Finding Business Premises

Whether the premises for your catering business are to be open to customers or just a kitchen for outside catering its location is important. Before leasing or purchasing the business premises you must consider carefully if the premises are suitable for your business plans.

Before You Start to Trade

Are your commercial premises licensed for the type of catering trade you intend to pursue? Have you notified the environmental health department of your local council that you are starting a catering business?

You must do this within twenty eight days of commencing trading. Speak to your local authority about any other licences you may need before you start trading.

Location

If your commercial premises are to be open to the public you need to consider whether you will attract passing trade. What about parking? It’s no good having superb premises if your clients cannot park up before visiting you.

If your catering business requires a kitchen and you are working out of commercial premises you still need to know that it is near to where you will be delivery the food. It will be very expensive, both in transportation and staff costs, if you are many miles away from your customer base.

Size

Start as you mean to go on and rent or purchase the right size of business premises. If it is too small you will find that it will hinder your staff and hold back business expansion. There again a too large property can be costly to run both in rent and lighting and heating.

There must be room for staff to change their clothes and for them to use the bathroom and be able to wash themselves. Storage space must be adequate for cold, frozen and fresh items. The building must also be capable of being kept clean.

Mobile Unit

If you are catering from a mobile kitchen or unit it must also be kept scrupulously clean and have similar facilities for storage and preparation of food stuff.

Neighbours

If your business premises are close to houses you must consider whether it is suitable for the type of catering trade you intend to provide. Delivery trucks, your own vehicles and the coming and going of customers could cause problems both for the resident’s access to their homes and cause noise problems. Remember also that local residents could become your customers and to annoy them would lose you vital custom.

Established Commercial Premises

There are agencies that specialise in business premises for catering businesses. By giving them details of the area you wish to trade from they will email you details of properties that are on the market. By purchasing either empty business premises or a business already trading you can find out if there are any problems with the location by visiting the premises and also speaking to the local council officers.

Upkeep

Whether you rent or purchase your business premises check the building for possible maintenance work that requires undertaking. If you are renting the premises check who is responsible for the upkeep and try to have this done before you start trading. To have to undertake maintenance work while you are trading can be unhygienic and also disrupt your business.