It’s what a former American president called the ‘vision thing’. You must have a good idea in your mind of what your sandwich-coffee bar is going to be like – what a customer walking into the place in a few months’ time will experience.

Of course you can’t possibly know every last detail in advance. You will inevitably make changes and additions as you go along – before and after opening – but it’s important to have your own identity. This will serve to mark you out in the eyes of customers.

‘Oh yes that’s the place that does really good chicken sandwiches – classy’ or ‘I love the decor in that new place, really nice colours – the owners have obviously got good taste’, or ‘Curried parsnip and apple soup! They’re welcome to it. It’s not my cup of tea.’

Your identity will also give you a reference point which will help to guide you as you make decisions on a whole range of issues before you open. If you’re not sure about something your identity will help to answer the question: ‘Is that the sort of thing a place like ours would/should/could do?’

In this Chapter 1 will discuss many of the elements which, taken together, go to make up the particular identity and character of a venture. The list is not exhaustive.

Choosing a name

Let’s face it, people are not going to buy a sandwich from your establishment just because it’s got a really impressive name. It’s the quality of the sandwich which makes a name memorable not the other way round. If my school rock group had been called Led Zeppelin it still wouldn’t have secured a recording contract!

A name is still important, though. There are a number of points to bear in mind.

Your aim is to quickly become an established part of customers’ daily lives and awareness. This is easier to achieve if your name is straightforward.

Your name will be used many times every day by a variety of suppliers, tradespeople and officials. It’s very tedious if, repeatedly and routinely, you have to clarify the details or spelling of your trading name.

When we were at the planning stage we considered a variety of names. We were confident that our trademark would be the well above-average quality of our food. This made us think French. I spoke to a French friend who suggested various names including le Pain De Mie’. It makes me shudder to think of it now. Customers would have struggled with the pronunciation and business contacts would have struggled with the spelling.

Another name we thought of was ‘La Baguette’. Not bad. However, as we thought about it more, it dawned on us that we would be selling a variety of breads, not just baguettes. Not only that, but for all we knew baguettes would go out of fashion in years to come; or perhaps we might decide to become purely a coffee shop. We might find ourselves having to change our name after years of trading – a waste of time and money – and confusing for customers.

Long before you sell your first sandwich there are people and organisations which will ask you for your trading name. The information is necessary when setting up accounts with suppliers and other business contacts.

When we were considering the name ‘la Baguette’ we were in the process of acquiring our first shop. There was no telephone. When ordering a line BT wanted to know our name as it would appear in the phone book. I said I thought it might be ‘la Baguette’. I wish I hadn’t. Although I said it wasn’t definite and although I wrote quite soon afterwards to tell them that in fact we would be called ‘Millers’ it made no difference. Our name appeared in the telephone book and on telephone bills as ‘la Baguette’ for about a year. This is typical of dealings with large organisations. Like strict quizmasters, it seems they have to take your first answer.

Making some kind of a neat joke out of your name is short-sighted. Jokes are only funny for a very short time. After that they are tedious or downright naff.

Equally, do you really want to be just another ‘Coffee Pot’ or ‘Dave’s Sandwich Bar’? Names like this are hardly going to help you stand out from what is a crowded field. In our own case ‘Millers’ became the clear favourite. I think it was a good choice; apart from anything else it happens to be a good ‘bready’ name for a sandwich bar. The worst that happens is that people spell it with an ‘a’ instead of an ‘e’ – a mild irritation but nothing more.

One of the most ill-judged names I have come across was provided by a sandwich-coffee bar located near our second shop. It was called ‘The Renaissance Of Food.’ In reality it was a very ordinary take-away. Apart from being pretentious and inaccurate the name was a real mouthful – far too long. Not long after we opened it closed.

Having said all this, one of the most successful sandwich-coffee bar chains of recent times has been ‘Pret a Manger.’ However, in much of their advertising they now appear to have dropped the ‘A Manger’ – presumably in the interests of simplicity.

