How to start a food business - the practical stuff

welcome to the first ever virgin food fest guys thanks thanks for being here cramming into the doodle bar this morning my name is Ben and I'm going to be looking after you guys this morning and through the three panel sessions today with a brilliant set of people who are going to come and share all their tips and tricks around food startups I work with virgin startup as a business adviser and we run workshops every week and I've seen a couple of you before and every workshop we do have about 20 people coming in looking for loans and we run through the business planning and the finances and out of those 20 almost every week four or five a food startups so it's a big trend that we're seeing a virgin startup my history with food startups has been the main experience I had was living on a island in Fiji for five years and out there we lived off coconuts and we had Spears and we had a blackberry phone and we ran a an eco-tourism and restaurant business for five years that's where I learned my trade and the reason virgin startup has got going is because they really wanted to build a set of opportunities not just funding but mentoring as well and business advice for startups all around the country but there's a big scene going on in London which you're all part of the big figures which are which all is interesting the IgD UK food industry set is going to be worth two hundred and six billion in 2018 so it's a big jump since in the last years going up by 20 percent but at the grassroots where we're all working which is much more relevant virgin startup has given out over 200 loans to date since it starts at the end of last year average loan is 7,000 pounds but they go up to 25,000 pounds but the average loan going out 7,000 says one a half million pounds that's gone out as loans already the really interesting part of virgin startup I think is what happens after people get the loans so there's this brilliant match making dating algorithm which matches those that get the loans with mentors who you get 15 hours time with over 12 months they've already delivered over 3000 hours of mentoring time to startups that's really exciting plus all the PR blogging marketing opportunities that's spinning off and there's loads of loads of stuff happening now you guys are all involved or about start a food business so there's lots of time in between these sessions to connect with each other but the first panel this morning we've got three guys here who've got which I think probably reflect the three most important pillars of food civilization we've got finance legal and burritos so we've got Clovis is going to tell you about the money why how to do it and then we've got Nick who's from pancho eight number eight which is the burrito business which some of you may have tried and we've got John from nabarro which is a legal tips and tricks and I let these guys share their stories with you for a few minutes each and then you can all file loaded questions in their direction so Nick one of guys can you hear me okay so Mike working yeah so my name is Nick bucket I run a business called Pancho ate with my best mate Frank we have a chain of burrito shops across London and we think we do the best burritos in London we've got six shops and we're opening two more very soon one in Selfridges on Oxford Street and one in Canary Wharf we started in 2009 Frank started the business he went across America saw these amazing burrito bars and thought there was a gap in the market in London so he left his job at Goldman Sachs started the first one and then I joined them a few months later so we've been working together for about five years now we've now got a multi-million pound business we've got a team of about 80 people and the thriving brand and we love it so I was asked today to talk about he gets from taking it from idea through to inception but rather than just talking about a story I've had to think about the advice that I'd like to have been given when I was at idea stage and then break the audience down into the full types of people I think here and give specific advice as to what I will do next if I was in your position so I'll just scoot through the general advice first so if you are idea stage now we have a lot of people who come and see us and I just got an idea that's all I've got and I what I'd say to that is every business has started as an idea so don't think that you're different from anyone else so whether it's has to bloom and tile or gives you skin or whoever it is they all started at your stage I know what it takes to get it to the next level is to have confidence in yourself and to share your idea with as many people as possible I'm a big advocate of sharing things rather than keeping it to yourself the second thing I'd say is to just do something all too often you see guys who sit on an idea and maybe tell like their best mate but nobody else if you've got an idea for a fantastic briefs a brand then make some burritos take them out sell them give them to your friends get feedback the more feedback you get the more legs your idea has and the more will become a reality the next thing I think I'd say an almost most important thing is that the idea is quite important but the execution is essential and that comes back to sharing it with people and it comes back to getting feedback and doing something executions also based on incredible detail so the level of knowledge and detail that frankly I have over our business you know from the thickness of steel in the kitchen through to the car machine processing time through to the type of plastic you have to use on the different labels in the store was something really really built up and the more you know about the intricate detail of your business the better your execution will be and therefore the better you'll be relative to your competitors so I'd really focus on on execution be aware that you're going to make loads and loads of mistakes there's something that comes up in every one of these talks you ever go to and it sounds a bit right but relating it to something that Richard Branson says which he