An Indian man has revealed the biggest challenges he faced as a business owner in Ireland.
Dublin-based Anubhav Dutta and his friend, Siddharth Patel, launched a tiffin delivery service, O'Desi Meals, to help the homeless in 2019.
One of the biggest challenges the duo faced were the lack of connections in the food industry.
Read more: Dublin food yard brings authentic taste of South India to the capital
Anubhav told Dublin Live: "The entry barriers are really high. You can’t do it from your home because the HSE wouldn’t approve it.
"You have to rent a commercial kitchen and they’ll cost you an arm and a leg to rent."
Anubhav explained that kitchen incubators are huge kitchens that can be shared by multiple companies in a safety compliant way.
But he added that there aren't enough of them to rent in Dublin.
As outsiders to the industry, the pair felt like they were always passed over for people who had far more connections in the sector.
Anubhav said: "We are outsiders so these places are usually taken by people before they’re even listed on the market.
"When I’m fighting for that one kitchen, I may be up against many people who may have more connections than I.
"If you’re a kitchen owner and you have two options - one is an immigrant you don’t know and the other person has been recommended by a local, you’re not doing the wrong thing by choosing the other person since you’d rather play it safe and go with someone you know versus renting it out to an unknown person.
"But it is the biggest issue I faced as an immigrant."
In the early days of O'Desi Meals, Anubhav, who lives in the IFSC, would have to go down to the kitchen they rented in Co Wicklow after a full day's work to deliver meals in the evening.
He added: "Now we have drivers so I no longer do deliveries but that was very difficult for us. You have to have some sort of tenacity because all the powers are pulling you down."
He recalled a particularly challenging moment at their first kitchen incubator when the owner evicted all the small businesses to cater to a multi-national company.
He said: "He gave us a 30-day notice but that was over Christmas so it was stressful and a lot of people were left scrambling.
"I remember there was a lady in complete distress because this was her bread and butter."
Anubhav said another issue they face even now is illegally run food businesses stealing their customers.
He said: "These food businesses operate from their homes.
Read more: Meet the Irish Sikh community that is helping to expand Ireland's forests
"For example, you have two places and one of them is offering you meals for €9.99 while the other place is selling the same meal for €8.99.
"You, as a customer, probably go for the cheaper one most of the time especially if it’s something you buy every day. That will save you €30 a month. There isn’t enough awareness amongst people to not buy from these shady businesses."
As a registered business, Anubhav said their margins are extremely thin compared to illegal businesses.
He added: "We have to be careful because the HSE could easily shut us down. But these people don’t face the same issues because they’re cooking in their own kitchen.
"The food cost is the least you worry about in this business, but the cost to the company eventually would be much higher because of all the fixed and variable costs.
Read more: Dublin Indian Students Community helping graduates to network
"These illegal businesses don’t have fixed and variable costs, they just have the food costs."
Anubhav also had a few words for any aspiring business owners looking to start their own companies in Ireland.
He said: "You have to have patience. You have to keep doing the right thing. Especially, for immigrants, we’re representatives of our countries so we need to do the right thing.
"You don’t want to be in the news for the wrong reasons. So if say, an immigrant sets up an illegal business and gets busted, it brings shame to not just you but your community."
Sign up to the Dublin Live Newsletter to get all the latest Dublin news straight to your inbox.
