Operational set up tips...

So depending on what sector your business is in, it will affect what you have to do in order to set up your business.

When first thinking about setting up your business, you have probably thought about the channel through which you will sell. For example, you may be thinking about buying a shop to sell form. However, as most small businesses do not have the investment behind them to do so, you may be more likely to set up your business from home and sell over the Internet or directly to people at markets, or door to door. Although this may seem like a simple enough idea you must be aware of any licenses that you may need in order to sell from your home. You do not want to just start making money - when trading standards find out you are selling your products without a license and shuts you down.

When first starting to set up your business, the first thing I would recommend you do is to look up on the Internet whether you need any licenses. I found the trading standards and my council websites very useful for this. As I am a food business working form home I had to call the council and register my home address with them as a food premises. This is so that the council know everyone who is preparing and selling food in order to make sure that they are sticking to environmental health legislation. When I registered with the council, they sent me lots of booklets about everything I needed to know about how to properly run a safe and successful food business. My council then gave my name to trading standards who also registered me and also gave me some information. All of the information I received form these agencies has been extremely useful and has given me a lot of guidance on what to do.

Another thing that businesses should look into is insurance. I have public, product and employee liability insurance. If you search for small business insurers you can get good deals for while you are setting up and still a small business. This is an extremely important part of a food business and whenever I go to fayres or markets to sell my products I am asked to show the organiser my insurance details before I am allowed to start selling.

It is really important that you ensure that you have everything covered beofre you start selling your products. If you are ever in doubt, talk to your local council or trading standards about what you need to do - remember they are there to help you!

Unique Selling Points

Once you have decided what you want your business to be, you need to work out what will make your business different - or better than your competitors.

There are many catering companies and bakeries out there but there are a number of things that we have done to make us different from our competitors.

Many members of my family suffer from Coeliac disease. This means that they cannot eat any gluten. Gluten is in loads of foods - anything made from flour - cakes, breads, pasta, pastries - anything malted - malt vinegar, beer, horlicks and anything that uses flour in the making of it - chocolate (used to line moulds) and ready made sauces.

As you can see this means they have a lot of restrictions on their food. Coeliac disease is becoming increasingly diagnosed and as people become more health conscious, gluten free products are becoming more sought after.

Because of this we make a lot of gluten-free foods for people who otherwise wouldn't be able to have things such as cakes and breads. This is a real selling point of our business as it attracts many people who can't eat gluten.

Me and my mum are also vegetarians and we produce a lot of vegetarian foods which is another important selling point of our business.

Another selling point of our business is our Mobile Bakery. This is a mobile catering trailer that we take to people's homes when they have events. This is something really  different and makes a party a really unique. It also means we can take our trailer to markets or car boot sales to sell our products.

All of these things make our business slightly different from our competitors, and our unique selling points help us to attract more customers. We have played a lot on our own individual strengths such as making gluten free foods and vegetarian foods which we have gained from our own personal experiences. This is a really important point as you should use your own personal experiences and strengths to find what will make your business better than your competitors. By using your own personal experiences within your business you will be able to stand out from your competitors and your business will be more likely to succeed.  

Thanks for reading,

Emily x

Find out more about our Mobile Bakery

Do something you love...

... or at least not something you hate! 

Cooking has always been a really important part of my family life and me and my mum would spend hours cooking, baking and creating any time we had spare time. I love working on Emily's Catering as it means I get to do all the things I love everyday and best of all I get paid for it!

As Paolo Nutini says - "If you love the life you live then you'll get a lot more done"

This sounds such a simple concept but it is so easy to fall into something you dislike!

Remeber, just becasue you are good at something, it doesn't mean its what you love. For years and years I was a dancer - I would go to dance lessons every night of the week, I would teach classes and I would perform in shows. Although I had fun with my firends and the prasie I would get after a show was great - I would dread the rehersals for competitions and larger scale shows and I would never look forward to practises which seemed more like a chore than something I loved. Once I realised this - I stopped dancing. It was very strange going from something I did every day to not doing it at all but I have not missed it since and I am glad to not have that dreading feeling any more!

The important thing to remember is that you can change your circumstances if you end up doing something you don't like. This can sometimes be hard to do but the rewards are well worth the efforts.

I knew that I wanted to go to university when I was at sixth form and I knew the sort of area I wanted to go into but I wasn't exactly sure of the course I wanted to do. I looked into everything within the hospitaliy and events sector and I evetually ended up doing Events Management becasue I thought I would love to organsie weddings. I have always been interested in weddings becasue I used to watch tv shows about wedding cakes (which were the real things I was intereseted in) and I am also a very organised person so thought I would be good at this. However, when I arrived at the course, it was based much more on concerts and sports events which I had absolutly no interest in!

I soon started to really hate the course and I started going to less and less lectures. I realised that I would not be able to finish the course as the thought of another 3 years doing it filled me with dread. I found that I had again gone into something becasue I thought I would be good at it rather than becasue I liked it.

I did not want to re-start my time at university as this would be too expensive for me so I looked into transferring to another course. I knew people from my Sixth Form that went to the University of Porstmouth so I ordered a prospectus and found the hospitality course there which seemed a lot more suited to what I wanted. I organsied a meeting with the head of the course and an agreement was made that if I completed my first year doing Events Management then I could transfer to my second year at Portsmouth to complete my studies.

I was over the moon and I completed my year then moved to Portsmouth. I am so glad I did this! I have fitted in brilliantly here and I really feel that this is the right course for me. If I had not come here, I would not have set up my business and I would propbably have left university.

The point of this is that I have always loved cooking and baking. I have always known this. It was not until I made the effort to look at courses that I would enjoy rather than ones that I thought I would be good at, that I found something tha

t I could see myself doing as a career.

Now I am doing my catering business I want to work every day, and I am so excited about the whole process. As I am doing something I love, I look forward to all aspects of my business - I love not only the fun cooking and creating side, but also making websites and more technical things like the finances which I am sure not many people can say about their work! 

If there is something you really love then you should actively seek out a path that will allow you to go into this area. This could be hair and beauty (you could get qualified to do home visits to cusotmers), writing (write a book, self publish it and sell it on amazon) or computer games (make an app for a smart phone and charge for advertising space).

If you do something you love then you will get more done! If you think you can make a business from something you love then try it. It is much better to try than end up doing something you don't like.

Thanks for reading,

Emily x

My Website

Setting up your own small business...

Hi everyone,

My name is Emily and I will be using this blog to talk about setting up your own small business. I am a part of Emily's Catering and I will be using my experience of setting up this business to talk about how I went about the process and hopefully giving you some helpful tips along the way.

I am currently a student at the University of Portsmouth studying Hospitality Management which I love. I have always been very passionate about cooking and baking and I have always wanted to have a job in this area.

As a part of my course all student have a year out to work in the industry to gain some vital operational knowledge of the industry which should really help everyone when they come out of university. I thought that this would be the ideal opportunity to set up my own catering company as I would have a year to put all my efforts in full time to the set up and running of this business.

I will be using this blog to talk about all the things that happened before the set up, during the set up and while I am running to help others set up what ever business they want and hopefully offer some good tips too.

If you have any questions then please feel free to post a comment and I will try and help as best I can!

Thanks for reading,

Emily x

My Website