often talks about it's to protect your downside so at your stage now I'd really really recommend getting someone with experience behind you be it as an investor be as a board member or both and really listening to what they say because they'll save you loads of time and loads of money and they'll make you go faster we're all unique and different people but we're definitely all going to suffer the same problems in this industry so when you hear someone say I had this problem then listen to them write it down and the write a plan for how you're going to try and prevent your business suffering the same problem I find it really frustrating when we see people the early stage to give them advice we say make sure this doesn't happen and then they make it happen and they suffer from the same problem that we told them about and we've told them how they could avoid it it's really frustrating related to that focus on the important stuff again really as early-stage guys that come and see us they're always talking about the low gate or the brown colors or the name which is kind of fun stuff but it's not that important again I'd focus on the execution so how you going to get the product to the customer how you going to keep it at the right temperature how do you keep the experience perfect and then finally I'd come back to the kind of general thing that we always come back to it which is doing what feels right always you're presented with these new decisions that you're not quite sure how to handle and you can share your ideas as we said and you can ask people for advice but you've got to come back to what feels right and by doing that you build the business in your own vision and you build a business that you're happy to run so I'd really advocate that so there's a kind of general thoughts that I had and then to move quickly through the kind of four types of people I thought would be here so the first type I think it probably guys you haven't got an idea research but when I get into food somehow and for those guys I'd say again meet as many people as possible in the industry so be it buyers be it chefs peer business owners and spend time with everyone and then as you do that you'll find the niche that rings true with you and then support spend more time in that niche the second type of those guys they've got a million ideas but aren't quite sure which one to go with and for those guys I'd say write all the ideas down and pick the one that you think is your favorite or just pick one by tossing a coin and spend two weeks on it spend the full two weeks and if it feels right then keep going with it and if it doesn't then bench it forever probably and then work on the next one and eventually you'll find the idea that really keeps you up at night everybody gets you smiley and the third type are the guys that I've got got this idea like I really want to work on this idea but you're not quite sure what to do next and I go back to the general advice is to share the idea with as many people as possible and share it with experienced industry guys and take their advice but also ask them really specific questions so too often again people say what should I do next is a really broad question and you get broad answers back which aren't that useful much better to say to these guys look this might this is how much money I need this is how I'm going to raise it and this is my I'm plan what do you think about this you get specific answers back that can really Drive specific action which is really really useful and then the final type of person I think is probably are those guys that have got the idea and they know exactly how they want to execute it but I just haven't got any cash and almost that's the best position because there's loads and loads of money out there sometimes it's frustrating to try and find it but again I'd go back to it comes down to your confidence in your idea and it comes back to you really selling yourself and selling the idea and sharing it so going to meet as many people as possible if people are saying no to you that just not right for you but keep pushing through it keep sharing the idea I keep just doing something to move the idea forward so there's a kind of general advice and specific thoughts as to what you do next and then as a closing comment I was just going to say something that we do occasionally which we find really useful is we write down the kind of person we want to be when we're old definition of older subjective we use 60 and we say this is I want to be and then you work backwards from that as to what you should be doing now to get there and we find that that really helps they kind of push aside all of the day-to-day mini shows like you know my dog sale or the flat needs to clean or whatever you push that aside you focus on this is the major decision I need to make right now in order to get to my goal when I'm old so yeah there's my thoughts hi I'm John Finnemore I'm a senior associate a little firm named nabarro we're a really big law firm and we act for lots of really big clients but actually one of the really things that I'm particularly involved in and interested in is entrepreneurs and we do work for really early-stage startup companies so in the last five years we've done investments into 200 small businesses some of which you'll have heard of for instance greys are one of the people that we work with many years ago now a very big business the real food market who run the food market festival South Bank every Friday and Saturday it's one of our clients as well they came in through the entrepreneurs group so I've seen loads and loads of entrepreneurial clients come in with startup ideas and businesses and I spend a lot of time thinking about how I can do myself out of a job by saying you don't need a lawyer to do this so I thought I'd go through some of the key points now that you don't need a lawyer for the internet is a fantastic resource and if you as long as you use the right resources there you can avoid using even me the horrible expensive lawyer or even a high street lawyer the first tip I would give is incorporating a company that will protect you