Due to upcoming changes in legislation (mainly due to European regulations filtering over to the uk) I know that realistically I will only be able to stay in my current business for 1-2 yrs max. These upcoming changes have made me stop daydreaming about a complete direction change business wise & made me act on it instead.
I am nowhere near completing my food van business plan. I still have to do a lot more market research, secure a plot & finish costings etc.
On the positive side I have said for many years I would like my own food van; I worked many long days in a burger van & in cafes etc as a teenager so I know & enjoy the work. I am used to the discipline of self employment now so that doesn't phase me either.
So I attended today with the bones of a business plan & was looking for feedback on my ideas on how to do my market research & any other help I could get.
Basically without even looking at my ideas the business advisor shot my idea right out of the water & said I won't be able to make a profit as too many people have food vans. This is before I even mentioned where I wanted to put it. Everything I said he disagreed with, even telling me that a certain places doesnt allow cooking when I personally know someone who's been cooking there for 12 years
I still have confidence in my ideas but I know the difference between confidence & arrogance so I'm looking for any input from anyone who knows the field well (I worked in catering in a seaside town & I'm in the city now MANY years later!) also, the guy I met today was from a free service in Manchester, is it likely I would get a different opinion from a different advisor elsewhere?
Thanks in advance
Being in South Africa, I am unaware of many of the laws you have over there, but I am sure that, if you do your homework, get all your facts and figures together as well as knowing the laws for the specific areas you want to work in, you could get him to listen to you. If you have hard, cold facts that prove you can make a decent profit. He might be right about competition, but if your food is better, or you focus on a type of food there is a demand for that has not been met, you could do really well, and he would have no other choice but see that. 
But he did give me some good general advice which did prove to be useful, and made me revisit my business plan and look at it more realistically.
