Advice: starting a new business

hello everyone.

Hope you're all well :)

I wanted to get some info.
I have always wanted to start my own business and after years of planning i am finally going to do it.
the problem is: the business is like no other (there is no existing like it) but it would go under a cafe/restaurant category.

so - lets say im opening up a cafe like business.
how do i go on about doing that?
i mean the money is not a problem but do i need to have a lawyer/license/accountant etc?
i have a big family and they will all help out with all kinds of job.
but i dont know how to go on about registering it etc.

so if any of u have a cafe or similar business running, any advice would be great and much much much appreciated!

Hi, I'm not totally sure about everything but I got my accountant to set my business up, get it registered for GST etc, but you can actually do it yourself if you are that way inclined. There is a government website you can search what businesses are registered (to check the name you want isn't already used) then just pay your money for yours. An accountant will be able to tell you how to best set it up though and is probably a good starting point. Don't know about licences etc, as its food you might have to apply for one.
Never had to see a lawyer.
It cost about $380 for the accountant to set it up and that included the fees for registering the business and he also checked my first months books to make sure I was accounting it correctly and showed me how to do my GST return online. (just to give you an indication of what an accountant would charge and what you should expect for it.)
You can claim the accountant fees back as well.
Hope that helps a little bit

I dont really have any tips, but just wanted to say best of luck! I have kinda started my own business but havent got very far yet... hopefully some day soon!

you can set up a company online but your accountant who will do books etc can do it all too!

see a lawyer if you are getting into leasing etc...do not enter into one of those on your own...Im guessing youre not running it from home?

talk to your bank...they have business advisors etc

and Good luck!

We owned a cafe for a while, just wanted to warn you that it's flippin hard work!! We absolutely loved it, and were successful in that we were busy and improved it heaps from what it was before (made style/menu/layout changes etc) but day to day running we weren't able to take a lot of drawings. It was hard to pay our own personal bills cos we were putting so much back into the business. We made our coin when we sold it for a nice profit.

It was great fun and I wouldn't change the fact that we did it, but I wouldn't do it again in a hurry! I'm glad you have family etc who can help out with stuff cos you'll really need the support network. We found it hard, physical work - and working from early in the morning til about 6 at night, and in the beginning we worked every day til we could get reliable staff to cover.

As far as the actual business side of things went, DH set up all that. If you want to talk/email with him just PM me. What I do know is that we had a good accountant who helped us out with alot. And laywers - now you pay them a heck of a lot of money for not doing a heck of a lot. Some stuff you can actually get done through an accountant instead of a laywer, so if you can, do that.

Good luck!!

You will probably need to apply for a health or food trading license, but I'm not sure where to go for one of those....

busymum wrote: You will probably need to apply for a health or food trading license, but I'm not sure where to go for one of those....

Local Council would be able to help with those. You would have to make sure that all your staff have the food safety unit standard to get a good rating.