Bake the Menu - Video Blog

September 2011


Early in a start up business you need to decide what to deliver to your customers and the most cost effective way to do that. This decision making process is crucial and must take into account, consistency of delivery, quality and pricing to name but a few. I will deliver a high quality product in a comfortable and classically vintage tea room.

There are three excellent reasons to 'Bake the Menu'. Firstly for quality control; to ensure that menu items are of the best quality and recipes can be tweaked where necessary. Sadly this also means that i'll have to eat the menu too. Secondly I need to work out the exact costings of each menu item, to set a fair price and identify the cost of sale for each menu item. The third reason to 'Bake the Menu' is so that I can keep a video log to update the website with all the mouth watering and delicious home baking that my tea room will serve.

My rules for this film series are simple and I will guarantee you the following:

• Films will be kept short and snappy
• I'll highlight our favourite tips
• Everything is 100% home made where practical 
• We always wash our hands!
• Recipes are available on request, unless they're family secrets

In return:

• If you have something to say, post it on the blog or subscribe to my Channel on Youtube
• If you have some of your own top tips, then let us know
• Get involved & be inspired

Without further ado I bring you Volume One...

ALL VIDEOS AND GALLEY CAN BE FOUND IN MY GALLERY HERE

Bring Back Don't Ask Don't Tell

September 2011


Project X - Venue 2012 How it Happened and Some More Hints

Welcome to all my new readers as well as you regulars. After last weeks lightning bolt revelation that I may have found a venue for my tea room, which is available in Spring 2012, I feel it is only fair to give you some background. I will intentionally remain cryptic because this venue is SO very good I cannot risk someone else swooping in and gazumping me. When I reveal all on the 1st December take a look back through these words and reminisce but for now as long as you don't ask I won't be tempted to tell all. On with the story...

March 2011


Saturday nights in your late twenties onwards seem to revolve more around either being away at weddings, birthdays, christenings, other social occasions or at home having an early night so that you can enjoy the perfect Sunday. So a night out to a bar in central Cardiff on a Saturday is certainly not the norm for me. A very fabulous friend who writes a very fabulous blog, moved away from Cardiff earlier this year. To see her off we had a party! It was one of those weekends where events collide; most importantly my very dear school time friend was due to visit from Exeter. After a little cajoling my partner and I convinced her that she really did want to go to a Lesbian farewell party in Cardiff on Saturday night. Fortunately for me neither the X-Factor or Strictly Come Dancing had started on the telly yet!

It is important to give you an insight into my frame of mind at the time. Almost every person in my life, both personally and professionally has some idea that I was planning on starting a business opening in Spring 2011. As I make no secret of this fact, indeed I am actually promoting the journey right here, so I certainly cannot complain when every person I meet asks how it is going and more importantly why I am not open yet. The novelty of the introduction “Oh my Gosh, Dave is starting a tea room…” wears a little thin, even when you are as passionate about your project as I am. Having had a few knock backs this year in March I was still struggling to be enthusiastic 24/7 particularly when you don't have much news to update with.

One of my traits as a sales person is the need to tell a story in detail leading to a poignant climax. When people ask about the tea room, I usually base how much detail to go into by judging how interested they appear. On Saturday 5^th March 2011 I wasn’t up for going into much detail particularly as the majority of guests were strangers. One of the guests at the party was particularly interested in the tea room and so myself, my partner and my best mate ended up chatting through the Tea Room saga from the initial decision right through to the loss of the Coach House a few weeks earlier. It is always nice to meet someone who seems genuinely interested in finding out about my project and, despite my negative frame of mind, it was a really lovely evening discussing the stresses of being back to square with my venue search.

