StartupTalky

Tag: comfort food

  • How to Start a Home-Based Cooking Business?

    Many people love the thought of doing something they enjoy and earning a living from it, making their passion their profession. For the person who enjoys cooking, learning how to start a cooking business from home is a great way to combine it with your career. Like any other business, a home-based food business requires a lot of research and planning to start. Whether you have your restaurant or you are just a home chef, you can start offering cooking classes.

    Growth of various methods of food services

    For the person who enjoys cooking, learning how to start a food business from home is a great way to combine it with your career. Like any other business, a home-based food business requires a lot of research and planning to start. Whether you have your restaurant or you are just a home chef or started offering cooking classes, it needs planning and steps need to be followed. In this article, we will talk about how you can start a home-based cooking business.

    Steps to Start a Cooking Business

    Choose Your Niche
    Conduct Market Research
    Creating a Business Plan
    Licenses and Permits
    Purchase Your Equipment and Ingredients
    Focus On Marketing
    Shipping and Delivery
    Spread Your Cooking Business

    Choose Your Niche

    The most important step before starting a cooking business is to decide what kind of food you want to sell and do business with. Think about what food you want to make. There are some types of food you could focus on as you start this cooking business:

    • Lunch or brunch-style food
    • Wedding reception or special event meals
    • Desserts
    • Appetizers and cocktails

    Conduct Market Research

    The very much idle way to start a cooking business is to do some online market research. You must analyze the markets and if needed, attend some cooking classes with popular chefs in the same niche as yours. Day by day the food industry is becoming more competitive. It is important to do your business research before starting your online food business.

    Creating A Business Plan

    Having a business plan is very much important as it makes you think about what you want your business to be. Whether you want to start your catering business from home or a decorative baking company. It will also help you for setting up objectives for your business. It will also be helpful in prioritizing the next steps. There are many things one has to consider when planning a business. Some of those key things are:

    • Who is your target market?
    • Do you have a unique selling point?
    • How much start-up capital do you need?
    • How are you going to know if your product is liked?
    • Will you be delivering items yourself, posting or using a courier?
    • How do you want to sell your food?
    • Where do you want to sell your home-baked goods?

    Licenses And Permits

    Once you completed your business plan. you will need to register your business from home to the local authority within 28 days of starting your business. If you run a food business without registering, you may be fined, and you could be imprisoned for up to 2 years.

    Going further you must register every premises where you carry out food operations, such as your home, mobile catering units (i.e. food vans), and temporary premises (i.e. food stalls). Check whether you need any special permits, relevant facility, equipment, and safety standards.

    This simply means you will have to make sure that your business kitchen is separated from your kitchen and that you are not using the utensils in your professional kitchen for personal use. Lastly, you will want to get a business license and a resale license which will allow you to buy ingredients wholesale tax-free.

    Purchase Your Equipment and Ingredients

    The basic setup needed to start the business is the amount of space and the required equipment or utensils. And keep all the equipment handy and gather all things in your cooking business space. You also contact the suppliers for the easy availability of ingredients and the required equipment.

    Focus on Marketing

    Marketing refers to the activities to promote the buying and selling of any product or service. It is very much important in promoting the business and the mission of any business. It is defining and managing your brand. Then it produces marketing and promotional materials. One of the most important factors nowadays is monitoring and managing social media. Then it conducts customer and market research.

    You must use the best marketing strategies to increase your business growth:

    • Use social media
    • Create video tutorials
    • Start blogging
    • Understand search engine optimization(SEO)
    • Build a great lead team
    • Use Facebook ads
    • Create an affiliate program

    You have to create value for your business. If there is no difference between you and your competition, there is no reason why a buyer should come to you. If you start exploring marketing you can find that there are many directions to go. Once you are running your own mission or initiative and have experimented with a few things like data. It will inform you of what is working.

    Focus on existing customers as they have already made a purchase, they already know, like, and trust you. If you provided a good experience, then you have given them a reason to do business with you.

    Shipping & Delivery

    The packaging is very important as it protects your products during shipping. It also builds your brand’s image and identity. Good packaging is needed for food delivery.

