How to open a food delivery service. How and why I decided to start my own banquet food delivery business. Franchises of courier services

Let's Zakam.rf is an online service for ordering and delivering ready-made meals from restaurants and cafes that do not have their own delivery service.

The main goal of the project is to provide a high-quality and fast service for ordering food from restaurants and cafes anywhere in the city.

The Let's Zakam.rf company provides exclusively intermediary services between catering establishments and customers. That is, the launch of the project does not imply the creation of production.

The high pace of life, as well as an irregular schedule, forces the average city dweller to reduce the time spent on eating. This is the main reason for the skyrocketing demand for food delivery services. Moreover, an hour of working time is often much more expensive than lunch or dinner delivery services.

Currently, food delivery is the fastest growing segment of the restaurant business. According to the statistics of the current Delivery Club service, as well as data from the analytical agency RBC.Research:

  • 150,000 orders with home delivery are placed daily by Russians;
  • 76.6% of Russians at least once used the food delivery service at home;
  • 59% of Russians order food at home via the Internet;
  • $ 1.5 billion - the volume of the Russian market for the delivery of ready-made food.

Based on these data, we can conclude that the demand market for ready-made food delivery is growing at a rapid pace. This leads to the emergence of demand, which remains unsatisfied both in terms of the quantity and quality of the services provided. The current situation creates objective external prerequisites for creating such a business as a delivery service.

The internal prerequisites for the implementation of the project are the low level of investment in the project, the absence of commercial risks, the simplicity of organizing and doing business.

Since the delivery service works with many establishments in the city, the client gets the opportunity to order dishes from several restaurants at the same time.

The main advantages of starting a business according to the “Let's order” company model are:

  • Uniqueness. Such unified services exist only in large cities with a high level of demand;
  • Low competition. The service has dozens of cuisines and thousands of dishes for every taste;
  • Absence of market and financial risks. Even in a crisis situation, people do not refuse prepared food;
  • Ease of doing business. All business processes are debugged and registered.

Investments in the project - 354,900 thousand rubles.

The payback period of the project is 4 months.

Profit after tax, starting from 4 months of operation is 130,312 rubles.

2. Description of the business, product or service

3. Description of the market

The target audience

Since the company provides a huge selection of dishes from various restaurants and cafes in the city, the audience of the project is very wide.

The target audience can be represented in the form of several categories:

Men of working age from 23 to 45 years. They order lunches and dinners, as there is not enough time for self-cooking. Order frequency - from 3 to 7 times a week.

Women of working age from 23 to 35 years. Mostly unmarried. They order lunches and dinners, as they prefer to devote most of their time to work and meetings with friends. Order frequency - from 2 to 5 times a week.

Companies ordering a corporate lunch. Order frequency - 5 times a week.

Families with / without children who want to please themselves with something new on the weekend. Order frequency - from 1 to 3 times a week.

Schoolchildren and students having a party. Order frequency - once a week.

The share of the total number of orders that falls on each category of consumer is displayed in the form of a diagram.

According to the results of marketing research, the total volume of the public catering market in city N with a population of 1 million people is 17.4 million rubles. for 2015. The revenue potential of the delivery service in the city of N ranges from 12 million rubles. up to 20 million rubles in year.

It is worth noting that the revenue potential depends on the dynamics of demand for services of restaurants and cafes, as well as on changes in the city's population and per capita income.

The advantage of running this type of business is the lack of seasonal sales.

Competitor analysis

Competitors for the Let's Zakam.rf company are similar delivery services operating in the field of catering. In many cities, such a business is not developed at all, and there are no competitors. But even in the conditions of current competition, the Let's Zakam.rf company is distinguished by unique offers that allow you to quickly take a leading position in the market:

  • three detailed systems of cooperation with restaurants and cafes;
  • convenient Internet site with the calculation of the cost of delivery and a personal account;
  • bonus program of work with clients;
  • possibility of cashless payment;
  • mobile application for Android and iOS;
  • specially designed CRM;
  • excellent level of service.

In addition, the market capacity of this type of service is so large that it implies the presence of demand even with existing competitors.

At the disposal of the service are dozens of cuisines and thousands of dishes for every taste. This is a unique service, because food suppliers are restaurants and cafes of the city, which are many times more than individual delivery services.