Out of the Blue

I didn’t think anything else about that evening as I trundled off to Brighton the next day; into week two of my corporate filler job. Tuesday morning that week I received a call from my other half telling me to check my Facebook private messages of all things and there it was. On Tuesday 8^th March 2011, about 10 minutes before I was due to meet a very important client in my new job as Director of Sales, I had this message…

“Dave!!! Great News! ... has got a potential place for your tea shop!! In the ... , it’s being refurbished so you wouldn’t have to pay for that and they might want a traditional tea room!! Call me if you’re interested” Megan

Back in the Game

It isn’t in my nature to be mysterious however over the coming months I am going to be a bit shy with information. The reason for this is simple: this unit is not in the bag yet. In fact I won’t know if I have it until about the 23^rd December 2011. I am entering a process that is competitive and for that reason I have decided to keep quiet about some of the details. Because I am actually dying to tell the World about how much I love this option I have decided that it should be safe to go public on Thursday 1^st December 2011. On that date I will reveal all. The site is being developed in the coming months and I intend to record this transformation in several formats, including photos and video. This serves the purpose of documenting the process and, if I am successful as I pray I am, will serve as a great way to look back in a years time and recall the struggle.

Next Time

As 2011 is rushing past at a pace, it is time to start turning my attention to all the fabulously exciting jobs yet to do. Including researching suppliers, procurement, writing the menus and most importantly Baking the Menu! Stay tuned for updates and if you are a potential supplier or can recommend one drop me a line. You can expect new images soon in the gallery along with my very own Youtube channel coming soon!

AAA Business Rating - A View, A Brew, A Loo

and An Exciting Update Too



February 2011 – Today (September 2011)



This blog post is rather exciting for me as it finally brings you up to date with where my tea room plans are at right now! From writing my first entry well over a year ago it has taken me this long to fill you in on the trials and tribulations of the past 18 months. I am now inching closer to achieving my dream and this blog paves the way for the radical news that I may have found the venue of my dreams.
This is bittersweet news for you as I need to remain rather cryptic about the details, but read on and in the coming weeks I promise it will become clear.

NOTE: Later today I will add a timeline which will provide a chronology of the journey so far and some key upcoming dates, including my new target opening date! UPDATED Timeline is HERE

February 2011


When you set up a business you find that people want to give you advice, after all your friends and loved ones usually like to be helpful. We all like to impart knowledge and we all have exciting ideas that we just love to share. Don’t worry this is not going to be a rant about how well-meaning folk stick their noses in to your business, as I learnt a long time ago to listen carefully to advice. Surprising information can come from sources you never thought likely to help. It is the helpful sayings and clichés that I particularly love and the best that I have heard relating to what makes a successful attraction for tourism came from a chap working for Visit Britain;

“The goal is to get people to spend their time and money with you’; their needs are few, a view, a brew and a loo.“ Visit Britain



This may seem a little coarse but the sentiment is truthful; to fulfil the basic Human needs, both spiritual and physical. Our spiritual needs are personal and subjective, however our physical needs are simple and yet so easy to get wrong. Many of my friends myself included will, regardless of how good a venue is, site the condition of the water closet as the make or break for a positive review. Suffice to say to find the perfect tea room venue this is stella advice.

How Starbucks make the Bigbucks

November 2010 - January 2011

This post is about working for Starbucks, judging them, learning to love coffee and working out to what extent I need coffee to have a successful tea room business in 2011/12. Here is the next instalment in my journey.

The chances are that you are reading this segment of my tea room journey, while drinking a lovely hot beverage. I can confidently make this statement because 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day and with the Worlds population currently estimated at 6.94 billion, that's a lot of coffee!*. As I haven't drunk my quota for the past decade and quite a few people on the globe don't own kettles I feel quite confident that you people out there must be guzzling coffee all day.

