It takes determination, hard work, and ingenuity to run a successful business. Mobile catering businesses, as we know, come in all shapes, sizes, formats, cuisines, and types. In floating terms we’ve encountered cafes, coffee, pizza, ice cream, and fudge boats, to name but a few. This week I’ve been learning firsthand the ins and outs of the consumables it takes to run a mobile catering business from a narrowboat.
On any boat, space is at a premium. Unlike a bricks and mortar establishment, you can’t store stock easily. That means being really focused on what you need and buying to sell. We’ve been moored next to The Slush Boat run by Mark and The Spud Boat run by Steve and Jo.
Steve and Jo, when we first met them some years ago, were setting up a doughnut operation on their boat, but to produce and cook a successful doughnut the equipment needs to be totally level and that isn’t always the case on a moored boat. After months of persevering, they sold the equipment and bought another boat, which they equipped from scratch to serve Spuddies. They also run a second business aboard – The Laundry Boat, offering service washes mainly to boaters. This is proving particularly popular in the winter, and they’re aiming to expand to offer a dog bed/rug wash n dry service too.
This week I’ve had a car and been glad to help my fellow traders, with transport support collecting stock from the cash and carry.
These are businesses whose sole means of transport are their legs or their boats. They don’t keep a car. That means factoring in the often considerable time it will take to cruise or walk to where they need to stock up and to trade. If walking, then you need a trolley and backpacks to enable you to maximise each journey. Sometimes that may be several miles, laden with heavy goods. There are other options like deliveries to near the boat or a taxi, but those costs need to be factored into any profits they subsequently make.
Like any business, it pays to buy in bulk or as much bulk as you can. The limits are space on the boat and the capacity to carry what they buy the distance from wherever they are buying to where they are moored. Often this means moving the boats as near as possible to the cash and carry or supermarkets as they can, but that can risk losing what could be a prime location for trading, so it is a delicate juggling act. If there are two traders who know each other well, one may stay on the mooring whilst the other moves a boat to near the shops.
In Mark’s case, he needs slush syrups, cans of drink, ice cream, toppings, and snacks. For Spuddies, they need…spuds (boxes or sacks of them), toppings of a different kind ranging from butter to beans in large quantities, chilli and curry, and loads of cheese. Jo likes a grated mix of mozzarella combined with cheddar mix for melty deliciousness.
Together, this week, we did the cash and carry, and we did the supermarkets with the car. It still meant though that everything they bought, every box of cans or spuds had to be carried from the car up a path, up the steep steps of a footbridge, over the bridge and down the other side before being transported along the towpath to the boats. Not for them the luxury afforded to bricks and mortar businesses who just whizz to a shop, buy what they need plus some extras to see if they sell!
Mark, bless him, also lugged me a bag of coal onto the boat. I’m hoping that will mean we’re now into a heatwave, having bought yet another bag of fuel for the stove! I thought the last one would be the final one, but the evenings are still pretty chilly.
This Bank Holiday weekend if you’re in the Greater Manchester area, treat yourself to a visit to the Leeds Liverpool Canal at Pennington Flash and do visit The Slush Boat, and Spuddies – you can be assured of a warm welcome and I can personally guarantee they’re stocked up and ready for you!
Across the country this weekend, there will be floating markets – with foods and all manner of goods for sale. I won’t be trading this weekend (I’m having a new adventure instead) but there are markets at St Richard’s Canal Festival at Droitwich; Norbury Canal Festival at Norbury Wharf; Berkhamsted; Burton on Trent and in London at Little Venice there’s the amazing Inland Waterways Association Canalway Cavalcade. There will also be trading and a chance to enjoy the waterways at other locations – do explore what’s available near you. They all offer unique beautifully made items, a great experience, often brilliant bargains, and a tasty treat or two.