Asian grocery shop

Local families who cook Asian food at home, students, and curious home cooks who can't find these ingredients in supermarkets.

You buy stock from wholesalers or importers and sell at a mark-up. Regular weekly shoppers and good stock of hard-to-find items bring repeat custom.

• Knowing the foods and brands your customers want
• Stock control and buying
• Customer service
• Basic bookkeeping

• Register your food business with your local council, usually at least 28 days before you start trading
• Check food labelling rules for imported products, including English ingredient and allergen labels
• Short dated and chilled or frozen stock needs careful date checking and temperature control
• Check the planning use class of any unit and the lease terms before signing
• Public liability insurance, plus stock and contents cover
• If you want to sell alcohol, you will need a premises licence and a personal licence holder to authorise sales, so check with your council's licensing team before stocking it
• Tobacco and vaping products don't need a separate licence, but strict rules apply on age checks, display, packaging and labelling, so check with Trading Standards before stocking them
• Business rates and rent can be a big fixed cost, so check whether small business rate relief applies

Startup costs are typically around £15,000 to £60,000, depending on your premises, fit-out, opening stock and insurance. Rent and business rates can be a big fixed cost, so treat these as estimates.

Monthly revenue is typically around £8,000 to £35,000, depending on location, range and footfall. The estimate assumes about 40 hours a week, and this is revenue before rent, stock and other costs.

Check you register your food business with your local council, usually at least 28 days before trading, and the labelling rules for imported products. If you want to sell alcohol, check premises licence requirements with your council's licensing team. Also check planning use class and lease terms.