There is no doubt that Britain is a nation of sandwich lovers. After all, it was a British Earl, the Earl of Sandwich, who they are named after – no surprise there really. Making and selling sandwiches can be a very lucrative business, especially if you offer a made-to-order service. The number of businesses that do not have their own staff canteen is growing, especially with more stringent health and safety regulations. Maintaining a staff cafeteria has become too expensive and many companies have dispensed with them altogether and installed drinks machines instead. This could be to your advantage as a large number of business premises are in business parks, and staff do not have enough time during their lunch breaks to go to the nearest shop and buy their lunch, or prefer to eat at their desks so that they can leave the office early. There are also a lot of employees who don’t have time to make their own sandwiches in the morning because they are trying to get their kids off to school or the childminder, or simply can’t be bothered. These are all potential customers for a sandwich business.

You can meet this demand in a number of ways. The simplest, and most efficient, is to start a delivery service. Approach your potential customers with flyers that have a list of popular sandwiches, their prices and a telephone number for placing orders. If possible, make an appointment with someone working at the company - the head of personnel or human resources for example. Take along some sample sandwiches and ask if they would post your flyer on the staff notice board, or other suitable place. On the flyer you have a deadline by which orders need to be placed, and a time and place that they will be delivered to. When you are approaching a number of businesses in the area, it is important that you stagger the delivery times, to prevent disappointed customers and cancelled orders. When you deliver the sandwiches, you take payment. It really is as simple as that.

Another way of opening a sandwich business is to have a van from which you can sell a selection of sandwiches. Prawn mayonnaise, cheese and pickle, ham and coleslaw, tuna and cucumber and egg salad for example. You then visit the companies in the area, and let the customers come to you. Again, if you can have a flyer advertising the fact that you will be outside at a certain time each day placed in a prominent place inside the company that is the ideal. However, if you park outside each place at the same time every day then the staff will soon know when to expect you. You may want to sell other items too, such as packets of crisps, chocolate bars and canned drinks. If you are an avid baker then you may even want to sell cakes and biscuits. The choice is yours, and you will soon get a feel for what sells, and what doesn’t.

Once you become established in an area then you can branch out and expand the business by hiring staff to cover more areas, even let staff take over all the sandwich work and you just manage you growing empire!