Obviously there is a balance to be struck. There may be local, geographical or personal considerations which will influence you in favour of a particular name in your own case.

Creating a logo

When you have decided on a name it makes sense to create a logo. This could be a picture of some sort or your name in a particular style of print – or a combination of the two. You want to make yourself as visible as possible so it’s a good idea to have the logo appear in as many places as possible, including:

• Exterior signs: projecting and/or on the windows/doors. I particularly like banner signs. Don’t forget that you may well require local authority permission for projecting and banner signs.
• Carrier bags: you can have your logo printed onto the sides of small carrier bags – usually brown or white paper. This does add very slightly to the cost of each transaction, but wouldn’t you like to see lots of people walking around advertising your sandwich bar? Don’t give them out for people merely buying a bag of crisps and a can of juice.
• Labels: similarly, a form of advertising. The labels I have in mind are sticky labels which are used to seal each sandwich bag – so they’re practical too. They come in rolls and are easily dispensed from strategically placed toilet roll holders. With carrier bags and labels you will, of course, need to engage the services of a printer. There is an initial outlay for the necessary artwork before the printing can begin.
• Your car or van: this is increasingly popular and obviously helps to raise your profile. However, if you are not going to buy a vehicle specifically for the shop you have to ask yourself if you want logos plastered all over your car.
• Internal mirrors, menus, blinds, napkins and fitted entrance doormats: I especially like fitted doormats with a logo woven into the fabric. It seems to me this helps to create a professional and well-established air for the customer on entry – and first impressions do count.
• Staff aprons: this really does help to create a professional, unified image. Definitely a good investment; but remember aprons should never be worn for more than one day before being washed.
• Headed paper: yes you should have headed paper! It looks professional and you will find many situations when it comes in handy: correspondence with your bank, responding to matters raised by the Environmental Health Department and simple matters such as sending off an adjusted payment following a phone call. It is a simple matter to set up a template of your headed paper in your word-processor. If you want you can print off some blank copies and then handwrite your message. Alternatively you can make it look a bit more businesslike by printing the whole letter.

A tip: when setting up your headed paper make it A5 size. It’s reasonably small and can double as a compliments slip which is all you will need for a lot of routine communications.

An artistic theme

There’s no doubt that the quality of the food is paramount, but we live in a highly image-fashion-conscious age –and people do expect to be impressed by the cover as well as the book.

Clearly you will wish to choose pleasing colours inside and out, but what are you going to put on the walls? You could go to a print shop and buy copies of a few Impressionist paintings. However, decent-sized prints are surprisingly expensive and the idea is hardly very original; and they soon become dog-eared.

Here are a few suggestions, some of which have been used in my shops and which have been favourably commented on.

1. Select one or more attractive paintings which you think would add to the character of your shop. Contact your nearest art college. Commission a student to do a copies to a scale that will fit in with the available space. You will probably find that the student’s fee is very reasonable. In return you get a real painting (which you can hang in your living room when you decide to retire). There might also be the prospect of a sideline here: the student could advertise his or her services as a copyist and pay you a percentage of any fees for work thus obtained.

A word of warning: make sure you get a good look at some of the artist’s work in advance, before you are committed, to ensure it will be of a good standard. If possible, try to get a look at the work as it progresses

2. Allocate one wall as an exhibiting area for art students or local artists. You will have to agree what percentage of the price you will take and how long paintings should stay up before being replaced. The idea is that you have a point of interest to distract your lengthy lunchtime queues and discourage them from checking out the opposition. Again, make sure you see paintings in advance – you don’t want to end up with something inappropriate on the walls.

3. Commission an art student to build a life-size figure which can be placed just outside the shop or in a strategic position inside. We did this for our second shop – a sinister looking man in a light brown coat. He has a bowler hat and wears dark sunglasses. He has become a local point of interest. More than once I have seen people stop (often at the behest of arm-yanking children) look at him, then come into the shop to buy something. But do warn people making early morning deliveries. I know of one case where a new bread delivery man almost had cardiac arrest when he unlocked the door and unexpectedly came face to face with our man!