SWOT analysis

Strengths of the project

Vulnerabilities of the project

  • Unique characteristics of the service (order from different establishments);
  • Huge selection of dishes (from 100 - 300 restaurants and cafes);
  • High quality of services provided (our own staff of couriers and call - center);
  • Convenient website and mobile application;
  • Bonus customer service program
  • The cost of delivery varies depending on the distance of the institution to the client;
  • Possibility of delayed delivery with a large number of orders.

Opportunities and prospects

Threats of the external environment

  • Expansion of the branch network throughout the country;
  • Organization of additional services (flowers, goods, etc.);
  • Attracting corporate clients (lunches in the office);
  • Great value of potential market capacity.
  • None.

4. Sales and Marketing

When entering the market, "Let's Zakam.rf" uses the strategy of an innovator. The company has a first-mover advantage and strives to maintain a leading competitive position as it develops. The main objective of the strategy is to provide quality services and pay close attention to quality control. It is strategically important for a company to have the resources to expand quickly as the market grows. For this, reserve funds are created.

Current Marketing

Cooperation with catering establishments

Sales program

The sales plan is focused on the number of orders per day. The average check is 1000 rubles. Delivery price varies from 150 to 300 rubles depending on the distance of the client. A one-time order from two restaurants is accompanied by an addition of 150 rubles. to the shipping amount. On average, delivery costs 225 rubles per client. The following is a sales plan for the first 5 months of the organization with a minimum staff, which includes two couriers.

When forming a sales plan, it is assumed that the maximum number of orders per day for one courier is 15.

5. Production plan

Starting a ready-to-eat food delivery service business involves several steps.

Registration

The first thing to do when starting your business is registering an individual entrepreneur or LLC. The main part of Let's Zakam.rf franchisees operate as individual entrepreneurs. The chosen system of taxation is USN 6% (income).

Site creation

The Let's Zakam.rf website includes the ability to create a personal account for each client, place an online order, participate in a bonus program, as well as calculate the cost of delivery depending on the location of the client. Website setup is included in the company's franchise package. Content is uploaded to the site as contracts are concluded with restaurants and cafes.

Search for customers from restaurants and cafes

At this stage, you, as the owner of the business, have a very painstaking work to do. The volume of demand that you can satisfy depends on how many establishments of the city will become your partners. First of all, it is necessary to collect a database of all cafes and restaurants in the city where the online service is being created. Then arrange a personal meeting with the managers of the establishments to describe all the benefits of your cooperation and conclude an agreement. The next stage can begin when at least 10 establishments of the city have become your partners.

Office rent

Suitable room with an area of ​​10 - 15 sq.m. in any part of the city. In the room you will need to put a table, a chair, as well as a computer.

Recruitment

At the initial stage, 4 couriers and 2 dispatchers will be required in the state. 2 couriers and 1 dispatcher work simultaneously per shift. The courier is hired with his car.

Starting a business

This step is extremely important for verifying the customer service sequence. The manager must monitor whether the team is working smoothly, at what stage there are delays in the execution of the order. It also monitors the strict adherence to job descriptions.

Service delivery process

6. Organizational structure

At the start-up stage, you can get by with a minimum number of personnel:

  1. Manager;
  2. Dispatcher - 2 people;
  3. Courier - 4 people.

The manager's responsibilities include:

  • Conclusion of contracts;
  • Working with the site - laying out the menu, monitoring and ensuring the smooth operation of the site, processing feedback through monitoring customer reviews, website promotion;
  • Financial management, salary payment;
  • Formation of a development strategy, search for business expansion opportunities, search for new partners.

Salary - 40,000 rubles.

The responsibilities of the dispatcher include:

  • Processing orders from the site and communicating with customers;
  • Coordinating the work of couriers;
  • Transferring the order to the manager of the restaurant / cafe;
  • Eliminate conflicts with clients.

The dispatcher works alone on shift. Schedule - two working days / two days off. Salary - 15,000 rubles. KPI for the dispatcher - revenue of 35,000 rubles / shift. Upon reaching the premium of 2,000 rubles. at the end of the month.

business magazine IQR got readers another interesting story from the first person about creating his own business from scratch. Our heroine is engaged in the delivery of ready-made food to events and offices. This business case is noteworthy for two reasons: the starting capital is $150, the heroine's starting knowledge in the field of cooking is zero.

How and why I decided to start my own banquet food delivery business

Rice with vegetables

I am Vika, I am 28 years old, I live in Kursk. In 2011, I was forced to take up an activity that I had a very vague idea about before - this is the organization of the delivery of banquet dishes.