    You can save yourself from wasting money by taking the time to research your shipping costs. One of the most common shipping mistakes is sending orders to the wrong customers. It is very much important to take time for shippers and deliver the order to the correct address.

    If your business is growing or if you have a lot of orders. You won’t have time to create shipping labels by hand you can automate this process. By doing this you can save a lot of time.

    Spread your Cooking Business

    • Use Social Media to Your Advantage – Social media is very much helpful to promote or spread the business. Users will like, comment, and share your content and spread the word about your business for you.
    • Have a Website – Every successful business has a website where new and existing customers can go to learn about their options. You can use a website to promote your social media and provide information on the details of your business. You can give offers and discounts.
    • Email is Still Relevant – Email marketing is still one of the best ways to reach customers of every generation. In an email, you can provide information like the current deal, discounts on the menu, or any other item.
    • Partner with Other Businesses – Digital marketing has promoted the strategy of working together with other businesses to promote both products and services. One of the best ways to do this is by connecting with the food bloggers and influencers who are local to your business. You can offer them free meals or discounts to get them and share your brand on their page.

    Conclusion

    Beginning a home-based cooking business can be a lot, so one needs to keep themselves level-headed and follows all the steps that are needed to take. Home-based cooking businesses are increasing their presence every day, people living in hostels or alone always crave homemade food, so it is bound to get more popular in future.

    Home-based cooking business is quite popular in India.

    Is food a good business?

    The food industry has seen immense growth over the past decade, so it is quite a good idea to start a food business.

    Do homemade cooking needs license and permits?

    Homemade cooking business needs license and permit like other businesses, they are mandatory.

  • HiGrocer – Catering to the Needs of Your Neighbourhood Grocers

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.

    HiGrocer India offers wide range of Comfort Food Products. HiGrocer enable every retailer to compete with organized giants and e-commerce, by their Last Minute SKU range of Quality Products Chained by Technology.

    HiGrocer has a mission to partner with millions of retailers (by becoming their Trusted Brand and Supply chain partner) making it the biggest and quickest go-to-market channel for products and services. They are focussing on solutions for the grocery online end-to-end management system.

    HiGrocer – Company Highlights

    Startup Name HiGrocer India
    Headquarter Mumbai, India
    Sector Consumer Product Company
    Founders Dharit Parikh & Aniket Sharma
    Founded 2019
    Parent Organization HiGrocer India LLP
    Website higrocer.com
    Contact Email info@higrocer.com

    HiGrocer – Target Market
    How was HiGrocer Started?
    HiGrocer – Product/Services
    Founders of HiGrocer and team
    HiGrocer – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    HiGrocer – Business Model and Revenue Model
    HiGrocer – Startup Launch
    HiGrocer – User Acquisition and Growth
    HiGrocer – Startup Challenges
    HiGrocer – Future Plans
    HiGrocer – Funding and Investors

    HiGrocer – Target Market

    In India, the rate of urbanization has increased to a considerable level since the 2009 census, as per the United Nations (UN) World Urbanization Prospects 2018 report. There has been a noteworthy change in the eating habit in Metropolitan Cities. Due to the fast-paced life in urban cities, about 79% of the urban people prefer to have ready-to-eat food in their regular meal.

    The reasons behind the increase in the use of comfort food in urban cities are the steep rise in income, the standard of living and convenience. Mostly, in a small family where both husband and wife are working, they prefer having ready-to-eat food for their children. It has become the most favorite and convenient part of their meal.

    The Indian middle class is growing and so is their buying capacity and demands. They love to try on new products that come in the market. They prefer premium products; explore comfort food in the ready-to-make mobile SKU and easy-to-eat category.

    Rural India provides a great opportunity for the comfort food and beverages industry. As almost 65% of the total Indian population lives in the rural region. They are attracted to food products of urban cities. The buying capacity of rural households has also increased in recent years due to benefits from investment in infrastructure and rising wages.

    How was HiGrocer Started?

    It was somewhere in mid 2018 when we brainstormed of creating our own Consumer Product Company. Once the calling was clear we left our respective erstwhile FMCG Leadership roles to commenced with our calling in the Business.