from a liability perspective against entering into contracts with other people so if you enter into it through the company it's the company that's liable if things go wrong and not you personally if you trade on your own you're a sole trader but using the company gives you that protection you can set up an incorporated company through companies house for I think ten pounds do not use a lawyer to do that for you they are challenging you a margin on their on that work do not use an incorporation agent do it yourself through Companies House if you don't know how to ring companies house they are incredibly helpful and if you say I haven't got a lawyer and I'm doing this myself they will help you the second is in terms of trademarks the same applies nabarro will charge you fifteen hundred pounds to do a trademark for you the reason we do that is because we give you our experience what you should and shouldn't do and we take the risk of things going wrong for you you don't need that you can do that trademark yourself online again the intellectual property office are incredibly helpful they know if you say to them I am NOT a lawyer please help me they will do that if you say I'm a lawyer please help me they will say no chance get lost so that's the distinction in the benefit you have is that the other thing I would say is contracts this is the thing that comes in to means my office from entrepreneurs most often I signed this contract and this person hasn't performed their part of the bargain we don't have a contract we just did it on email or he and I sat in a pub agreed the terms I delivered and now he's not paying me those are all really common scenarios and the thing I advice I would give you is educate yourself on that there are loads and loads of online resources that talk about do's and don'ts around any intervention contracts but we should always remember is this is the legal case of a cow in the 1800's a man wrote something on the side of a cow and agreed with someone that he would do something and the judge said yes that's enforceable is written on the cow we can't find the cow but it's enforceable because it was on there in the first place so remember that when you're agreeing to do things on emails when you're sending letters when you're talking to someone you're often in this in a process of creating legal relations that will lead to a contract so think very carefully about that get stuff written down and ideally get it signed the other thing in particularly in the food startup sector is to make sure that you're compliant with health and safety in the food regs there are loads of online resources that will take you through that do not instruct a lawyer to help you with it again the food safety agency will help you and they will guide you in terms of what you do and don't need to do to get the relevant licenses to trade and sell food the other thing I would also say when you're dealing with lawyers and dealing generally with legal relations is to make sure what you're doing you have evidence of keep records keep your emails I know it's easy to just put them in the deleted items and Gmail and forget about them but even the ones from the early days a key keep them because there may be useful to you there's loads of other things I could say but I think that kind of gives you a kind of overview of how to avoid instructing me if you do like we would like to instruct me I'm grateful but hopefully that gives you a bit of advice and how not see that's the that's probably the the cheapest and best legal advice I've ever heard thank you for that just before we come on to the money questions I'd love to love to see a show of hands people in ideas stage you haven't launched you're not selling yet any one of the ideas stage okay great those of you who have some kind of product or service and you start selling but you're really really early-stage first few months within twelve months great that's about half of you and those that are beyond that more than a year possibly got an employee or two and and beyond how many of you guys brilliant okay fantastic all right Clive let's hear hi good morning I'm Clive Lewis and I'm head of enterprise at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England of Wales and I'm going to give you my six tips for starting a business and we've already asked the question about how many of you think you are in business it is important to understand with HMRC that's in a revenue they say if you're trading with an X a Shinto prophet you're in business you need to do either a self-employment tax return or file accounts as a limited company if that's what you've done so if you're trading with an expectation to profit you're in business there's a tax implication from that right my six tips are my first tip back was something said earlier do research one of the hardest things for new business to do is to set the selling price of their products so you need to look around who your competitors are what they're charging and test your product test it against by using pop-up shops using markets any other way you can friends and family test your product to make sure that you really think you understand the market of where your place in it is that's point one number two do a business plan you may not need money but if you do want money finance you will need a business plan but more than that a business plan is very helpful for you to run your business and to measure how successful you're being against your expectations so if in a year's time you look back at your business plan and say oh that was funny I really thought I was going to sell that much in my first year in reality I've sold a lot less I've sold a lot more but it's useful as a guide as that warehouse successful you're doing point three ask yourself about finance and think about cash flow it ought to be the depressing accountant but most businesses a third of businesses that start cease within three years and the reason most of those cease is they run out of cash it's not because they're not making profits it's just their cash flow is against them so think about cash flow and do a cash flow forecast at