Is £5000 to Much To Pay For a Catering Pitch

by Emily

Firstly, I would like to say how much I have enjoyed reading your story and pass on my congratulations with your success!

My sister and I are hoping to start our mobile catering business but like when you started we have no experience of mobile catering or running our own business and unfortunately do not know of anyone personally we could ask even the very basics we are naive to.

We recently came across a catering van for
sale It is a P reg converted ambulance which seems to run ok and have all the equipment inside (as far as we know!) the owner has said he will also give us his 2 pitches on local markets with the van and is asking £5000 for it all. Do
you think this seems like a fair offer on the surface so far??

We both have our food hygiene certificates and from reading your story will definitely inquire
about the said pitches to confirm it will be legal to trade on these sites and also inquire about the gas and electric safety license. but we are not sure what the public liability license involves or any others licenses we might need
or anything else we may need to do or where to go to find all this out.

It all seems like a very daunting prospect for us at the moment but we are very keen to pursue it. Can you help at all will any further guidance and advice?



We Look forward to hearing from you!

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Oct 24, 2008
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starstarstarstarstar 		Some Things To Consider
by: Anonymous

Hi Emily,

Okay! I would suggest a few things to try and cover yourself as much as possible.

1) Speak to environmental health officer at the local council of where the pitches are located, make sure s/he is trading with the council permission.

2) Work with the trader for a week or more to see what his/her earnings are, and if it is worth it for you.Can you live on this amount okay...

3)Take into account any rent that you will have to pay(if any)

4)Why is she/he selling? is their a legitimate answer

5)Ask the local people to see if he has a good cooking reputation.I once worked at a site who the previous mobile caterer had given a few people food poising, so it was tough working there and trying to build up a good working relationship with potential customers.

£5000 is a good price for a pitch, if it's making money.Don't worry about the public liability insurance as this is usually straight forward to obtain.

Go with your gut instinct and don't rush your decision,I am not personally too keen on the ambulance part, because if you wanted to cater for other catering events this may limit your work potential(some places want an actual catering trailer, think longterm) but saying that if the pitch turns out to be lucrative you could always change the ambulance for a trailer at a later date.

Any way I hope this helps you out, let me know how it goes

all the best

David

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