Starting a food business? Here’s the whole first month.

Rules and fees change, and they differ by district. Treat this as a checklist of questions to ask, not a list of answers, and check with the Food and Drugs Authority, your district assembly and the Office of the Registrar of Companies before you open.

Decide what you are

Before the pots, decide three things, because everything else follows from them:

• What you’ll sell. A short menu you can make well and fast beats a long one. Most successful spots are known for one or two things.
• Who it’s for. Workers at lunch, students, the evening crowd, households. They pay differently, arrive at different times and want different portions.
• How it’s served. Sit-down like a chop bar, takeaway from a counter, a stall or van that moves, delivery through the apps, or bread by the dozen from a bakery. Each needs a different setup and a different day.

Pick the place for the people

For food, the place is most of the business. Stand where you’re thinking of opening at the hours you’d trade, and count the people walking past. Look at who else is selling there and what they charge. A spot with competitors and a crowd usually beats a quiet spot with none.

The permits to ask about

• Register the business with the Office of the Registrar of Companies.
• A Food Hygiene Permit from the Food and Drugs Authority is required for anyone selling food to the public, and it must be displayed where you sell. Expect an inspection of where you cook, and health certificates for everyone who handles the food.
• Your district assembly will usually want a business operating permit.
• A restaurant may need a licence from the Ghana Tourism Authority, which also means charging the 1% Tourism Levy. VAT and the Tourism Levy explains what that adds to a bill.

Ask each office what they need from you, and keep copies of everything.

Work out what you need to start

Everyone asks how much it costs to start. The honest answer is that nobody can tell you without your list. Make one with four parts, and price each line yourself at today’s prices:

Part	What goes in it
Equipment	Pots, burners or coal pots, cool boxes, a table, plates or packs, a stand or a van
The first stock	A week’s ingredients, drinks, gas or charcoal
Getting open	Permits, registration, rent or a deposit, a sign
Running money	Enough to keep going for a few weeks before the takings cover the costs

The last line is the one people skip, and it’s the one that closes new businesses. The first weeks are usually slower than you hope.

Price every plate before you sell it

Work out what one plate costs you to make: the pot’s cost divided by the plates it serves, plus anything added plate by plate, like the egg, the meat or the pack. Then set a price where food takes about a third of it or less, and compare it with what’s sold nearby. Food cost per plate walks through it with a calculator.

Do it again whenever the market prices move. They will.

Keep records from the first day

The businesses that last know their numbers from the start: what sold, what came in as cash and as MoMo, what’s owed, what was spent. It doesn’t need to be clever, it needs to be every day.

• On paper: the daily sales record has a sheet to print, with cash, MoMo and credit apart.
• On a phone: a till app writes the record as you sell. Tabworthy has a Free plan for one person on one till, which is how most food businesses start. Chop bars and food trucks and stalls show how it fits.

Decide how you’ll take money

Cash and MoMo, from day one. Decide who carries the MoMo charge and keep MoMo in its own column, so you can check what arrived. Who pays the MoMo charge and fake MoMo alerts are worth reading before the first busy day, not after.

The first month

Watch three numbers every night: what came in, what you spent, and what’s owed to you. After a month you’ll know your best day, your best dish, and whether the business pays for itself yet. That’s more than most people know after a year.