This is part 3 for the article called “Ideas for a non-internet home business”, read part 1 and part 2 if you have not done so all ready.
Recession or not, people need to eat, so there is always a market for food related home business opportunities.In this article I will give a few tips of how to start your own home based meals to go business and how to setup your own catering business from home.
How To Start Your Own Home Based Meals To Go Business:
You might want to explore the possibilities of selling meals to go in your community, If you are one of those people who love to cook.A lot of people are not really eating right these days. In most cases, familiar thrive on processed and instant foods because everyone is too busy to prepare a healthy meal. By offering home cooked meals to go, you will be able to help others eat more healthy foods and at the same time earn some money to contribute to the family coffers.
If your neighbors and friends love your cooking, you will most likely have a lot of people knocking on your door and asking for a decent meal.
Getting organized
If you happen to live in an apartment building where everyone leaves the place in a hurry everyday, you might want to offer some breakfast, lunch or dinner to go. However, before you do so, you better check with the building administrator if these things are allowed or else you will get into trouble.There are many apartment buildings that do not really allow these things because this could be a source of fire hazards.On the other hand, if you have your own house, offering meals to go will not be much of a problem.In most cases, after complying with government regulations, you can start your home business immediately.
Organizing things for your food to go business is not really that difficult especially if you have a computer with internet connection in your home.You can start by asking the people in the building for their email or instant messaging address.You can send your menu for the day to these addresses and ask them to send you a message as to what they will have for breakfast, lunch or dinner.For your neighbors who do not have internet connection, you can just put a cork board outside your door where you can post your menu for the day.You may also provide for some paper and a box where your clients can write their order and then drop them in the box.
Furthermore, having a business phone is a must.Some of your clients may want to call you to place or cancel their orders.Never rely on your home phone for this purpose. Always bear in mind that the home phone should only be used for personal transactions and the business phone should dedicated solely for entertaining clients.
Set a specific time and place where your clients can pick up their food.Make sure that you are already and waiting a few minutes before your clients starts arriving so that you will not have difficulties getting things in order.
Setting Up Your Own Home Based Catering Business:
You might want to put your talents to work and set up your own home based catering business if you love cooking.The good thing about setting up your business at home is that you get to earn money while keeping an eye on the kids.
Formulating your business plan
Before to start your business, be sure that you have a sound business plan.Always bear in mind that your business plan is very important if you want to succeed in your business.You don’t really need a complicated business. All you need is a list of things that you need to do to get things started, have a business goal, a time frame and a budget. Now, don’t runaway yet, it’s not really as complicated as it sounds.You don’t need to have a PhD to write your business plan.To make a simplified business plan, just get a piece of paper and divide it into four columns.
The first column should be allocated for particulars where you will write all the things that you will to do, the second column could be for time frame where you get to write the time and date when you will need to perform the task that you listed in your column for particulars, the third column will not be for your expected expenses and the fourth column will be for your expected output.
When formulating your business plan, make sure that you list all the things that need to be done, preferably in a chronological order or in your order of priorities.For instance, since you are setting up a home based catering business, you will need to get cooking equipments.
On your fist column, you may write there purchase of equipments and cooking utensils.Make sure that you identify all the equipments and utensils that you need.You may write then according to your priorities.
On the second column, write when you will purchase these things. In case you are not planning to purchase all your equipments all at the same time, write the different target dates you have.
For your third column, estimate how much money you need to get you equipments.You may also write in your business plan as to where you intend to get the money from.
The fourth column of simplified business plan can be a bit tricky.Here you will make some business projections.If you are buying equipments, you will need to project how you will be able to recover the cost of your investment.Be realistic in your projections. Always bear in mind that it will not do your any good to be overly optimistic.Always be conservative when making projections.It is always better to exceed your projected income than to fall miserably below it.
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