least for the first two years to understand where you think the money is coming from and where is it going and the next thing then is if you think you need finance think about the types of finance you need do I need a a virgin start upload doing it more than that or what and you've got to think about the various types of finance other types of fineness may be more appropriate but certainly there I agree with vs B celery there's plenty of finance out there particularly if you've got a good credit history and that's important as well point five is keep good accounting records I would save my job with the Institute I run a small practice the one thing that drives me batty is when clients come along and they've got one bank account where they've got personal transaction and business transactions that doubles my fee because the time I take to sort out the business of personnel I could have it could be much easier of a business bank account keep track of your payments and receipts always know what your balance is and try and plot where you think it'll be in three months time people often go to a bank and expect a loan within a week backs take three four five six weeks to decide whether they want whether you could go to get finance so you need to be thinking at least two three months ahead if you think you're going to need finance so think about finance and think about records record-keeping vital because if you need to go to a bank they'll want to see accounts so again that helps with keeping accounts finally my sixth point in your particularly in your first year don't overreach yourself it's very easy to let your ideas run ahead of where you're actually at with your trade so try it and particular with our point of view of cash it's a don't try and go too fast too quickly keep your eye on the cash flow there's always another day to do something positive final piece of advice and you've heard how to do without a lawyer we we offer a version of that we in the Institute of Chartered Accountants have a scheme called the business advice service and we've got four thousand practices around the UK which will give a potential new business is a free advice session so that could be about tax it could be about whether to form a limited company it could be about who do you need to notify that you've started in business it could be payroll and employing people and I don't know what to do with a payroll it could be about auto enrollment our business of vice service is there it's free no commitment just go onto our website at the ICW find a chartered accountant you'll find a charter counter close to you you can go along and ask them the questions that are troubling you that's all thanks Clive six points off the top ahead that's impressive so this is great we've got professionals advising on how to get free services with them which is all very cheap which is which is brilliant and I guess we're in that lean startup world now and the question that I've got for you guys and then will will open up to everyone else is obviously there's a lot of advantages of just getting a ride ear out there and the food industry it's you know it's some of the most exciting space to do do lean startup because it's all about sampling and tasting but what mistakes can we avoid in this process when we're launching our businesses or what mistakes do you often come across or or maybe you've made Nick that that you've learnt from the most in terms of the lens does that one yeah or in terms of your own own experience yeah I think the the point that was made at the end is to keep it focused is really really valid and it's really hard to do in practice because you by the nature of being an entrepreneur you get well that's a good idea I'll at that one as well we open the shop in Soho a few years ago that completely tanked because we thought we'll do the alcohol market will do the evening as well and we lost hundreds of thousands of pounds and was really stressful and so particularly with food you can be so niche these days you look at what's happening in Japan I mean what's happening in New York people don't open full restaurants they open restaurants to just serve one dish and that's a really really good thing to do at the early stage is just to focus on one thing and you build a really much easy operational model then for you guys so you can reflect it but also the peer-to-peer marketing becomes a lot easier because you've become known as the guys that do acts so I really support clubs last point now is to really really keeping it focused and the way that you keep yourself in check with that is a personal thing so whether you have signs in the wall or whether you have diary notes or whatever whether your business partner just checked keeps you in check that's the hard bit that's the execution of it how did you with the mistake you made so how did you get through that and bounce back we well we knew it was going to work after about four days um which is bad so we had a really serious conversation and we said that this isn't going to work and we tried everything we I went to almost literally every door in Soho knocking on door saying this is what we sold you want to buy it no cool no cool and who did that a lot and then we just had to cut our losses and then actually what we got from it was when we and when the next round of investment came in they were really really pleased that we've gone through that because you're going to go through that that's one of the problems that you're going to have is to chop off an arm at some point and they like pleased that you've been through that now because you now know how important it is to make the right decisions of those stages so yeah it's pretty painful and legal mistakes actually ties onto points you've already made first is black and focus and second is detail if you have a lack of focus and are trying to do too many things you will lose an eye for the detail and often legal issues arise from not looking fully at what you're signing not thinking through fully what you're doing so apps that's the most common mistake I see is that there's been an eye has been taken off the ball