Planning Your Business Effectively

Starting your own business is an incredibly exciting time, especially if it is an avenue that you are passionate about, however the preliminary stages can be quite daunting as there is a lot of information that needs to be documented before anything else happens. There will need to be a formal business plan presented to the bank and/or councils to acquire the funds and licenses so, to ensure that you have everything you need, this guide aims to provide a brief overview of what needs to be included.

Executive Summary

This is the very first part of your business plan and will include what your vision is for your business, for example, if you have a coffee shop design in mind, this is where you would explain your reasons for opening a coffee shop at the premises you have chosen. It is a good idea to state if there is a specific area of interest near your chosen site, for example, a shopping district or a college or university which will allow repeat custom; you will go into this in more detail later in the plan but it is a good tactic to mention it briefly at the beginning of your plan. In this summary, include the site size, the length of the lease, start up funds and how the remaining capital is going to be funded and how you expect your company to grow in the next 3 years in revenue and net profit.

After the brief opening statement, state a minimum of three key objectives that you wish to achieve in your first year of your business along with a list of how you are going to achieve those objectives, i.e turn profits in the first month by maximising sales through aesthetics and marketing strategies.

Products

This section is incredibly important as it is the very crux of your business - the products that will bring in your revenue and build your profits. So, if you are looking to begin a cafe business, you menu would be in this section along with a list of ingredients that will be needed and any merchandise that will also be sold on site. It  is essential that you go into depth about your products, including how to prepare them, for example, if you are looking to open a coffee shop, explaining how the temperature of the milk is important to making the perfect latte shows that you are serious about the business idea because you have done extensive research.

Competition

Knowing and understanding your competition is what makes a business successful. As a business owner, it is important to display in your business plan your awareness of other similar businesses around you but also what gives your business the edge over them. If you are a small coffee shop in the same vicinity as Costa, what gives you the edge over this well-established coffee house? Why would customers rather come to you? Tackling these obstacles is important as it shows that you have considered all angles to make your business a set above the rest.

How the Right Catering Equipment Can Save Your Restaurant Thousands

Restaurants tend to be inefficient in terms of their energy use. They frequently use more energy than is necessary, and this reflects in the cost of their gas and electric bills. Consequently, they have raised overheads and a reduced net profit.

Fortunately, you can buy commercial catering equipment that will help to save the restaurant money. Installing the below mentioned equipment, could save you as much as £10 a day. Over the course of a year, this amounts to savings of £3650, not bad.

•Induction cookers: ask your commercial catering equipment services supplier if they can replace your existing cookers with induction cookers. These are the most energy efficient on the market, so well worth the cost in the long run.

•Freezer and fridge draws: when you open a traditional freezer or fridge, you let out a lot of the cold air and allow the heat in. This means that the equipment needs to work harder to return to base temperature. If you are constantly opening and closing the fridge and freezers, this equates to a lot of lost energy. Instead, you should choose equipment that allows you to open one section at a time, for example, freezers that have separate door compartments. It is a well-established technique, within the catering industry, to use such a piece of equipment.

•Programmable equipment: rather than using equipment that you manually change each time that you do something different, you can choose programmable equipment. This enables you to use the item solely for the job, and not to leave it running while it is redundant.

•On-demand boilers: these are far more efficient than older style combination heaters. They allow you to use energy only when required, rather than maintaining a constant temperature.

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Commercial Kitchens: Choosing the Right Equipment

When it comes to buying equipment for your commercial restaurant, it’s important that you make the right decisions. The wrong decisions at this stage can prove extremely costly. Don’t worry, though, because there is a method involved. Below, you will find the various steps involved in choosing the correct type of equipment for your kitchen.

Step 1 Suitability:

The first thing you need to think about is the type of task that you need to commercial kitchen equipment to do. This might sound obvious, but when it comes to commercial kitchen equipment, it isn’t as simple as it sounds. Take an oven. In your home, your oven will probably only have one or two settings, e.g. grill and fan-assisted. However, a commercial oven will perform many more roles. Before you choose your equipment, sit down and work out what food you are going to be cooking, and the best way in which to cook this food.

Step 2 Reliability:

Once you have established which type of equipment you need, you will now need to choose a manufacture that makes reliable equipment. If you have any past experience with a supplier, then you can think about how they performed in the past. Was the equipment reliable? Did it require frequent maintenance? Did it have parts that needed replacing often?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, then use the internet to search for a good brand. You need to take a holistic approach and find opinions from many sources, not just from the manufactures own sites or reviews.

Step 3 Budget:

Now, you can start to think about budget. Can you afford the item that you need? If not, it may be worth trying to source second hand equipment. Alternatively, you may be able to come to an arrangement with the manufacture/supplier. If not, you could choose a smaller size, or opt for a similar item from another supplier.

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Creative Catering In The Perfect Kitchen

There are several Victorian stately homes owned by the National Trust and open to the public that have re-created a kitchen as it would have looked during that era.

