Initial Steps to Starting a Culinary Business, Beginners Must Know!

Culinary business is one of the fastest growing business sectors from year to year. The reason is simple, food is the primary need of society. People will always need consumption food, and a practical way to fulfill it is to buy.

Therefore, basically the culinary business has a great opportunity because the demand is always there. However, need Strategy Also, there are several things that must be prepared before starting this one business.

So, what is the first step to starting a culinary business?

Initial Steps to Starting a Culinary Business

Do Research

As with any business in general, of course the very first step is to do research. Research carried out to determine market needs, potency available and can be utilized, as well as analyzing competitors.

For example, you can conduct a simple survey to find out what foods your target consumers want but are not yet available, or look around you to find out what culinary business you can build.

Alternatively, you can analyze trends to find out what culinary innovations you can make. In addition, it is also important to analyze competitors. Even though the potential is great, if you have many competitors, it's a good idea to reconsider the type of culinary business that you will create.

Leverage Technology: POS Apps, Social Marketplace Services and Cloud Kitchen

Some display features in the BukuWarung application

The presence of technology is designed to make it easier for humans, and if you plan to build a business in the culinary field, it is no exception. The use of technology provides many advantages both in terms of financial and marketing.

Existence cloud kitchen for example, is a breath of fresh air because it provides support to MSME actors, especially in the culinary sector. Based on research Momentum Works, restaurants and food delivery platforms are spending more time in 2021 experimenting with new business models, one of which is cloud kitchen.

The research states, cloud kitchen help restaurants and culinary business actors to increase their total income (topline) through a wider reach of consumers.

In addition, you can also explore the offers provided by many startups in the culinary sector, one of which is from Tokobay.

Tokobay is a social marketplace which focuses on the culinary field. Reporting from the official Tokobay website, the presence of Tokobay departs from an understanding that the culinary industry will not age. Then, Tokobay is here to make it easier for customers and also business actors in the culinary field through technology.

You can join Tokobay to become a partner and get sales opportunities from there.

You can also get support for the culinary sector from SaaS startups Runchise which has partnerships with third party logistics to provide restaurants with in-house delivery services. Meanwhile for the monetization strategy, apart from wearing subscription plans, they also charge MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) for online orders.

Last but not least, utilizing technology for recording transactions, can use BookStore, application POS, become a merchant at GrabFood or GoFood not to be missed.

ripen Business Plan

The next step is to ripen business plan or in Indonesian means a business plan. Of course, this is a crucial step.

Business plan is a detailed framework that contains information about the business, business goals, as well as details on how to achieve these goals. By having business plan When mature, your culinary business will have a clear and more realistic direction to achieve.

In business plan, don't forget to finalize the name, concept, menu, and uniqueness of your business, yes!

Choose Location

Next is to consider the location of the business. Location is an important thing in the culinary business, because people tend to buy food close to the location. Therefore, you need to know the best location for your culinary business.

The location doesn't always have to be in the center of the crowd, it could be the best location for your culinary business instead cloud kitchen or by online. Many variables affect the location of the culinary business, you know.

Calculate and Prepare Capital

Next is capital. Calculation of capital is very sensitive in the formation of a business, especially if you are a beginner. You need to calculate operational costs such as raw materials, employee salaries, rent, electricity bills, and also non-operational costs such as sales loss costs, taxes, to bank administration costs.

It will be better if you are able to calculate the total capital in detail, so that you know how much you need to spend exactly and adjust to your ability. In addition, you also need to calculate the estimated profit to find out the business period for the return on investment.

Determine Material Supplier

Well, to start a culinary business, it is very important to have a permanent supplier of raw materials that has low prices. It's true, you can buy groceries anywhere, but it would be better to have a reliable and reliable raw material supplier.

Ensure the Taste of the Menu

People may buy your product out of curiosity. However, the thing that will make them repeat purchases is the taste of the food. Of course, the food you sell must be delicious in order to satisfy consumers.

Whatever and whatever menu you sell, make sure that the menu is delicious. Try to keep your product to a minimum by experimenting with recipes. It may take a few tries to get a recipe that tastes just right, but it's worth it. You also need to ensure a consistent taste in each dish, yes!

Prepare Marketing Strategy

The next step that is no less important is a marketing strategy. How can a business be successful without a supportive marketing strategy? It seems impossible.

The thing to remember is that your culinary business marketing strategy needs to be adjusted to the target consumer. If the target consumers are teenagers, the use of social media and creative content tailored to trends is highly recommended. Know your target customers, and make the appropriate approach.

You also need to consider various marketing media, such as banner, brochures, media out of home (OOH) other, social media ads, marketplace, and others.

Those were 7 steps you can take to start a culinary business. Basically, these steps are not too different from businesses in other industries. The key is research to identify the situation and potential, and have a good preparation to achieve business goals.

Seeing the intense business competition, your business should have unique values ​​in order to be in demand and continue to survive. May be useful!