Explore The Business Of Home Kitchens!

Can Hobbies Be Turned Into A Business Venture?

Are you a home cook with a great weekend menu?
You can turn your cooking skills into a highly profitable food business.
In this article, we will show you how you can start a food business from the comfort of your own home.
The kitchen is the busiest room in our home, and the way to someone’s heart (including your own) is through the stomach!
You can turn your passion for cooking into a profitable food business from home - all you need is an internet connection.
The current pandemic has changed food consumption and eating habits across the globe, and people have been forced to prepare breakfast on their own, lunch, and dinner.
But many busy professionals either don’t have the time or talent, to prepare complicated food.
After all, you can’t survive on Maggi for days on end!
So, in 2020, the food scene in India had a new entrant-the home chef.
She or he could be a homemaker or a professional or a freelancer.
Many “momtrepreneur” start with a love of food and a cherished family recipe, like your grandfather’s mutton biryani or your aunt’s vegetable stew, and try and turn their passion into a successful enterprise.
Homemade food keeps you healthy and addresses concerns about hygiene and personal safety.
Online homemade cookie-making business eliminates the need for a brick-and-mortar store, and you can sell directly to customers.
There are many food business ideas with small capital that you can start from your home.
In the food business, brand loyalty is very important.
Once people trust your brand, they are likely to stick with it for a long time and it can become a recurring income stream.
The food industry generates billions of dollars in revenue and people are always going to eat!
You can start a food business from your home kitchen by following the steps given below:

Make A Business Plan

A business plan will help you to get an idea for your home food business, and let you know if you need financial support.
It will cover the total initial investment and daily expenses.
You can also use this to convince investors to buy a stake in your business.

Gather Experience

Even if you know cooking, it would be a good idea to apprentice under another well-known chef or in a restaurant to learn the tricks of the trade.
You can also enroll in a live online class.
Apart from cooking, which is essential, other skills like customer service, management, and promotional techniques are also vital to know in this business.

Choose Your Niche

Even if you have an idea about the food that you would like to make, you first need to validate that idea.
Make sure that there is a market for what you would offer.
If you are not sure about business ideas you can look up “up and coming food trends” on Google.
If you find that the market for your food is saturated, you need to differentiate it from others.
The easiest way to do that is to find an untapped sub-audience for what you are offering.
Is there a demand for an organic or local alternative for the product that you have in mind?
Can your product be a good replacement for certain dietary restricted food having gluten?
In a competitive market, conducting market research and finding the right niche is very important.

Branding

Branding is very important because people won’t be able to taste your food before buying.
Photographs, package design, and website-all need to pitch in to make your brand stand out from the crowd.
Get a designer to create a unique logo for your brand.

Certification

Most states allow home production of food if commercial kitchen code requirements and safety guidelines are followed.
Before starting the business, you would need to get your kitchen certified.
Learn about your state’s health department’s requirements for your home kitchen, for FSSAI licensing, and other formalities.

Cost

You have to work out the economics and final selling price.
If your home kitchen requires any special equipment, you need to consider that in your start-up costs.
If your products require refrigeration it will add to your cost.

Source Your Ingredients

For finding suppliers, the internet is a great place to start looking for wholesale providers.
Make sure that you trace the origin of the products with the suppliers so that you can label them correctly, like, ‘organic’ for example.
This will enable you to be transparent with your customers.
Once you have found your suppliers you are ready to set up your kitchen.

Set Up Your Production Space

You can prepare and sell food from your home kitchen, but you need to look into the legal requirements, which can vary from state to state.
You have to buy professional foodservice equipment made from stainless steel which can be easily cleaned and sanitised.

Selling Food

You can sell food both online and offline, and the more you diversify, the better.
For online marketing, you can reach out to food blogs, influencers, or magazines, and have them feature you on their platform.
You can also build your own social media following by sharing videos of your cooking.
Lifestyle influencers have a huge impact on their followers who can be your customers.
Suppose, you make vegan yogurt.
You can send these influencers free samples so that they can try them and recommend them to their followers.
Home chefs like you can also produce cooking shows on YouTube. Your followers can easily turn into your customers!

Food Business From Home Ideas

1. Dinner Club

This is a very unique way of starting a food business!
Dinner club is a concept in which a small group of guests are invited into the owner’s premises and served delicious home-cooked food.

2. Bakery

The bakery business is the largest industry in India in the food processing sector.
People just love baked items-they have bread and biscuits for breakfast, cookies with tea, and cakes for dessert!
If you are good at making cakes, muffins, and biscuits, you can start a small bakery from your home.
Or, if candy or chocolate making is your hobby, you can begin that business also.
You would need a baking oven, different moulds and of course, good recipes.
Apart from domestic households, you can reach out to corporates because they need many baked goodies for their conferences and meetings.
You can also supplement your income by offering cake decoration classes.

3. Meal Kits

Many people like to cook meals at home but find the task of preparation, like chopping onions and vegetables onerous.
For them, you can provide meal kits, which are essential items that are ready to cook, so that the customer does not have to spend much time preparing them.
These may include ready to bake cake dough to cut vegetables and ready-to-fry fish fillet.
Your food business from home can also be used to sell intermediary products like pre-prepared rajma gravy with masala powder, tomatoes, onion, and ginger so that all the customer has to do is boil the beans and add the gravy.

4. Snacks

There are lots of food business ideas when it comes to snacks.
You can make and deliver traditional snacks like samosas, chutney, and other finger food to customers.
Sandwiches are also a hot favorite with the youngsters.

5. Pickles

Many people have made a successful business out of making pickles from their grandmother’s recipes and giving a fresh twist to them.
A spoon of home-made mango pickle can drive away from the winter blues!

6. Food Blog

As a home cook, you can start a food blog to share your entrepreneurial journey.
You can also include interesting recipes and histories of foods.

7. Tiffin Service

You can make amazing tiffin from your home with some authentic Indian dishes that are favoured by all.
You can start with the neighbours in your apartment complex and slowly grow the business.

8. Catering

Starting a catering business from home and serving small as well as big parties is easier than you may think.
If you enjoy cooking, you can start cooking for family events.
The food business from home in India is replete with success stories.
The Rs 700 crore Mrs. Bector’s Food Specialities started in a kitchen in Ludhiana when Rajni Bector started baking cakes and ice-cream for the city’s ladies.

9. Online Food Selling App

The fear of contagion has resulted in increased online delivery of food.
You can make a hyperlocal food app to connect and sell to people in your vicinity.
Who doesn’t like to eat? If you enjoy cooking, cooking from home to sell is a way to profit from your efforts.
If you have the will for it, you will surely succeed.

Also Read:

1) How To Start A Stationery Business?
2) Where Do the Best Business Ideas Come From?
3) Does Commercial Solar Power Make Sense For Businesses?
4) 14 Tips To Start A Cleaning Service Business
5) How to get your business listed on the Stock Exchange?