The reason for the need to cook food to order was my pregnancy, and I didn’t really want to remain without my own income. Due to its “interesting” position, it was not possible to work outside the home, and the “culinary masterpieces production workshop” was safely located in a rented apartment of 30 square meters in which I lived at that time, with a tiny kitchen and two-burner gas stove with oven.

Food delivery organization, business plan on the knee

Of course, initially I was not particularly enthusiastic about this idea, as I was sure that the service would not be in great demand, given the huge number of all kinds of cafes and restaurants - from the most expensive to the budget ones. It should be noted that in Kursk there were already several organizations providing ready-made food delivery services, in our area it was called "Kitchen or a restaurant at home." But still I decided to try, because the losses are minimal.

Considering that by the age of 23 I didn’t even know how to fry an egg, the process of preparing dishes to order was the most difficult for me.

So I brought in my friend Olga, who worked as a cook in one of the local eateries. Olya had to cook and at the same time introduce me to the secrets of the culinary arts, I, in turn, did the “rough” work in the kitchen and generated ideas for organizing delivery, compiled a menu, placed ads in the My Advertisement newspaper and on Avito in service section. It was planned to buy products and disposable containers in the nearest supermarket and wholesale base.

Calculation of income and expenses, first profit

The first order was received in March 2011, they asked for a "funeral" set of dishes, which cost 180 rubles per person, the number of people was 20, respectively, our first sale was in the amount of 3600 rubles. We spent a total of 4,350 rubles (food - 1,900 rubles, disposable containers - 300 rubles, advertising in a newspaper - 2,000 rubles / month, taxi services), as a result, from the first order we lost 750 rubles.

We received income from the next order, since we no longer spent money on advertising. For the first month of work, we had 7 orders for a total amount of approximately 22,000 rubles, the total income was approximately 10,000 rubles. Mostly they ordered home or to the country (taking into account the spring-summer period), once they ordered to the recreation center, which provides an area for a banquet.

Entry of the enterprise to a stable profit

During the first three months, our "enterprise" got its own pizzacon website, where the client could get acquainted with the menu and delivery conditions. We also acquired glassware for decorating dishes, edited the menu, which still works today. The number of orders increased to 7-8 per week. People order ready meals for anniversaries, funerals, birthdays, weddings. All this increased our income to 40,000 rubles a month for two.

New Year's Eve corporate parties and New Year's Eve gave us two months of revenue, although we ourselves were destined to forget about the holidays completely - such is the work.

Is it possible to manage such a business alone?

After about a year of working together, Olga and I stopped cooperating, I began to work alone, the duties of a dispatcher, courier, cook fell on my shoulders, fortunately, I learned to cook by that time not badly. I rented a separate one-room apartment for work, since it was, to put it mildly, not very comfortable to cook and store all the attributes of my business in the cramped apartment where I lived with the baby.

I bought a car, and now I independently delivered finished products to the client. Over the next two years, the work was stable, there was no shortage of orders, but there wasn’t much progress either, I “put together” a client base and didn’t really promote my service, until at some point the number of sales dropped significantly.

It even happened that in a month there were 4-5 small orders, this is very little. Most likely, this was due to the fact that such activities have become quite popular among mothers like me who are on maternity leave, since superpowers and large start-up capital are not required.

I specifically panicked as this job was my only source of income. There were debts, and something had to be done urgently.

Business development - food delivery to the office


This is what the menu looks like

Service promotion. It's all about the price!

In 2014, I launched a new service - the delivery of complex meals to enterprises and offices, which provided me with a daily stable income. I had to drive around construction sites, markets, branches of various banks in Kursk in search of those who wanted to eat "hot dinners at home." The cost of one complex lunch was only 80 rubles, so, of course, there were plenty of people who wanted it - 12 people at the bank branch and 25 at the construction site. I bought a large thermal bag and have successfully "fed" 37 people from Monday to Friday weekly.

Plus, my orders for banquets have not gone anywhere, even if there were not as many as I would like, but I had enough, in total, my weekly income, minus the cost of food, was about 15,000 rubles.

Transition from home cooking to professional equipment

In the same year, I rented a room in a shopping center. In the Evrasik family cafe, the kitchen was not fully used, so I was allowed to work in the empty part for a small rent - 10,000 rubles plus 5,000 (electricity payments) monthly, providing me not only with an area, but also with some pieces of kitchen furniture (tables , sink, racks for dishes) and some dishes.