4. You could also get an artist to create a huge mural covering one entire wall. Again, make sure you see and approve of the artist’s ideas before going ahead.

A word of caution: if you do deal with art students be careful – in my experience whilst they are usually very pleasant, creative and stimulating people they don’t always have good business heads. Deadlines and time limits don’t always mean much to them. Only give them a deposit for materials upfront. Keep in touch on a regular basis to make sure they come up with the goods when you need them.

5. Allocate a space near the door where people can put up posters advertising forthcoming local events. Such posters are often colourful and interesting and help to give a lively impression to the shop. Here are some do’s and dont’s:

• Don’t allow people to put up any kind of political posters.
• Don’t allow people to put up posters anywhere other than in the allocated area.
• Don’t allow people to advertise rooms in flats, professional services, etc. – such notices have no artistic merit and if anything detract from the favourable impression you are trying to create.
• Do take posters down once the event advertised has happened.
• Do immediately remove any posters which people put up without asking permission first – they’ll soon get the message.
• Do ask people advertising shows if you or your staff can have some complimentary tickets. Why not? You’re giving them free advertising. I was once given over £60 worth of tickets for a circus during the Edinburgh Festival a few years ago.

6. Try to find a shop which sells old photographs of your town or city, and if possible of your neighbourhood. Buy a selection and put them in frames individually or in groups. It’s a good idea to screw them to the wall – they won’t go lopsided and they won’t be removed by a light-fingered customer. You might think about turning this into a sideline by putting up a card with the shop’s details and taking an agreed cut of any sales that result.

7. Display plants and cut flowers – they invariably add a touch of class. But make sure they are kept in good condition by regular watering or replacement. There is nothing worse than dead or dying plants or flowers. Many customers will see them as symptomatic of the state of the business.

If you don’t want the hassle of maintaining them, it’s probably best not to bother with them in the first place. Alternatively, engage a company (often associated with florists) who will provide and maintain plants and flowers and hanging baskets. However, do you really want to spend some of your hard-earned money on something you should be able to take care of yourself?

None of these ideas is expensive. If done well they can all add to the individual character of your sandwich-coffee bar and create a favourable impression for customers.

Using professionals to help you produce an image

There are many professional designers in a variety of fields who will be only too happy to give you advice and ideas on how to create a co-ordinated image for your sandwich-coffee bar. The trick is to get them really tuned in to what you are about. If you can do this then there is no doubt they have the ability to create an eye-catching image which at the same time tells people about the essence of your establishment.

However, their services do not come cheap. You have to ask yourself whether they are appropriate for a business the size of a small independent sandwich-coffee bar. Another related problem, one which I mentioned previously, is that many designers prefer bigger, more lucrative customers.

Ask yourself: don’t you think that part of the fun of setting up a business is attending to things like this yourself? Perhaps the time to use them is later when you’re established and want to give your unit a makeover or when you want to open another outlet and your ‘corporate’ image is more important.

If you think designers might be right for what you have in mind, speak to a few and ask them for some ideas on a no-obligation basis. You will see lots of them in the Yellow Pages. You will quickly know if they are right for you.

If you do, I hope you have more luck than I did. My wife and I asked a firm of designers to give us the benefit of their professional experience and wisdom. A few days after our meeting, when we had explained that we were all about good quality food and tasteful surroundings, we received some very professionally prepared drawings. Unfortunately, what they showed was a picture of a fat cartoon-style pig guzzling some indeterminate brightly coloured concoction. The beast was slavering profusely. Accompanying this garish image was the unforgettable call to ‘come and make a pig of yourselves at Millers’. When one of the designers phoned a few days later to see what I thought of his efforts we did not have a long conversation.

Creating and displaying signs

Signs serve two purposes: to attract attention and to provide information. They can also say a lot about you.

