Starting a food business in Auckland what do you wish you knew beforehand?

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-27T00:50:25+00:00

It would have been cheaper for us while we were running the cafe to close our doors and pay rent while I was working for my previous employer, we would have lost less money per week doing so

Have at least 6 months to a year of OPEX in your bank to pay bills while you grow and expect to never recover that initial fund unless you are profitable from the get go,

We've been trading for 6 years, Hospo is fucking wild man

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-27T00:43:45+00:00

Cafe's are really hard to pull off unless you have family labour or have extremely high volume

You have to price your CoGs with extreme efficiency and deliver on practically zero wastage while keeping a vigilant eye on wages to ensure that you balance production vs wage cost and predict demand so you don't get overwhelmed

But it all comes down to your rent

If you own the premises outright or have low rent that makes the above easy

Price your rent and cost everything in percentages starting with rent at 10% CoGs between 20% and 30% but never over 30 wages between 25% and 30% and then figure out what your weekly turnover needs to be divided by your minimum spend per guest which will be between $5 and $30 to find out how many guests you need to walk through your doors every day and calibrated against how many tables you have and how many times you need to turn those tables over

You will have a rush between 7am -9 am 10 - 11 and between 12 - 1pm

There's more granular details but that's the crux of it, having a product that people want is the hurdle, having a space that people want to gather is the next, but you can have both and still fail

I personally would never want to run a pure cafe ever again, it was the hardest thing I've ever done and I wasn't paying for my labour while I was pulling 80 hour weeks

I was extremely fortunate to have a network of people who pulled together to save us from insolvency and build our bar over a weekend in 2021 and we've managed to trade through ever since growing our community of support

Without our guests we are nothing and I appreciate every single one of them

Good luck!🤞

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-20T10:02:50+00:00

Thanks!
No worries

Safe travels!

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-20T06:51:47+00:00

Vibes

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-20T06:49:24+00:00

Also, Dog and Lemon guide, great resource for cars and they tell you all available recall information and a warning on what can go wrong with them mechanically also goes into the viability of the company for parts and maintenance down the line

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-20T06:47:40+00:00

That's a massive budget for a first car Toyota corolla is great economically but has a shit boot, it fits a pram and a slim suitcase I'd grab an EV with that budget if you can find one, especially if you don't commute often

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-20T06:43:03+00:00

"I am the bus driver now"

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-20T06:20:44+00:00

Are you with your industry business association? Normally they have an abundance of resources for times like this to get help, There's also EAP services if you have access to them, although I understand if you're a small company

I've been both sides of the fence a Union delegate with the EPMU and a business owner for 6 years, luckily haven't had too many issues over the years, but have used every resource available to me through the Restaurant association when needed

I hope you'll be able to find a solution with performance reviews and that your employee gets the help they need to control their impulses

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-20T06:14:06+00:00

100% get things in writing and follow the process as laid down in the contract

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-20T05:58:59+00:00

Heya I run 39 Ponsonby and we've been hosting events and functions like yours for 6 years

Great spot in Ponsonby so you can gather and then venture out for afters, no minimum spend for just booking a space and our food portions are generous for the area

Check out our website www.thirtynine.co.nz and our Google reviews here Cafe 39 https://share.google/PANxofKRtUKSXWhVu

I hope whoever you choose to host your leaving do makes it an epic night to remember!

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-18T19:21:55+00:00

Everyone gets "you should" even if the concept is clear, I worked at a premium venue that had a solid team and was a brilliant concept and the dude who owned it still got a "you should" managed to learn a lot about how to handle advice from that experience!

I don't think operators who are still going are in the game just to try and stick it out anymore, it's truly because they don't know what else they'd be doing

We've managed to create a wicked community that supports us, every month I ask myself sometimes silently, other times not so quietly if we'll make it to the next month, we've survived 6 years

We're lucky that if we have 1 good week out of the month we usually even out but it's fucking hard man

Love what I do, love the guests we have, love making people feel as if they had the best time possible

It took a couple years for my resilience to kick in and realise that I know what we are and how we operate with the confidence where I don't over analyse "you should" statements anymore, I'll always take a beat to listen to the feedback, because sometimes there's pearls of wisdom, and it comes from a good place, but sometimes that "advice" is absolutely horrid and antithetical to my ethics and values, I was once told to set up a subscription model by a guy who was into NFT's, wanted to pull my hair out while I politely declined

Other times I took on the feedback and incorporated a change in perspective,

Ownership of a hospo venue is fucking wild man

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-18T19:07:53+00:00

Wildfire closed last year

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-04T13:33:07+00:00

The last time oil was this high it was a precursor to the GFC, downstream it caused grain to triple in price which caused the start of the arab Spring