I bought a professional stove with an oven from my own landlords, so my production could be called full-fledged and complete. I didn’t have to formalize my activities, because now I began to work closely with the owners of the very cafe where my workplace was located. On the website of my services, I posted certain items from the Evrasika menu that I didn’t have - pastries, desserts, services of visiting chefs Catering, which strengthened our partnerships and allowed me to act on behalf of landlords.

How much does a successful food delivery business bring


How to organize a business

When the number of orders for complex meals approached fifty per day, I hired a professional chef with a salary of 10% of the total turnover - this is about 17-20 thousand rubles a month - a normal salary for our city. And now my duties include only taking orders, delivering raw materials to the enterprise and finished products to the client.

On holidays, when there are a lot of orders and my employee can’t cope on his own, another person comes out to help with the purpose of working part-time - this is a young student guy who, despite his very young age, loves his job very much and treats the cooking process with trepidation and zeal. Of course, I like it, because, although I learned how to cook, I never got to love this process. Therefore, I will gladly accept this guy in my team on a permanent basis immediately after his training. In the near future, I have - to acquire a courier, and devote myself to a deeper promotion of my services, as I see great prospects for this business, and finally formalize my activities in the form of an independent small business entity.

What are the prospects for this business, is it worth starting from scratch?

My own sister, who lives in a village 25 km from Kursk, has also begun to engage in this activity, and in that area her services are even more popular than mine in Kursk. She cooks at home, takes orders on my website, she has a three-room apartment and a huge kitchen of 22 square meters, so her activities do not particularly hamper the household. So my company has a kind of branch.

Summing up, I can say with confidence that it was not in vain that I once decided to organize the delivery of banquet dishes and set meals. My initial capital was only about 4,000 rubles, after 4 years my monthly net income is 60-70 thousand rubles - this is not much, I know that you can earn much more, and I am ready to work on this project to squeeze the maximum.

In Russia, the modern business for the delivery of ready-made meals is quite well developed. Despite the large number of competitors, it is quite possible to find your customers in this area. An interesting idea is to create your own enterprise for the delivery of lunches to offices. People who devote a lot of time to work or some other business usually often use online stores. They buy not only food, clothes, shoes, personal hygiene products, etc., but also order ready-made meals to their homes or offices.

The idea of ​​​​starting a home lunch delivery business should be well thought out, because for its implementation you will need to spend some money. To organize such a business in a city with a population of 1 to 1.5 million people (Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Omsk and others), you need a starting capital of at least 15,000 rubles. In order for the lunch delivery business to become profitable, the best option would be to organize the full cycle of the enterprise - from own cooking to food delivery to the client.

Business plan-enterprises for the delivery of meals to offices

If a novice entrepreneur has good culinary skills, then he can do the cooking himself, in his own kitchen.

Such an idea provides undeniable advantages, since you do not have to take loans or borrow the missing funds from friends to open a business. A person who knows how and loves to cook will always have all the necessary equipment for cooking. The most important thing is to get creative, prepare food for yourself, and always have a clear plan of action in front of you.

Back to index

Preparation of necessary documents

In order to make the business legal, you need to complete the necessary documents. Many people do this only after things have “taken off”. However, you should not take risks, as you can run into inspectors and get a decent fine. The best option is to immediately go to the tax office to draw up a package of documents for an individual entrepreneur (IP). According to the legislation of the Russian Federation, you must pay a state duty (800 rubles), fill out the PD form (tax). You also need to write an application for inclusion in the EGRIP (the state register of Russia, which contains data on all individual entrepreneurs registered in the territory of the Russian Federation).

Be sure to obtain permission from the SES (sanitary and epidemiological service) for premises for the future enterprise. This is a rather lengthy and laborious process, so many seek help from law firms to resolve this issue. Do not forget about the registration of a sanitary book - you can get tested at the nearest clinic. If the entrepreneur plans to accept non-cash payments, then you need to open a bank account. In general, the execution of a package of documents will take more than a month and will require costs from 2000 to 2500 rubles.

Back to index

Kitchen equipment and procurement of raw materials

Each house has a stove with an oven, a set of frying pans, pots, a meat grinder and more. If there are not enough accessories, you should buy them from a hardware store. It is not necessary to purchase expensive brands; domestic kitchen utensils of good quality are quite suitable. Shopping plan:

  • pots of different sizes (5-6 pieces);
  • frying pans (2 pcs.);
  • kitchen knives (2-3 pieces);
  • grater;
  • cutting board;
  • blender;
  • baking molds.

