Furniture and fittings

Tables, chairs and stools

Assuming you have a bar along one or more walls then you will need stools. It may seem like an obvious point but before you install the bar make sure you can get stools which match it heightwise.

So far as choosing tables and chairs is concerned it really depends on the image you want to present. You might like the idea of a Bohemian-style café/seating area with an artistic or original image. If so, you will be well advised to go to a second-hand furniture shop or your nearest auctions and pick up a selection of old pieces of furniture there. They might be a bit of a hotch-potch but they will exude character and individuality.

However, don’t forget your responsibility to the public. If you buy old furniture check that it is fit for its intended purpose, i.e. sturdy with no sticking out nails or screws. If a customer catches her expensive dress on a nail you won’t be flavour of the month.

The other problem is that if you need to replace a couple of chairs you will find it harder to get good matches.

If you decide to buy new there is a large range of furniture available which is aimed at the catering industry generally: pubs, clubs, hotels, sandwich bars, cafes, etc. The obvious advantage is that they are specifically built for hard use, and if you need to replace them you can do so with identical pieces.

One other tip: try to find room for a (wonderfully named) poser’s table. This is a free-standing weighted pole with one or two circular surfaces – absolutely ideal for putting in a window or small area of dead space. It has always been a source of disappointment to me that we have never found a suitable space for one.

Floor coverings

When it comes to floor covermgs you really are in the same boat as any of the major high street stores; you must get good quality commercial products. Anything other than this will look tatty in no time. You will have hundreds of people traipsing over your floor in foul weather and fair. To get some ideas for your shop take a wander down your high street and see what the big stores use.

Make sure that you have a non-slip, heavy duty floor covering for the food preparation area.

Air conditioning or extractor?

You might think that air conditioning is a bit over the top for a small independent operation. But you will be surprised by the amount heat generated by a few refrigerated units. For a large part of the year this is not a problem – indeed it’s an advantage because it helps to warm the place up, especially in the morning. In summer, however, when you open up in the morning, you will be hit by the kind of blast of warm air you get when you step off a plane in Mallorca in July.

If you have no means of cooling the shop the staff will complain – with justification. Working in this kind of heat is not pleasant.

You can buy a fan or two but all they do is re-cycle the air already in the shop. Admittedly summer doesn’t last all that long in Britain and before you know where you are the staff will be asking for a heater. But do you really want to put up with two or three months of excessive heat in the shop?

You can install an air-conditioning system. It’s the most effective solution. But it’s expensive and quite complicated since you need to have a means of piping air to the exterior of the building. Whether you can install a system or not really depends on the nature of your particular unit and you will need expert advice. You can also hire an air conditioning unit on a weekly basis. However, it is very expensive. We recently got a quote for our second shop (which is about 850 sq. ft [78m2]) of £800 for a month.

The simplest method of getting rid of the heat generated by refrigerated units is to install an extractor in the front window. It sucks the warm air out leaving the shop pleasantly cool. It is not very cheap. We had one installed in our first shop – a small unit of about 300 sq. ft (28m2) which cost a little under £600 including VAT. It was miraculously effective. Not only that but you can reverse the extractor so that in winter it operates to keep the warm air in the shop. In addition, the shop is cooler so the fridges don’t have to work so hard and this reduces your electricity bills.

Computers

You don’t have to be mad not to have a computer but it helps!

Sorry, but there are just so many ways in which a computer assists in the running of a small business – not least in saving money – that you really must give very serious consideration indeed to getting one. It’s simply a case of good business. We didn’t have one when we started out; we got ours about five years ago. I simply don’t know how we managed without it.

Consider the following (non-exhaustive by any means) list of uses.

Printing

You can print (in any quantity or colour you want) professional-looking:

• menus
• contracts of employment
• correspondence on your chosen style of headed paper
• staff handbooks
• notices advertising for staff or advising of holiday dates, etc
• headed paper and compliments slips
• notices advertising new sandwiches, etc.
• envelopes
• outside catering invoices
• pro-forma order forms for cash and carry, supermarket, various suppliers.

And don’t forget that you store all of these things so that updating them is easy as pie. Equally, if you write letters you store them on the computer so you have far less need to keep lots of paper copies.

Book-keeping

Using spreadsheets you can enter details of money in, money out and VAT. This information can then be analysed and printed off for use by your accountants when preparing your accounts at the end of the year. The information is all stored so, for instance, it is easy for you to check back on the previous year’s figures.

It is also possible to have a connection between your till and your computer (which may well be in your house) enabling them to ‘talk’ to each other. This means that when you go home after work the information about the day’s take is already stored in the computer ready for you to work on. The company which supplies your till can give you information on this.

VAT and PAYE

You will need to buy software programs to load into your computer to deal with VAT and PAYE. They are not expensive and they are easy to use. They do all the hard work of calculating the payments due. In the case of PAYE you subscribe to a service which regularly updates your software and provides a support package.

Copying

Buy a scanner, connect it to your computer and, hey presto, you have the ability, amongst other things, to copy documents. A scanner is not expensive (well under £100) and saves you buying a photocopier or, worse still, going to your local library to get your copying done.

Fax, Internet and e-mail

You can buy a software program which turns your computer into a fax machine.

With a modem (which allows your computer to be connected to the phone network) or a cable connection, you can enter into the astonishing world of the Internet and e-mail. This will enable you to surf the net for ideas and information about sandwiches/coffee/equipment and so on from all over the world. You could set up your own web site as part of an expansion programme. A lot of people now encourage customers to e-mail orders in the morning which can then be collected at lunchtime.

If you are not computer literate this might all seem a bit daunting. However, the good news is that you don’t need to understand how computers work to be able to use them to the benefit of your business. Do you really understand how a telephone or a video machine works?

There are lots of inexpensive computer courses advertised in the press. Go on one of these, but also get a book out of the library and go in for a bit of trial and error. Surprise yourself.

Of course if you have (or have access to) teenagers you should get them to explain it all to you – just ask them to speak slowly!

Obviously there are costs associated with computers, but they’re all tax deductible and the advantages, financial and otherwise, for your business are simply incalculable.