Food catering businesses have become a new phenomenon in the market, and people want to start this business because we Indians love food. The expected market size of this industry is Rs 15,000 – 20,000 crore Rupees in India, growing by 25-30% every year. Whether it’s marriage or any other function, food is the main attraction of it, catering is not a high-investment business. But you can make it a high-income business for yourself because, as Denis Voivaldo has said in her book, “How to Start a Home-Based Catering Business ” , “catering is more than cooking”. First, you need to estimate your business size as you want to keep that in your house, or you can go out and cook for a larger audience. You must buy and rent many things, including utensils and a transport vehicle. This business has a lot of potentials to earn money. Let’s check it out.
Points to Follow and Start This Business:-
Here we have pointed out some of the important topics. These points will help you to get complete knowledge of this business, and you can excel with these points. So let’s read them and learn.
1. Business Plan:-
It would be best to decide at what length you want to take this business and where to start. Also, please start the business at a low scale with limited people. First, if you get the pace and the grip and hold on to your taste, you can go for the high level. In addition, you must look at the business models of other entrepreneurs and make one for yourself. The business model will help you get the correct visualisation of your business map for the future and start. Also, you can either start catering from your house, and you can rent a place, or, lastly, you can cook at the location of the event.
2. Kitchen and Transport:-
If you are planning to open a full-time catering business, you should buy a lot of things but most importantly, a full-size kitchen. The kitchen you need to purchase or rent on a working day basis should have all the basic things, including a good space and plumbing facilities. Then, after settling up in the kitchen, you focus on the other parts, the transportation. You will need a vehicle to reach the place with all your kitchen equipment and staff, you can look at the Tata 610 SFC, it has all kinds of specifications which suit your needs. It will even help you in getting the daily vegetables to your kitchen.
3. Financial Setup:-
You need to look at your capital very closely and assess all the expenses in the initial times, and it will give you a clear picture of how much you have to spend in the upcoming days. The initial investment in the business will cost you at least Rs. 20 – 25 Lakhs* and no earnings for some months, it includes all the one-time expenses, including the kitchen, equipment and transportation. In addition, for getting capital, there are many ways. First, you have some of the amounts and can take some from your knowns, the second is to have a partner who can put all the efforts with you in setting up the whole space, and the final one is getting a loan from the bank. The bank loan will need a lot of verifications, but this is the safest way of getting the initial push to chase your dreams.
4. Licence and Permits:-
Now it’s time to get some legal certificates from the respected authorisation. All businesses undergo legal verification related to the food industry, so some authorisations like FSSAI will certify your company. You need to fulfil some requirements to secure your business from delays. The followings are the requirements:-
- The location of your business should be away from external pollutants.
- You need to have enough space and hygiene in your storage units.
- There should be cleanliness all around your kitchen.
- The food should be free from any contamination.
- No used or old food was served or delivered to the customers.
- The staff also follow all the hygiene standards that you maintain.
- The utensils and containers must be free from dust and contamination.
5. Permanent Suppliers Of Goods:-
The food catering business needs continuity in every aspect; you will have some regular customers in your order list after a while. And you will need your materials daily, and for that, you need to develop your resources where you can order daily. In addition, you will need groceries, milk and other dairy products daily. Therefore, you need to choose reliable suppliers for all these needs and create as many contacts as possible for the future. In addition, you can also opt for having a vehicle on your own, like the Tata Inra V10. It comes with a high power and good carrying capacity.
6. Menu and The Manpower:-
Once you set up everything, you need to decide on the Menu of your catering services. The dishes on the Menu should be available on the given courses. It will increase the trust and your value in front of the customers. After deciding on the Menu, you should now be in the way of getting your staff in the place. The team needs to be appropriate enough to handle double the capacity of your customers and excel in the food on your Menu. The first focus of you and your staff should be the quality of your dishes. The per-plate cost can be less than what others are providing because you are new in the town.
7. Inventory and Marketing:-
After getting things done, you can get back to the digitalisation part of your business. In the era when the world is on the cusp of a digital revolution, you need to make an online interface for your user and the inventory of your stocks. After getting these things, it’s time to tell the world about your arrival. Next, starting marketing your brand and the services you provide to customers would be best. Your company’s name should be very attractive but not cliche for the general public. Finally, you can start paid promotions on social media platforms with the help of influencers, food bloggers, and vloggers. Social media will give a good boost in the number of your audience.
Conclusion:-
After all these things done by you, there are very few chances that this business will fail anyhow. On the contrary, the food catering business can take you to a big industry with a value of thousands of crores.
We hope the given information in the blog will be helpful for you and the content is relevant to what you have searched. For more informative blogs, be with us.