It's a good idea to get a microwave or pressure cooker, it will speed up the cooking process a lot. The minimum cost of kitchen equipment is 5000 rubles.

To prepare a delicious lunch, you need fresh and high-quality products. In order to save on the purchase of raw materials, you should not use supermarkets, but make purchases in markets and wholesale depots. At the same time, it will not be superfluous to always check the quality of products, requiring appropriate documents. The grocery shopping plan will depend on the recipe for future lunches. Also useful are napkins, plastic dishes, and special containers for food. Another necessary purchase is a capacious thermal bag (500 rubles). On average, the purchase of plastic utensils and raw materials will take about 4,000 rubles.

Back to index

Finding clients and advertising

You need business cards to advertise your business. They can be ordered at a printing office (300 rubles) or printed on a color printer yourself. Further with these business cards you will have to visit a huge number of different institutions:

  • offices;
  • department stores;
  • banks;
  • parking lots;
  • car parks;
  • individual enterprises;
  • car services.

It's a great idea to prepare samples of your meals ahead of time and give them away as advertisements for free. If people like them, the first customers will appear pretty quickly.

Many people are looking for various business ideas to start their own business. One of the niches in which it is profitable to develop your business is food-related services, as they are affordable and enable people to save their time.

So, the delivery of meals to offices (in another way, this business can be called catering) is a promising and fairly quickly paid off direction, also because this market is not saturated.

Project Summary

For example, a food delivery project involves the creation of a company that will prepare and distribute meals for office workers. For this purpose, it is advisable to be located in one building with the subsequent possibility of expanding the leased area.

At the moment, delivery to offices is in increasing demand, which cannot be covered by existing organizations. The main emphasis of many workers is on the fact that the diet is healthy and balanced. Accordingly, special attention should be paid to the quality of the products from which cooking is carried out. In addition, dishes should be versatile and not heavy.

The target audience of such a project is employees aged 25 to 45 working in various companies with an average income level.

At the same time, it is important to understand that initially food delivery should be organized within the same city - so that the costs of organizing activities are not so large.

The main points to pay attention to are:

  • Accounting for the needs of the target audience.
  • The main factor of this service is not only high-quality food, but also fast delivery.
  • The issues of storage, serving and transportation of products are among the most complex and require a careful approach.
  • Initially, it is desirable to analyze the principles of business organization of competitors.

You can watch an interesting interview with the owner of such a business in the following video:

organizational plan

In order to organize such an enterprise, you will need:

  1. Prepare documentation and obtain permits.
  2. Rent a room.
  3. Buy equipment.
  4. Hire staff.
  5. Develop a menu.
  6. Attract customers (this will require the creation of a website, promotion, etc.).

The organization of documents can take from 1.5 to 3.5 months. It will take 1 to 2 months to rent the premises. In parallel with this, you can look for a supplier for the purchase of equipment. If the volumes are planned to be small, it is enough to buy used equipment. The search for staff can take about a month (as well as the development of the menu).

Attracting customers is a long-term process that is important not only at the stage of starting a business, but also in the development process. If the number of clients increases, some steps will have to be repeated.

As a result, opening such a business will take from 5 to 8 months without taking into account the creation of a customer base. It is important to understand that initially you should not open a large production and office, since this is very unprofitable in terms of costs and payback period.

Finally, it comes with high risks: if the company makes a mistake in the strategy, it will not be able to build a customer base. As a result, the investment will not pay off.

Financial plan

In order to open such a business, you need about a million rubles. Most often, such services are used by large and medium-sized companies. If the markup in restaurants is at least 400%, then in order for the catering project to pay off, the markup should be at the level of 80-100%.

Accordingly, it is desirable that the cost of lunch per person was about 200-300 rubles- this amount will allow you to compete with restaurants and cafes (and even with the option of cooking at home due to time savings) and at the same time have enough revenue to pay off your investment.

  • To rent a room, it will take from 1200-1500 rubles per square meter.
  • The cost of equipment is about 500 thousand rubles.
  • The salary of cooks will start from 30 thousand (depending on the level of their training and employment).
  • In the first months of the company's operation, it will be enough to have 1-2 couriers for delivery (their salary is from 20 thousand rubles).

Subsequently, the staff should expand (as an option, you can use the services of third-party companies).