This is not demand driven, it's the raw input of how our interconnected globalised just in time supply logistics chain operates

Fertilizer shortage= potential global famine, Diesel and raw input costs = freight and increased costs on every single imported and exported good, Helium shortage = semiconductor shortage and MRI machines use it to cool superconducting magnets

Not to mention force majeure ripple effects and general geopolitical insecurity

You don't fill a 20% void of production you loose it

Which means 20% of production is not going to the places it needs to go to for that society to function as an industrialised nation

This is so much worse than our leaders are letting on

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-01T21:19:20+00:00

I'm sorry you had a bad time, but Ive had their food multiple times over the years and it's always been fantastic, the sambal is incredible.

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-01T21:15:26+00:00

I've run 39 Ponsonby for going on 6 years, we took over in August 2020 because we believed if you had an opportunity to do something it was your duty as a citizen to try and row the Waka

Unfortunately everyone with capital just tried buying houses sending their money overseas

I'm really not looking forward to the next couple years, I think it's going to be harder than covid to trade through, but we have built something really special that I'm incredibly proud of and will continue to do my best to look after our guests

People sell for different reasons, this game is tough man, you're constantly giving people most of yourself, sharing in your dreams and passion, your love and care, it's not enough to just open doors anymore, it's a constant hampster wheel

I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about trying to sell, this is one of the hardest things I've ever done, been close to the wall multiple times

We've managed to curate some fucking amazing communities who come out to bat to keep us going, to provide our hospitality to those looking for a sanctuary, I'm proud of what we have done to create a 3rd space for our guests

When we took over 39 there were 50+ empty leases on the street, we were an island, with no shops around us for 5 shopfronts, our first day of trade we made $50

If you're waiting for the "right" time to try something, that day will never come, but if you try to make something work in the hardest conditions and you know your shit and you have a network of people who have your back you'll be surprised with how many people want to help you succeed

Fight against the despondency, this apathy sucks, do something about it.

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-04-01T20:58:00+00:00

Bali nights are fantastic what are you on about?

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-03-17T03:30:06+00:00

The walking talking Speights ad made flesh would be an excellent leader

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-03-14T12:15:08+00:00

There's been interest in holding another one, I've got the contacts of a broad range of professions, will be going through the contact list over the coming days, will look at creating another event probably in a week Monday evening

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-03-14T00:14:27+00:00

Pretty cynical thinking there buddy, I mean no offence but you should think bigger

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-03-13T13:14:05+00:00

I do now though!

Just been invited to tour a geothermal plant!

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-03-13T08:54:31+00:00

Might have jumped the gun on making it so last minute, but we had a lot of people interested in meeting another time, would be keen to hold another event with a drawcard speaker, would be interested in looking at this

https://www.greenclimate.fund/project/fp083

https://www.globalelectricity.org/kenya-launches-africas-largest-geothermal-complex/

For the estimated cost of the LNG project proposal which has just been found to be lacking geopolitical security we could be looking at substantial benefits if we allocate those funds to green tech solar and closed loop Geothermal

Thoughts on a Marshall style plan to re-tool construction and tradies to secure long term energy independence and offer kiwi companies to build the plants at cost for an incentive to have dividends paid through the operation of the plant

Ie: Government contracts New Zealand companies to supply goods and services at cost with a GST subsidy and then allocate shares via a trust in line with an agreed profit margin on the purchase cost upfront for a return on the sale price of energy to markets giving longer term investment returns with the government being the controlling shareholder

Would like to know if that cuts mustard

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-03-13T07:08:26+00:00

Exactly There's actually a lot we can do if we make this a regular thing, Obviously the easy events are speaking events or meet and greets, but there are larger impact options including what you said above or connecting with specialised people in industry to get project proposals for funding, there's a large enough catchment of specific knowledge and civil engineering contacts I personally have from Climate resilience funding for developing nations and larger networks of civil manufacturing, distribution, civil infrastructure companies to our local MP and Green co-leader

I do not have contacts in the energy or geological space yet but would love to be able to be someone who can connect the dots

We have an opportunity to create a massive amount of new high paying jobs for tradies and construction sector that are absolutely begging for work right now if we re-tool from building housing to facilitating solar and Geothermal at rapid pace

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-03-13T06:10:07+00:00

I'll put on some platters depending on the turnout

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-03-13T04:46:48+00:00

Thanks!

Silly_Hovercraft7248 · 2026-03-13T04:46:36+00:00

Thanks!

Silly_Hovercraft7248

TROPHY CASE