5 Things To Avoid When Running A Café
Running a café has many rewards – you become your own boss, you can do something you enjoy, you get the chance to meet new people and you’ll have some freedom to pick the hours you work. But there are also some major pitfalls to avoid along the way. Whether you’re planning on opening a quirky cat café, an authentic Italian coffee bar or traditional ye olde tea shoppe, read our top five things to avoid when running a café, and find out what you can do to stop them from ruining your dream café business.
1) Anyone, or anything, coming to harm
This might seem obvious, but anyone, or anything, coming to harm is something you really want to try and avoid when running a café. There are strict safety and hygiene regulations involving the preparation of food because the risk of injury or even death is relatively high in the catering business. This means you’ll need to make sure that you and any staff members have the correct qualifications for handling and preparing food and follow the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) system to the letter, which covers the procedures you need to follow to make sure that the goods you sell are safe to eat.
Food poisoning can be serious, especially for younger or elderly customers and can even result in death. Similarly, failing to properly notify customers of potential allergens in your food can also have a fatal effect if an allergic reaction occurs. As well as causing distress to your customers and their family, food poisoning and allergic reactions can have a serious impact on your finances as customers can sue you for injury if you are found to be negligent. Luckily public liability insurance can help cover you for legal costs, and should be considered a prudent essential for anyone running a café, although it is not required by law.
Employer’s liability insurance is a legal requirement. If you employ any members of staff, even if they are family members or only work part-time, you must, by law, take out employer’s liability insurance. This will cover you for any claims made against you by your staff for injury caused at work. Kitchens are dangerous places, with split liquids making floors slippery, sharp knives and hot stoves, so this insurance will help give you peace of mind as well as covering you for other claims for workplace hazards that you might not have considered, such as dermatitis from cleaning equipment and back pain as a result of manual handling. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) offers plenty of good advice for the catering and hospitality industry on everything from
And it’s not just your customers or staff who might be at risk. Picking up on a Japanese trend, there’s been a handful of pet cafes (ranging from cats to rabbits) springing up on high streets in the last year or so, which cater for customers who want to spend some time stroking a cuddly pet. Opponents of these cafés say they are cruel, and cats and rabbits could die of fright if they are repeatedly picked up by strangers. If you run or plan to open a cat or rabbit café, speak to your insurance provider to find out what special extra cover you might need to consider to protect your business.
2) Not enough stock to meet demand
Your profits are based on solely on the number of drinks or plates of food that you sell. If you don’t have anything to sell you can’t make any money. Getting stock levels right is a fine balancing act – if you don’t order enough you could have to turn customers away, but if you order too much, and stock passes its sell-by date, you’ll have to throw away your profits.
Deciding how much stock to order is one of the biggest headaches when running a café but you can try to plan ahead by considering things such as time or year and events that could influence your sales. For example, if there is glorious summer weather forecast and you’re the only café in the area selling ice cream, you can fairly safely assume that your ice cream sales might go up. And if your café is situated close to a busy event venue, it can be a reasonable assumption that your customer numbers might increase during any event.
You should also consider what could happen if there’s an accident or for some reason, your equipment fails and all your stock is lost. Stock cover insurance is designed to give you peace of mind that if this happens you’ll receive a payout so you can go straight out and replace your stock without it affecting your trading or your cash flow.
For the same reasons as above, you need to have a good supply chain for your stock – if you’re let down by suppliers, you won’t be able to serve your customers but the bills will still need to be paid. Your stock quality needs to be consistent too – if your customers make their way across town to enjoy your coffee they need to be sure they will always be served the same delicious roast if you want them to keep coming back.
Build strong relationships with suppliers you can trust to deliver to you on time. Or, if you rely on a work vehicle to pick up stock, make sure it is insured properly so you have the use of a similar courtesy vehicle if yours does need to be repaired or replaced following an accident. You’ll need commercial vehicle insurance and it’s worth double-checking that you’re covered for a similar courtesy vehicle – if you need to transport chilled or frozen foodstuffs, a vehicle without a fridge or freezer simply won’t do!
3) Being the same as everyone else
For your café to succeed it needs to be different. You need to give your customers a reason to come to you, whether that is great coffee, delicious homemade cakes or a cosy and inviting atmosphere.
Some cafes organize special music nights to draw in the crowds and help position themselves as the in-place to hang out or maybe you want to entice a cultivated crowd with poetry readings or book nights. If you’re considering holding special events in your cafe, check with your insurance first that you’re covered – extra customers and expensive specialist equipment will need to be noted on your insurance at the very least and could require an extra premium to avoid any unwanted surprises if anything does go wrong. Even if you don’t plan to organize any special events you’ll need to take out specialist commercial buildings and contents cover for your cafe, as a normal domestic policy won’t be suitable.
4) No staff to serve the customers or run the kitchen
Have you ever woken up in a cold sweat after a nightmare where you had irate customers waiting to be served, but no members of staff on-hand to serve them? Your staff are your most valuable asset. Without them, you’ll find it hard to trade successfully and if you rely on one or two key members of staff, such as a head chef, you could find that you are unable to continue trading if something unexpected happens to them.
Key personnel insurance can’t actually get them back working for you, but can help tide you over with a payout if an important member of staff suddenly suffers from long-term sickness or an injury that prevents them from working for you. And if you’re that essential lynchpin of your café, you could consider taking out personal accident insurance, which again will pay out if you are unable to work for a period of time.
5) Paying over the odds
Perhaps the biggest no-no (other than killing someone!) when it comes to running a café is paying over the odds. From raw ingredients to insurance deals, it pays to shop around to get the best prices and maximize your profits for a healthy business.
Just as you shop around at home for the best energy prices and supermarket deals, a smart café owner will do the same for their business. There are other steps you can take to cut costs too. Simple things like replacing equipment with energy efficient options could lead to substantial annual savings.
The Carbon Trust estimates that the UK catering industry wastes up to a quarter of a billion pounds each year on energy that could be saved by switching to more efficient equipment and tailored menu options. Things like using the right size pots and pans, switching off hobs and grills immediately and switching off extraction fans when they are not being used can also significantly reduce your energy usage and cut bills dramatically.
Save money to boost your profits
When it comes to insurance deals, the specialist catering team at Park Insurance can get you access to a wide range of products to cover the niche needs of every different type of café – and yes, that means even cat cafes! We work with some of the UKs biggest insurance providers and can help save you time and effort by doing the calling round for you.
Get in touch with our experienced team today to find out more.