    We did dipstick understanding on the sub industry we would like to cater in FMCG with a criteria of continual offtake, counters with higher ticket and demand oriented category; Food which is ever evolving and innovating was an obvious choice of offering.

    Our Product Categorization is an outcome of this focused Customer Segmentation, Secondary being the Unorganized retailers which has become Last minute consumer Shopping Hub because of organised players amidst our Primary Audience which being the Urban consumers aged between 16 to 40 yrs their Fast changing urban lifestyle resulted into the growing demand of Comfort Foods.

    Our Agenda is going National, hence at planning stage itself we brainstormed the possible scale of Operations and Solution towards it. Thinking about the same we developed Integration of SaaS Technology in our business enables market access concept whereby a product can be directly delivered to the retailer’s shop from the manufacturer’s factory through our SalesMax & Delhi mechanisms without having to go through the multiple layers of marketing, thereby providing an efficient & effective Supply Chain system.

    Around mid 2019 we entered One market with our first RTE Product – Idli dosa batter ‘Ayyappa’, since then we have been growing in terms of Product offering and Shelfing Counters.  

    Thereby, Our Go To Market Business Model brings Scalability, Flexibility, Empowers Retailers & Building Brands.

    HiGrocer – Product/Services

    Helping Unorganized Retailers in FMCG with Accessibility, Affordability and Assistance in more Earning Power.

    HiGrocer India as marketer offers wide ranges of Comfort Food Products. As our name suggests we are catering to neighbourhood grocers to answer consumers’ thirst for premium quality and Last Minute SKU Products, as the Urban Indians aged 16 to 40 years are part of fast changing urban lifestyle constitutes the major segment of this market. They spend over 40 percent of their income on food, are ready to experiment, and are willing to pay a premium for better quality, variety, and taste. We under the Name of HiGrocer India cater to these Indians, with our Last Minute Range of Products and its SKU.

    Currently we have 10 Products across 3 categories and 3 Brands, we pivoted with our Idli Dosa Batter ‘Ayyappa’ and gained momentum for other range of products across categories i.e Frozen Snacks and Staples.

    We commenced with Batter as it is a daily need product which gives us accessibility with retailers thereby build relation which makes shelfing of our other products easy and faster.

    Founders of HiGrocer and team

    Dharit Parikh & Aniket Sharma, both are qualified and respect each other domain experts of being an IIM graduate with 15 years of work-ex expert in Sales & Marking & other being CA with 9 years in work experience, managing Finance and Products, respectively. We have a team of 20+ and with each Delivery Centre Opening we will add 10 more in each. Even in Field staff we seek entrepreneurship skills, thereby the culture at HiGrocer is competitive, enabler and proactive.

    Our Business Model is a basket Approach hence Commanding Shelf at the Counters we are present especially at the Kirana Stores. Therefore, We wanted a name which Resonates Trust with Casual atmosphere, thereby ‘Hi’ build friendliness in the conversation and because we in the Consumer product Food business ‘Grocer’ stands for ‘Grocery’ which resonates Trust.

    Secondly, We are Consistent, Respects Boundaries, Show Gratitude and Don’t compromise in maintaining relations are the characteristics we would like to be known for.

    Hence, A friendly neighborhood Grocer is ‘HiGrocer’ as a name builds, under the affirmation of Quality Assurance and at Best Price, which makes out Tagline Quality Bhi, Daam Bhi.

    On our Logo thereby the word has cautiously been written in 2 different fonts and Red is the color of passion, strength, sensitivity, etc. also gets easily identified in the clutter.

    HiGrocer – Business Model and Revenue Model

    We are in the Consumer Product Business, building consumer Brands is what we endeavour for long run, the path to that is the journey we are crafting with our Business Operations

    We have our own plant for one of our category of products and for the rest we do Contract Manufacturing. As we are a firm believr of Basket Approach with a Concept of Shared resource in FMCG to create the most advanced Sales and Distribution model which gives maximum retail coverage which is Marketed by HiGrocer

    We do the Retail tie-ups and ensure product placement, our tie-ups with retailers are made with a committed shelf space or gondola space named “HiGrocer”, and we have a dedicated planogram for the shelf and Trade commission bundled in each every sales made.