because there's too much to do and something has been missed and that's often where the mistake comes from the examples that would be signing contracts signing leases licenses just thinking I've got to get this done and signing it and then buyer's remorse kicks in when you read would read the clause and you realize you're stuck with it for three years it that kind of thing does happen more often than you might think and it's it's key to spend a bit of time focusing on that on that detail which is the point to be made and would your advice also then be to try and shorten those contracts all those agreements trust trust try and limit liabilities that you're taking on in the early stages as much as you can in terms of periods of time in terms of quantities of orders of stock those sorts of things my advice will always be limited and read the detail make sure that you're not agreeing to buy 1000 cartons but also 25,000 Carson's in the small print great and then accounting mistakes um well I think we're having a violent agreement here I absolutely agree with the last two speakers I I know somebody who wanted to get into the food and business started by setting up a cafe um but she also wanted to run training cooking courses and um that unfortunately she did the cafe first the margins on it because of where it is a pretty low and she's really got too much time involved in the cafe I'm her training courses I got you a bomb and they're making real money but she cannot do enough of them to offset the money that's been sucked up by the cafe so I think it is keep your focus do one thing well to start with then think about the other things afterwards great I think one of the things I admire about everyone who works and runs a food startup is basically you have at least two jobs if you're a tech startup you're working online all day you can you can manage these other bits and pieces but you guys are working all day you know practically in the kitchen or out front and then you're also having to go into the office job afterwards so that means some of these things do get pushed down the thing that I've seen a lot of that's really helped all of us has been you know this these sort of online tools that you can use so especially accounting bookkeeping you know like zero and cash flow which have certainly helped me in all my startups as well so question time throw our hand up and I'll get you a mic hi my name is Erica Qatari and I've got a business that looks we've developed an alternative to the teabags quality sticks and it's a question for Nick and how did you define your customer profile have you how did you at first know what is the type of person you expecting your into your establishment to purchase food item is it is it the young generation is it the 30s is it how did you define that and how did you come up with your model I guess with us because we've got a physical side which is probably different from yours we look at we look at what we started by saying what's the market that we know I think as always the best place time so we knew City professionals so therefore you sell to them first because you know that but we knew that they wanted quick knowledge they wanted to spend 6 7 pounds they weren't quality ingredients they wanted friendly service for example so then you go where do they work ok what they work in the city and then where do we know within the city most specifically so we pick a spot and then from there you say ok what products are we going to serve within our the burrito idea to these guys and then we just looked at who's walking down the street so you go okay well Spitalfields you've got a mix of bankers and then you've got the kind of arty types and Brick Lane and you've got tourists there who are going to fill appeals as well and then you kind of develop the product to to fit those guys so I guess if you're doing tea sticks you're looking at what do I love doing what do I like about the tea stick which is the market that I know and then where did they buy their product so I guess if it comes down to as I say if it's a card oh because they're more about innovation and they're about thought-leaders buying new types of products so look at what you know and look at where those guys buy their product and then developed it develop it to see them hi my name is Andrew Sauter i'm and creator of a lifestyle sauce called must shop which is mustard and fresh tomato sauce with a bit of a kick slogan his ketchup for the big kids Nick I would like to ask you where did you get your investment from okay your mustard thing sounds cool we got the first round with some friends and family that's going around begging anyone who listen at the second round with some the same and then we've got around since then from industry guys so I guess as to the general question you have to kind of you goat so there's two types of money I guess one is stupid money just guys are going to check money at you and then there's clever money and obviously you'd rather have the latter so I'd be writing as we are doing now a list of the best investors you'd like in the world and start in the world as in I want the CEO of Heinz to invest in my business start with those guys and if you can't get those guys then go to the next level down lose time but don't again it links back to having confidence in yourself confidence in your idea because if you're going would you mind awfully lending me five from the quid that's the kind of business you're always going to be receive ego hey CEO of Heinz I want money from you and you battle and battle and battle then you become that guy who's got the CEO of Heinz behind him and then whoever else is your competition is going I'm going to mess me up with those guys because they've got big names behind them so it insured target the best people and if you can get the best people great if you can't let go kind of constantly next level down but it's all about confidence it's all about backing yourself to say I'm good enough to get money from that person right that's coming to me I'm going through a virgin startup environment so I'm working with a mentor at the moment so hopefully I