It’s interesting to look at the French attitude towards food overall and particularly the Glorious French Luncheon of the previous number of decades. Your average Frenchman of a few years ago was not the man to take a floppy , curling sandwich back to his office desk when lunchtime came around and munch it down in record time before getting on with his work. Nor would he be likely to pop down to the burger van and come back munching a mouthful of gristle with onions and then knuckle down to spend the rest of his lunchtime playing an online PC game before he went back to his work .

Lunchtime, and really every mealtime in the France of a number of years ago was a sacrosanct time. Lunch would last for hours and nothing would get in the way of Le Grand Cuisine. Money would not be an problem , four courses, wine, tantalizing desserts and flavousome cheese and an excellent coffee would be a standard , not an occasional treat.

Even in La Belle France these days have rather sadly gone and now it appears we are all into the realms of Fast Food, like it or lump it. But whether you really like it or really hate it there is a great deal of of scope to make money out it! Many people are busy nowadays and while this may be the decade of the TV celebrity chef , how many of us really do follow through the recipes on Masterchef for our lunchtime repast ? Very few I venture to suggest!

Franchises are quite popular as fast food businesses as the Franchise For Sale market will testify . There are a large number of Franchises on the Franchise For Sale market that are generally to do with supplying or providing fast food and snacks and it appears that the Home Based Franchise format is very well suited to fast food. A good example here is Charisnack which is a Home Based Franchise that supplies healthy snacks to retailers and claim that there is “no experience required” to run this franchise. Currently the products retail at a little under a pound each, so not an expensive sale then. Also, and most importantly , they will find your clients for you. If you are similar to me and find the prospect of cold calling dozens of businesses to get sales a little bit daunting then this may be one for you. It’s not an expensive franchise either, currently asking £9950 + Vat on a part time basis.

A Fast Food business can be operated on another basis rather than a following a Franchises format as any roadside lay by will tell you. Setting up a mobile catering business , if done correctly , can bring you in a substantial ongoing income. There are a few rules to be observed though. You are not exempt from HSE(Health and Safety Executive) or HACCP (Hazard Analysis And Critical Control Point) regulations , just because you’re a mobile catering business. Amongst other things this means having at least one basin for just washing hands and more for food preparation, amongst a raft of other conditions. A good start is the Nationwide Caterers Association as they have a lot of information available for free. There is information there about finding your spot, catering for organisations and researching opportunities within the mobile catering business as a whole .

Maybe an option is setting up in your local neighbourhood in a retail premise based venture . Having said that you don’t have to move around and you have a more permanent business . It remains to be seen what type of fast food business you decide to start though, and an idea I have often mulled over is to start a business around savoury food spiced with chillies. Nobody knows quite why but British men, after a few drinks need to indulge their burgeoning appetite by stuffing themselves full of meat or vegetables flavoured with chilli. Now a business purely based around chilli flavoured meals on a take away basis should appeal exactly to this sort of customer and because chillies exhibit an addictive property then you should get loads of repeat customers! All the best with your fast food business ideas.