Calling all Mumsnet vegans.....

[mangohedgehog]

I have no idea if it's OK to post this, but here goes anyway... basically, I have had an idea for a vegan microbusiness, and I wondered if you good MNers would give me the benefit of your wisdom. Is this a good idea or should I stop wasting my time?

My idea is this. Whenever I go out to eat in a mainstream restaurant, I often bring little things along with me in case they can't cater for me - things like soy coffee creamer and little chocolate bars to have for dessert. I would love to be able to bring other stuff like vegan mayo, or vegan margarine, but I can never find them in individual packets.

So I thought about how nice it would be if there was an online company where you could just buy all these different food products in little packets, and also nice little containers so you could stash your own stuff easily too. I have also found that I might be able to buy some things e.g. little margarine packets from outside the UK and import them, because you can't get them in the UK at the moment.

So, what do you think? Good idea or terrible? I am not looking for it to make me a million pounds or anything ;) or even to be a full time job, just something on the side that's a bit of fun and might make me a quid or two. Do you think you could ever be persuaded to buy conveniently sized packets of vegan marg, sugar, coffee creamer, veggie soap etc? what are your coping strategies when eating out at mainstream places? any thoughts on all of this would be much appreciated - thank you....:)

[nickelrocketgoBooooooom]

you can buy a lot of that stuff as a caterer - ie, you can buy big bulk packs of the packets for using in restaurants and cafes.

i like the idea of being able to break up the packets and maybe do a pack of one-of-each of ten things.
not sure how many people would buy it, though, but if you don't sink all your life's savings into it....