Your Business: Buying a business with David Fiu, Bean There Cafe

David and Dale Fiu, owners of Bean There Cafe.

David Fiu and his wife Dale bought Bean There Cafe in Onehunga in January 2014.

Can you tell me about the business that you bought and when you bought it?

Bean There Cafe is an independent cafe in Onehunga, and it had been going for 12 months before my wife and I bought it in January 2014. It's a classic cafe - we're not a yuppie or specialist health food cafe - and we have 12 staff, most of them university kids working part time.

Why were you in the market to buy a business and why did you settle on this one?

Before we bought this business we'd been running a 'top 3' cafe in the Columbus franchise chain for three-and-a-half years. Prior to that I was with Air New Zealand for 18 years and my wife had been with Yamaha. We'd both wanted a change leading into retirement, and after taking a couple of years off and getting totally bored out of our tree, we decided to take on a cafe.

We knew absolutely nothing about running cafes, so we decided on Columbus with the plan of spending three years learning all about the business through a franchise then launching our own boutique cafe.

The whole idea was to learn the business and then go our own way, which is where we're at now. After looking at many possibilities through various business brokers we were able to find our current cafe, which fit our search criteria.

What was the process of buying the business like?

It was hard work, but having been through the process before we found it a lot easier this time around. We physically looked at more than 30 different cafes during the search and made three written offers on others, which fell over for one reason or another, before we successfully bought this one.

I'd say obtaining reliable financials would have been the biggest challenge of the process, because people often like to paint them as better than they actually are. You've just got to keep pestering until you get the real information you need.

And obviously you've got to make your list of what you're looking for when you go out searching. Location was a big factor for us - we wanted somewhere relatively close to where we live - and we wanted a classic cafe that we could stamp a family atmosphere on.

Having good professional advisors that you can run everything past are also a big part of the process.

How is the new business going so far?

Excellent. We've had a steady climb in business and since buying the business we've seen a 23 per cent growth in average weekly sales. We've had to upgrade a number of physical aspects of the premises like kitchen equipment, commercial washing machines, microwaves, sinks and make car park repairs, as well as change all working systems to accommodate our vision. But she's now a smooth working machine.

What's your plan for the business going forwards?

With this place we've also got a three-year plan, and after that our idea is to go to the beach! My daughter has a business degree and is also a big part of the operation - she's one of the chefs and knows how everything works - so in the back of our mind that succession is part of the plan.

What's some key advice you'd have for anyone else looking to buy a business?

Go in with a written plan, list your goals and be 110 per cent committed to them.

Plus, be prepared to work harder than you've ever worked in your life. I've had four main jobs in my career, but it's totally different going from being an employee to an employer. It's a 24/7 job and you never really switch off. But although being self-employed has its up and downs, it's definitely been my most rewarding working experience I've had so far.

Coming up in Your Business: How do you figure out what to pay yourself as the owner of a business? What are some of the different formula or guidelines people use and why? If you've got a story to share, drop me a note: nzhsmallbusiness@gmail.com

For more on NZ business ambitions go to www.businessambition.co.nz