I'm going to get some funding through that route could I just add one thing friends and family is a great source of Finance particularly for businesses that are yet to prove the business model there's one thing you must do and put and that is to put any agreement in writing the number of people I see who say I I borrowed five hundred pounds from somebody I know they're asking for it back how would we ZURB lose that and i thought it was a lot I thought it was a they were buying a say in the business and the other way works as well they lend you 500 pounds you think it's alone but in fact they say I want half your profits that's buying a share the business you must put the if you're borrowing from friends or family or or they investing in a business agreement in writing what is it alone is it a purchase of shares what terms and conditions apply if it's a purchase of shares what share of the equity is it things like that need sorting out it's the quickest way to ruin a family relationship is borrow friends and family from friends and family if you don't put the agreement in writing very good advice on the interesting we're seeing a virgin start up with food food startups especially in terms of the finances a lot of them are actually going through a small going for a small loan first and talking about confidence to go out and test their idea see what works you know the innocent smoothie trick the yes/no bin the sampling thing and then build a confidence validating their idea and then coming back to get a second loan or going elsewhere to get more financed so you don't have to just go for a big chunk you can go out and test it okay over here hi my name is Nancy I'm setting up a healthy vending company and I'm also wanting to set up an online version and South snacks online but now that you've been talking I'm thinking maybe just focus on the vending to start with my question is the law based question I think a lot of the places I'm contacting right now they've they're big companies and they tend to have standard supplier contracts would you recommend going with those contracts and negotiate the terms of those or should I create my own contracts and so it's sort of like to try to limit the liability I think in the stage business that you're at I would advise starting with their contract you need to negotiate that and you can make sure you read it and understand what all of it means but actually the cost and time that you would spend creating your own terms at this point is going to be it could be outweighed by the benefit of just using their terms often they will say I'm sorry as our terms or nothing at all and therefore you may as well use their terms in that instance adds the bill as the business develops I would create your own terms and create a sense on which you want you want to trade but in the first instance I would use that one of the most critical terms and conditions you'll probably be forced to accept if you're dealing with a large and larger business is their payment terms the number of businesses that don't even talk about payment terms when they're negotiating their first contract and then they suddenly find it's not 30-day payment terms it's 90 or 120 and they can't manage they can't find the cash to fund the business so whatever payment terms you you're talking about do you include and pay whatever tips you talk about do include payment terms in in the discussions and if they don't pay me on time we'll talk to you then as the small business if they don't pay me on time so say my payment terms are 30 or 90 days or so as a small business what would what's in my power to do it's a living option and it's a trade-off you either accept the huge volumes that can't come with trading with big businesses and but and the alternative then is to think about factoring an invoice discounting and and a lot of the online factors an invoice discount is will accept one invoice that previously traditional factors an invoice discounters would insist on having your whole sales ledger ie all the customers you have these online finance providers will accept one invoice particularly if the invoice is to a very credit worthy customer so that's some that's a quick way of getting financing back into the business if you have to accept extended payment terms up do your research there as well the ask a monster appears as to the nature of the person the supplier you're dealing with do they pay don't they pay certain retailers have very bad reputations for paying well beyond their payment terms do you do you research asking and know what you're going to get okay thank you hi I'm Debbie I host Burmese pop-up restaurants in London it's called the hush-hush dining club I'm just wondering about advertising and marketing reading and how much to spend so far I haven't spent anything at all and loathe to it's just been done by word of mouth but I know at some point I'm going to have to do that and just wondering whether there was a percentage that should be spent or you know how does one go about doing that why why are you considering it now and you've got this far without it um just taking the next leap forward really if I want to I've got so far but do I consider making that leap to the next level up and how much is it all going to cost me okay okay I like it um I think yeah Ben's questions valid so it depends what you want to achieve so if you're saying I want to double the number of customers then there's a reason to do marketing if you're saying I want open a second venue then it's a reason to do marketing if you're at capacity now and that's what you want to achieve and there's no point doing marketing I wouldn't have said there's I guess there's marketing is to kind of artificial marketing to getting new customers in and then there's kind of more organic stuff so upselling within your existing customer base as well so if you add capacity and that's fine then let's try and sell them more stuff so let's sell them an extra kind of two-pound thing at the end of the meal which boosts your revenue so I guess I'd say focus on what you want to achieve with the business and then ask is marketing