Exterior signs:

• permanent projecting signs
• banner signs (a length of sturdy material stretched between two projecting bars with your name or other information written in large lettering)
• sandwich blackboards
• wall-hanging blackboards
• lettering – including large individual plastic letters and plastic boards with your name and other details written on
• lettering – often contained within frosted glass effect plastic – which is stuck on windows in one sheet
• signs written or painted on the external walls
• free-standing metal signs provided by companies which advertise their products such as ice-cream or coffee
• neon signs
• a framed menu
• photographs of your products in internally lit display units.

Consider them all, but remember: whilst what they actually say is important, their most important purpose is to tell people that you are there and that you are open for business. Avoid clutter.

You might well need local authority permission for projecting and banner signs, especially if your building is listed or in a conservation area. So far as placing the freestanding signs on the pavement is concerned, my understanding is that in general a local authority will not object – so long as they don’t receive any complaints. Use common sense (vital for all small business people – if you don’t have any, go and get some right away) and make sure that any such signs don’t cause any kind of obstruction.

Some sandwich-coffee bars exhibit photographs of the kinds of things available inside, sometimes in internally lit display boxes which are visible from outside. If done professionally I suppose this can look quite good. However, I wonder if this sort of image isn’t more associated with Chinese restaurants or hamburger bars. Apart from anything else, sandwiches are not particularly photogenic.

Neon signs situated inside but visible from outside are definitely worth considering although they are expensive. Depending on how close they are to the front of the shop they might require local authority permission.

Exterior blackboards are also useful to advertise the introduction of a new sandwich or salad – and it’s a good idea to do this from time to time. Never stand still. They do get tatty-looking quite quickly and are affected by rain so make sure you keep them looking smart. Remember your image.

Once established, some people choose to have the exterior blackboards painted professionally with details of the main items on sale. It looks professional and it means you don’t have to keep on re-chalking them. Again, art students will often be happy to undertake such work.

When advertising for staff or informing your customers of holiday closures you will no doubt want to put temporary signs in the window. Make them look as professional as possible. It sends a message to your prospective employees as well as the public at large. If you have a personal computer you should be able to produce good quality notices. What’s more you can store them so that when the next vacancy occurs you just need to print off another copy, making any minor adjustments that might be necessary.

Spelling on signs

Quite a few of the words which will feature regularly on your menus and signs are easy to misspell. Do try to be accurate. It will strike a lot of people as amateurish if they see a sign which advertises the delights of ‘Mozarela and corriander on toasted focacia with an expresso or a capucino’. Can you spot the spelling mistakes? There are seven.

The ability of computers to produce good signs is just one of the many things they can do to help the small business. I will talk more about them elsewhere in the book.

Interior signs:

• blackboards,
• backlit plastic signs (possibly incorporating photographs of the products available),
• laminated notices or menus,
• plastic boards, usually black, full of holes, (like a Chinese chequers board) into which you insert white plastic letters and figures to give details of your products and prices,
• whiteboards on which you can write with a marker pen,
• hanging signs,
• posters advertising the products of a particular company.

Internal signs are more about providing information to the customer once inside the shop. What is most important is that they be clear, legible and readily understood.

Legal disclaimer: In this litigious day and age it is probably a good idea to put up a sign pointing out that you are unable to guarantee that the products you sell are free from nuts or nut products. The fact is you don’t know exactly what has gone into every single thing you sell. This is necessary because a very few people have extreme allergic reactions to nuts, which can be fatal.

Of course, if you sell a product such as walnut bread it should always be clearly labelled. Avoid the indiscriminate use of nuts as a garnish.