    Our Partnered Products are warehoused in vicinity directly from the manufacturers factory and delivered to the retailer shop tethered by our Technology Platform of SalesMax & DelHi mechanism without having to go through the multiple layers of Marketing, thereby providing an efficient & effective Supply Chain system.

    HiGrocer – Startup Launch

    Around mid 2019 we entered One market with our first RTE Product – Idli dosa batter ‘Ayyappa’, we categorically chose this as an entry product as it gives us leverage of providing Regular service and build Relation with retailers being a new entry this was very important for us.

    Today, we are serving almost 2000 Retailers in a single market. We have 10 Products to offer across 2 Categories and 3 Brands (Idli Dosa Batter, Frozen Foods and Staples). Our Go To Market Business Model brings Scalability | Flexibility | Empowering Retailers | Building Brands.

    HiGrocer – User Acquisition and Growth

    As HiGrocer, We are providing Shelf of Hi Quality Premium products with On the GO SKU range, which enhances Customer Needs & Retailers Greed. Our tie-ups with retailers are made with a committed shelf space or gondola space named “HiGrocer – Quality Bhi, Dam Bhi”, and we have a dedicated planogram for the shelf. Idea is to build HiGrocer as a Trusted brand amidst Consumers as we will market all products as ‘Products from HiGrocer’, which Promises Quality and Price. We have and will always have a Basket Approach in building a dedicated HiGrocer Shelf at the Neighborhood Stores. All at the palm reach as we are chained with Technology, which will enable us to keep our operation cost at marginal and enhance off-takes.

    So By the end of Half a Decade existence as per our plans we will have a bank of more then 50 SKU’s across 6 Categories trailing each with a minimum existence of 3 years. We, at the end of 60 months would have our market penetration across 25 cities mix of Metros, Tier 1 and Semi Urban spread over 50k retailers.

    HiGrocer – Startup Challenges

    We are living in a Demand Centric world, which makes our Future with Opportunity; India is the world’s fifth- largest consumer economy by 2025, up from the current 12th position.

    Secondly we are Acing Products and Brand builder in an organized way catering via unorganized market, support to them will generate Push and our Media Marketing will generate SOV and Demand.

    Our Challenges are with the Competition and we have a plan for that, we have identified our competition below in 2 parts:

    Branded Consumer Products

    This is a Direct Competition. They do Contract Manufacturing of their Products and retail it across Shops, with traditional way of Distribution thereby offering minimum margin to retailers and shelving because of Advertising Demand. At HiGrocer, We have multiple advantages in our Trade We Work on Delivery Centre Model (from manufacturer to our warehouse directly), which gives miss to traditional channels of Distribution, and our Ready stock Delivery to retailers ensures regular Service and Product Shelving. Thereby, we offer almost 2- 3 times of the current market margins, with similar high quality Product, as we miss traditional distribution

    Non-branded Consumer Products

    This is a Indirect Competition. They Supply Retailers in loose form, which is either/or, repacked under retailers brand or sold as it is.  We work on Delivery Centre Model, which gives miss, to traditional channels of Distribution. Our Ready stock Delivery to retailers ensures regular Service and Product Shelving likewise to our non- branded product suppliers.

    Margin: We offer similar margins, with high quality Product bundled with Brand Assurance, which is lacking by non-branded suppliers.

    HiGrocer – Future Plans

    We are currently retailing in approx. 2000 stores with 10 Products, 3 Brands, 2 Categories, By the end of Half a Decade existence as per our plans we will have a bank of more then 80 SKU’s across 6 Categories trailing each with a minimum existence of 3 years. We, at the end of 60 months would have our market penetration across 15 cities mix of Metros, Tier1 and Semi Urban spread over 50k retailers.

    Also, by the Decade of existence apart from our respective Brands, HiGrocer would also be a Trusted brand name as all our products are marketed as Products From Higrocer. Which would unfold the potential of future Business integrations and Cross Selling’s.

    HiGrocer – Funding and Investors

    We are Bootstrapped company and have decent runway with us, though we are in talking terms with few VC’s who shown Faith and Interest in HiGrocer, we will come back to you on this space soon.