it had less money coming in than the amount for bills and wages.
He took over the shop and invest his time and money into making something great for himself, he is now taking over £5000 a week in cash, so he is doing something right.
When I was looking at his books and seeing what he had changed there was a few things that he had done.
One was change the price of every item in the place, why?
Well the last owner had not looked at pricing properly and was again taking a loss on items that could have made him money.
The last owner was scared to do this as he thought by putting his prices up would scare a way the last few remaining customers that he had already.
what this did was bring more customers in as they thought to them selves you pay cheap you get cheap.
he did however change his supplier too, this gave better products to sell on his manu and this was a better choice.
I sometimes think that some people get stuck in a rut and don't know how to climb out of it, and this is a shame.
I also worked at another take away a few years back and something that I told the boss to do would have changed his profit margin for the better. he didn't and 8 months later he sold his shop to another guy that I know.
I told him to up sell products, he told me that he didn't need to up sell anything as the items spoke for themselves.
When I worked at burger king at the age of 17 they taught me the key to making more money and it was worth the training that I took.
Up sell. what is up selling,
example.
would you like to make your burger a meal?
would you like your regular meal large?
would you like onion rings with that order?
These 3 things made a big difference to our taking per week.
Sometimes people come into a shop and don't even know what they want, you already know what you want and that is the customers money, so we have to ask questions to make the most of them been there.
For instance a burger costs £3 but you can do them a meal at £3.99 this is a pound more, you want to go large for an extra £0.50 this is an amazing thing to ask as a large meal doesn't cost the world for us to do and make a big difference on your profits.
Onion rings cost pence to buy and even cheaper to make yourselves this is an extra £1 for 8 rings, OMG something that cost me £0.15 to buy I have now made £0.85 profit.
can you see where I am going with this?
Now I am really close to buying and owning something that I have always wanted, I have got a couple of guys in place to help me in my journey, I have some funding and knowledge that I need to make this a great takeaway.
Now my biggest investor has asked to see my menu, Oh, I said, as I looked at the ground, I wasn't prepared for that question.
The menu really is in the making, I have ideas coming out of my head and at night I can't sleep because other ideas come in and keep me awake.
I have paper all over the house where I have took notes, I have also got to take into consideration my business partner siamak as he is going in to this 50/50 with me.
Now the goal is to open buy july at the latest as this gives us enough time to get things in place, my investors seem happy with this too.
It all takes time but good things come to those who wait.
I will keep you informed