As with exterior signs, the possibilities are endless. You must consider them all and choose signs which fit in with your particular vision. A few thoughts:

• One of the real bores about signs comes when you need to put the prices up. You spent hours painstakingly writing out your list of sandwiches on the blackboard. All you need to do is change the prices. Should you do the whole lot again or just wipe out the prices and put in the new ones as neatly as possible? The answer is probably the former but the reality is more likely to be the latter.
• If you are changing blackboards, it is best to wipe off the writing and then paint the blackboard with blackboard paint available from DIY stores. It’s a bit more work but it doesn’t take long and it looks so much smarter.
• It is possible to have blackboards professionally and permanently painted. Sometimes this involves some artwork round the edges, sometimes artwork plus your list of sandwiches. In the latter case make sure the prices are not permanent marked. Problems can arise if you stop doing a particular sandwich – blanking out can look very messy.
• The plastic boards with holes for letters of course allow for changing the prices – but to be honest they’re pretty downmarket-looking.
• Whiteboards don’t look great either, but one small one to give information on things that change daily, such as the kind of soup on offer, is probably OK.
• It may seem like stating the obvious, but if you install hanging signs make sure they are very secure and that customers will not bump their heads against them.

One final word of warning: it’s easy to see signs as less important in the great scheme of things, to concentrate your energies on the quality of the food and worry about the expensive fridge you’ve ordered. These things are important of course but for customers the signs are vital. They should allow them quickly and easily to see what’s on offer and how much it will cost. In addition, the more tastefully and professionally the signs are done the better the image of the shop.

Don’t do what we did with our first shop. As we got closer to opening we had lots to do but we kept putting off thinking about the main sign advertising the sandwiches plus prices. In the end I was up a ladder the night before we opened writing out our list on a large whiteboard with a marker pen. I look back on it now and cringe. I was dog tired and it looked dreadful. I wonder how we got any business at all. We ended up getting large professionally constructed blackboards which looked great – but this was weeks after we had opened and it caused much inconvenience.

Staff Image

In Chapter Eight I shall deal with various issues relating to staff: hiring and firing, conditions of employment and so on. Here I shall say something about staff image, which is or should be part of your vision for your shop.

One of the things you will learn about running a business is that you must have rules and standards which must be enforced. This is particularly true when dealing with staff. If you don’t enforce rules then the staff will dictate many aspects of how your business is run. Given your responsibilities to customers and obligations under the law in respect of health and safety and so on, this could lead to serious problems.

Staff in sandwich-coffee bars tend to leave on a fairly regular basis, meaning that, in the absence of clear and firm guidance from the top, customers could experience lack of consistency. It’s your job to ensure that so far as possible the quality of service delivered is reliable and predictable.

So far as image and staff are concerned I think the main points to consider are these:

1. Attitude and manners. It is vital that the people who work for you display reasonable enthusiasm for the job. It is also important that they do not suddenly become moody or withdrawn for no apparent reason. There is no room to hide in a sandwich bar and such behaviour affects the whole atmosphere in the shop; it’s unfair on the other staff and unpleasant for customers. We all have problems at home from time to time but unless it’s something really serious, staff (and you) must learn to get over it and concentrate on the job in hand.

2. Staff must have a smart and clean appearance. It would be impossible to make specific comments about what is and is not acceptable. That is a matter for you and depends on the image you wish to project. For some, five-day stubble and rings through noses might be absolutely fine. For others they would be out of the question – staff would be expected to be clean shaven or to wear smart white blouses. The point is that cleanliness and some kind of dress code are essential. From a health and hygiene point of view staff should not wear lots of make up or strong deoderants which could be transferred to food. Long hair should always be tied back.

3. Uniform? At one end of the spectrum you have places where the staff can wear what they like. The trouble is that even if they are well turned-out the impression given can be amateurish: a random group of people just like the customers who happen to be on the other side of the serve-over.

At the other end of the spectrum you get a lot of places now where staff must wear a uniform designed to allow no room for individuality. This is particularly true of the large fast food chains.

It seems to me that neither end of the spectrum is right for a small independent sandwich-coffee bar. I think the minimum ‘uniform’ should be an apron with the name of your sandwich bar on it and or your logo. An apron is a practical, hygienic necessity – it protects clothes and provides a pocket to keep all sorts of things in. In addition it makes a clear distinction between staff and customers. The presence of your name or logo reinforces the corporate image. The other obvious possibility is some kind of headwear. Hats have the added advantage of helping to cover and secure longer hair.