Setting up and running a take-away will primarily involve the management of staff and the serving of customers and the biggest individual factor is cost and financial commitment to a property purchase or lease.

As the owner and manager you will also be responsible for making sure the businesses meet the many health and safety regulations for restaurants and takeaways.

As they say in the property game the three most important things are location, location, location, with lots of passing potential customers but you will only be one of many that are looking for sites such as these and the result is that they will be costly to rent.

A take-away that is built on a delivery service such as pizza can get away without such a busy and expensive location; but bear in mind, it should still be within close range of a large number of people, passing trade is a very important consideration.

You need to check out the competition thoroughly in order to have a chance of success, generally competition in this business is very tough and it is very hard to come up with a unique concept.

A huge number of  takeaways fail within a few years because of poor hygiene, bad service or bad location. Staff churn is inevitable and training often lacking. Howvere done properly takeaways in almost any form can be sustainable and profitable, although having done it for many years it would not be my first choice when it comes to a catering business, it is very hard work, and requires a lot of owner input, in other words time.

Takeaways rely on two types of trade, passing and attracted. Passing trade is all about location, attracted is all about marketing. Any would be takeaway entrepreneur would do well to take a quick course on read up on effective marketing techniques.

Advertising in local newspapers can also be effective, but expensive. Menu drops are the most common and most of us get at least one a week pushed through our letter box.