All the implements that were used are there and it all comes to several hundred pieces with some that even today nobody has a clue as to their use. These were kitchens that would cater for a family of a dozen or so but also feed weekend parties of perhaps a hundred.

The kitchen was designed around a central table for preparation and a large open fire to cook over with a big walk-in pantry as well as other storage.

Modern catering kitchen design also needs plenty of preparation and storage facilities but certainly no open fire as electricity and gas have made cooking so much easier and quicker.

Garners have been designing and building commercial kitchens as well as serving areas and all other restaurant areas for decades and bring that experience to help design new establishments as well as refurbishing old ones.

The type of restaurant has a big bearing on the design of the kitchen as there is clearly a difference between a fast food takeaway and an a la carte waiter service. Equally a works canteen with self-service or counter-service will need extra hot cabinets and good lighting along the counter.

The design of the catering area has to be based upon the smooth and logical flow of raw ingredients to return of used dishes and cutlery. But in the end it has to come down to the professionalism of the service and not many of us return voluntarily to a restaurant where this aspect of the business is left wanting.

Always leave kitchen design to a professional company unless you are highly experienced with plenty of hands-on experience of working in a commercial kitchen.

With current computer programs specifically intended to help design the commercial kitchen it is possible to construct an on-screen three dimensional picture of the finished article and play around with a few changes if it’s necessary.

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Huge Solar Powered Commercial Kitchen

India boasts the world’s largest solar powered commercial kitchen at one of its universities capable of providing up to 38,500 meals a day.

That’s a lot of cooking and dishwashing as well as being an amazingly complicated build project. The cooking pots are usually 200 or 400 litre capacity and presumably the ladles are huge.

Some commercial catering equipment UK companies have been involved in large projects but I doubt any have been approached to handle anything quite that big. The power comes from 84 dishes that look like massive TV ones seen on rooftops but at a little over nine square metres each and the very latest in solar technology they are clearly hundreds of times more expensive.

Commercial catering equipment is never cheap but it has to be made to an exacting standard with the best materials to withstand the constant use it takes. Unlike your home kitchen the commercial kitchen is a fulltime place of work for perhaps several people and in the case of that huge solar powered restaurant in India perhaps hundreds.

One of the trickiest parts of designing a large kitchen is making it accessible to all the various chefs and helpers without a situation where they’re tripping over each other.

With good kitchen design this is all known as the flow from goods inwards to waste removal and washing utensils. Somewhere along the line the customer must be served delicious hot food. Proper dining with waiter service and sit down three or four course meals requires a lot of work although it can be very rewarding when you get it right.

A handful of chefs just get the formula working to perfection and we can all probably think of a few chefs that have sold that formula in the way of franchises leaving them more time to appear on their own television shows.

Garners have fitted kitchens for a variety of businesses and institutions from private restaurants to large works canteens including some for those dining at Her Majesty’s pleasure.

For commercial catering equipment UK  please visit Garnersfse 

A Brief Overview of Commercial Catering Equipment

If you’re planning to run a commercial restaurant, then you will need to buy commercial catering equipment. Now, it may feel as if we’re teaching you something that you already know, but you would be surprised to learn just how many restaurants rely on the same type of equipment that you'd find in a home; in a commercial kitchen, you need commercial catering equipment. Here, we’re going to explain a little more about commercial-grade kitchen equipment.

Commercial Kitchens Just Leave It To The Professionals

All of us that own our homes and love cooking will have dreamed at one time or another of having an unlimited budget to rebuild and furnish the kitchen.

My own favourite improvement would be the latest work services that have adjustable height capability. All work tops including sinks and ovens are designed to suit the height of an average person of presumably about five foot eight or nine.

Expensive adjustable height kitchens would make life a great deal more comfortable for shorter and taller people.

Designing your own private kitchen is one thing but Commercial kitchens are not for the amateur home cook.

You need to be a thoroughly experienced professional when it comes to commercial kitchens and restaurants. A huge amount of planning has to be carried out from the concept to the installation and then from that to operational maintenance.

A commercial kitchen apart from needing the best and latest equipment has to have a smooth flow from goods in to washing and waste out. Flow is the key word and from the beginning of the design the experienced planner will demonstrate this with the known dimensions of the kitchen area and the latest architectural computer graphics.

Flow begins sometimes even before the goods in area. Good planners look closely at the approach to goods in from the roads outside. A basic error can be something as simple as a rear of establishment being in a cull de sac that does not have the space for the delivery truck to turn.

Something as simple as that can perhaps bizarrely have an effect on profits and in turn the success of the restaurant because the supplier will know it must send a smaller delivery van. Everyone in the catering business knows that suppliers often offer huge discounts on large deliveries and in this case the restaurant will not be able to take advantage of that.

Above all, a commercial kitchen must be a place that preparation staff and chefs must feel comfortable to work in so consult the professionals for all kitchen installation or makeover.

Something New and Different when it comes to Commercial Kitchen Design at GarnersFSE

Choosing a company to create ones dream should be an exciting time, one should be able to trust that the company he are choosing is going to have experience, knowledge and expertise within the area.