Coffee to me is a mystery. Like many people who work in offices I started drinking coffee because everyone else did and it was part of my induction alongside how to operate the photocopier. Unlike most people though my day became shaped by the effects of my morning cuppa, which looked something like this;

9am (9.15am ish) - Arrive at desk log on, emails etc
9.30am - Morning Coffee
11am - Caffeine driven productivity madness ensues
1pm - Lunch
2pm - Afternoon energy crash begins
3pm - Dangerously bored and sleepy now, best to just have another coffee
4pm - Caffeine mania returns productivity goes through the roof
5pm - Final end of day crash, the last 30 minutes drag...
6pm - Pass out

Suffice to say that I stopped drinking coffee in 2006, no real surprise that this is also the year that my career really started moving forward at a pace.

Diary Excerpt–The Birth and Death of the Old Coach House Tea Rooms

August 2010 – January 2011

August 2010
27th August 2010 – Business in Focus Advice
“Today I met with Jane Way at her offices in Cardiff Bay. Amongst several of the things that we discussed were how to go about finding the perfect venue for my new business. I have quite a specific idea in my head for what sort of shop I want for my tea room, this is based on good places I have been to in the past and also what shops I think are in Cardiff in areas that I think will work. 
For my first tea room and indeed my first business, I have decided to rent a property to minimise the risk involved and also keep my start up costs down. I figure that a good street facing unit on a busy shopping street area is the way to go. With this in mind I am targeting Wellfield Road, Albany Road, Roath, Pontcanna, Penarth, Whitchurch Village, Llandaff Village, Cyn Coed and Cardiff City Centre to start with. 
I will need A3 planning consent to operate my tea room, however getting this kind of planning consent where it does not already exist is really tough. It turns out that in the recent past Cardiff has been very free with handing out A3 consent, so takeaway outlets and restaurants have popped up all over the city. As a result Cardiff has now developed the opposite attitude and won’t hand out A3 easily. Scarily Jane also pointed out that it could take over a year to find a venue, she has had some clients where it has taken several years to find the right place…”
Tuesday 31st August – First Impressions of a Seemingly Expensive Property
“There are so few commercial properties listed on the internet in Cardiff that aren’t huge warehouses. It is really frustrating especially as it is now so easy to find residential properties online through third parties. I am stuck with www.findaproperty.com and www.primelocation.com neither of which have very much choice for my narrowed down search. From looking around so far properties of the size and in areas that I like range from £10,000 to £50,000 per annum.  I have budgeted in the region of £15-£20,000.
Mike has seen a property near Sophia Gardens which is pretty close to Cardiff City, however it is over my rent threshold and is one of the first properties i have found.”

How to Find and Lease the Perfect Commercial Property - 10 Top Tips

Yes this is one of the most exciting titles for any Blog post. I toyed with punning my way into this subject, but it is just too important to make the subject line any more exciting. I shall endeavour to make the content a little more interesting than the title!

July 2010 - May 2011

Just Looking I am Not Buying

I have been looking for a commercial property to lease in South Wales of the UK for the past ten months, to become the perfect home for my Tea Room Business. The writing of my business plan was one of the first steps in creating my venue requirement brief. You probably have a pre-conception in your head for what a traditional tea room looks like. I am coming at this from a different angle, I can picture several types of buildings that may suit, but actually it is the content and subsequent functionality that helps me stay open minded to a venue. Jane Way advised me that it may easily take over a year to find a venue, when we met in July 2010 and here I am ten months on with no signed lease agreement. It may be very easy to find the venue you want, but the majority of small business' rely to a crucial extent on finding a venue that is actually quite unique. To me it feels like finding a needle in a haystack.

When I sat down to find my perfect property I started by creating a brief that would allow me to rule in, or rule out certain venues quickly. There are many things to consider when making your venue brief here are a few good questions to ask yourself particularly if you are looking for a retail property;

Procurement Fun 2. Pretty Tables

October 2010

Wombling

My favourite two methods of acquiring furniture for my Tea Room make use of the on-line organisations Free-Cycle and Gumtree. +I currently have the luxury of time and a lovely large spare room to cram full of goodies.

Free Cycle - Cardiff

Gumtree

Both of these sites have their pro's and cons but used together they are a wonderful tool for finding the great bargains.