required and then once you've decided that decide if you've got a budget for marketing and if you haven't these days it's not a huge problem you just have to be clever as to using peer-to-peer marketing and going social media etc and again that comes back to focus and giving people one soundbite or one little nugget of information that they can really easily pass on to others so yeah it it all depends on what you want basically I'd also have a Burmese pop-ups in London is is a niche taste in a certain area and you know this is where Instagram and Twitter are your best buddies and Facebook because you can literally go into these social media channels and find exactly who are these people and you know them already and then say how can I find more of these people and through certainly through Facebook targeted ads you can go ten pounds at time fifty pounds at time 100 pounds at time and really go find those people and then see whether that works or it doesn't so lots more small with your spending and don't ya don't don't hire someone that's going to be paying you're going to have to pay on a retain or anything like that test it online first great yeah oh hi my name is avi I'm just starting off a basically nutritionist comfort food business and I just worry a question about branding basically and what you think about hitting niche markets as opposed to hitting large markets so basically a lot of people work not a lot a few people told me that the angle my brandings taking is a bit risky and what is it wait well it's basically for the businesses a nutritious comfort food business so we're going for like starting the whole food stores but some people are saying that it might be a little bit's it's a little bit out there with the like we're thinking of calling the company googly fruit like but some of you have said it sounds like oh it's ugly you don't want to eat it then other people are saying oh it's funky and it sounds cool like and the loke with it fits with the logo but I just walked sort of wondering what you think about going for niches as opposed to listening to everyone and then trying to change it accordingly I think it sounds really cool and I think that going for a niche is a really good thing to do in my opinion certainly with your first business as long as it's a niche you understand if you read some of Tim Ferriss books he loves going up to little niches because if you trying to go to the whole market again you lose focus you get distracted you'll try and be all things to all people if you really understand that niche and you speak to them actually speak to them and ask them what they want and present them with options do the Lean Startup thing as you like this what can we tweak do you like that you get them involved they feel ownership with a brand and then you get that feedback they're so valuable to get in the execution right so I would say niche is really really good for your first business I think it keeps you focused and if you like it and it appeals to you and you know there's a market out there for it then push ahead with it I think Google e4 is a really good name - oh thanks yeah it's a good name cuz it's stock already okay yeah you what you want something you can remember okay last question I want to make sure it's a legal finance one because we've got branding chat after lunch we've got marketing chat it's a legal finance all right and then we're going to eat hi I'm Gina I'm working on an iPad app for creating the perfect dinner party and to be launched soon I do have a legal question for you John and so when you actually incorporate a business then you have an obligation as an employer to the directors of the company to pay minimum wage insurance and all that stuff so how what is the minimum requirement and to be an employer and how to best manage all the responsibilities you can actually create an employment relationship simply by agreeing so if I if I said come and work for me that's an employment relationship and you can that can create an employer relationship at law so in terms of the minimum absolute requirements I would say get something in writing that points been made earlier get something in writing and understand what you need to do actually if you're employing fewer than four people the statutory obligations on you are substantially lower and actually you can deal with in that way think also about consultancy do I actually need to employ this person or could they be a consultant could they work for me on a part-time basis could they work for me remotely that sort of thing and that will limit your risk as an employer so those are all the kind of good comments missing there are some great templates on the internet for service contracts employment contracts I haven't told you that clearly that's not it but if you go out there and find them there's some good oh there's some good stuff there make sure make sure that anyone who works for you assigns any IP they create to you so if they're doing anything for your particular developers or anybody particular with an app make sure that it's assigned to the company or to you and that they can't say in five years time great app by the way I have all the coding and you owe me a million quid okay if I could just add to that we've not talked a lot about searching web the web and the biz dot-gov website has stacks of information it's being redesigned to make it more accessible I think I think anybody who's looking for anything should start with biz gov beer said dr. gov and as a for a search brilliant thanks guys that's a there's a lot of tips in 35 minutes so I was brilliant even even on the internet you can't find all that in half an hour or you can't you get distracted so we are now we've been invited to head next door to test bed with your with your food tickets and we're gonna have a feed but a big hand to the three guys for John Clive and Nick

Channel: Virgin StartUp

Views: 146,658

Rating: 4.898212 out of 5

Keywords: Entrepreneur (Profession), Startup Company (Website Category), Food (TV Genre)

Id: MXKEwu-YO7Y

Length: 41min 48sec (2508 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 10 2014