Marketing plan

Such companies most often do not work directly with office employees - most often they negotiate with a company that will order food for all office workers. This tactic has many advantages:

  • Saving shipping costs.
  • Possibility of economies of scale.
  • Reducing the amount of time spent on cooking.
  • For the company itself, this is an opportunity to increase employee loyalty to it.

From a marketing standpoint, it makes sense to focus on direct sales. Search for clients is carried out using:

  • Cold phone calls.
  • Meetings with representatives of medium-sized companies.
  • Low price.
  • The optimum ratio of price and quality.
  • Providing a wide range of choices.
  • Emphasis on healthy eating.
  • High quality products (food must be delicious).
  • Availability of additional services.
  • Service level.

Initially, in order to establish processes, it is best to involve an organization with a staff of 25-35 people. This will allow you to find bottlenecks in the activities of the enterprise and those advantages for which other customers will choose it.

Calculation of return on investment

Based on the fact that the total cost of opening an enterprise will be about 1-1.2 million rubles (the main ones will go to renting premises and purchasing equipment), payback period will be from 1 to 2 years. It will depend on how competent decisions are made at the initial stage of operation, as well as on the balance of the menu in terms of dishes and prices.

After reaching the payback, the profitability of the project can be from 100 thousand rubles and more per month. First of all, it will depend on the number of customers: it is important to understand that it is beneficial for the company to build long-term cooperation with its customers - in this case, they will be more loyal and place orders more often.

A successful company should invest its earnings in expanding capabilities.

So, you can not only purchase additional equipment and hire more qualified personnel, but also think about expanding your business and provide a wider range of services. This will quickly increase the client base and raise the level of profit up to 200-250 thousand rubles per month.

Thus, food delivery is a profitable project, primarily due to the relatively low level of competition. Focusing on core competencies and striving for high quality will help the company to win its niche of consumers and generate a high level of income.

Recently, I received two almost identical letters. One is from a resident of the countryside, the other is from a native city dweller. The first complained that it is much easier to open a business in a big city, even a small one, than in a village. The second one said the exact opposite - that closer to the village it was easier to organize your own business. I answered both that it was not at all in the geographical location of the novice entrepreneur, not in his social position, and even more so not in the initial capital, but in their desire to change something in their lives. The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates once said: "Whoever wants - looks for an opportunity, who does not want - a reason." I wish all my readers to find the first, and forever forget about the second.


The business idea that I propose for consideration today is intended solely for implementation in urban environments. This is the delivery of lunches to the office. How many office workers do you think work in cities with a population of, say, 100,000 people or more? Of course, there are no official statistics on this issue, but if you “dig” on the Internet, you can find numbers of 4-6 thousand, depending on the city.

Brief business analysis:
Business setup costs:10,000 - 300,000 rubles
Relevant for cities with a population: from 100 000 people
Situation in the industry:service market is saturated
The complexity of organizing a business: 1/5
Payback: from 1 month to 1 year

Work is work, and lunch is on schedule

Several thousand people who spend 8-9 hours at the workplace, going out of need and during the lunch break. Not every office provides a kitchen for employees; some modesty does not allow many to take food for themselves from home. How! Fumbling in front of colleagues with jars, containers, etc. not everyone will. Also, have you ever heard the saying, "Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you how you live"? Tell. How would you feel eating a chicken leg with pasta, when your colleague at the table eats battered shrimp, or deer kidneys in white wine? Correctly! I would be uncomfortable too.

And the prices in nearby cafes are usually such that it is easier to endure with dinner until the evening than to leave a very significant “piece” of your salary on your stomach every day.

Maybe that's why, or maybe for some other reason, office lunch delivery services are in high demand in cities. Delicious, satisfying and reasonably priced. In addition, employees often order the same thing for themselves, so it will be difficult to “fall” in the eyes of colleagues, eating the same thing. In general, I hope that you have already “ripened” to the idea that ready-made food with delivery is a great business idea worth trying to implement. Moreover, it belongs to the category of projects with a small initial capital.

Ready or buy?

There are two options for running such a business. The first is self-cooking to order. This is more troublesome and much more costly than the next way of doing things. In fact, this option can be attributed to the opening of your own cafe. I have already written about some varieties of this business (cafe on wheels, children's cafe, Internet cafe).

The second option is the purchase and delivery of dishes from inexpensive cafes. Ideal for those who want to start their own business, but are on a tight budget. In this situation, you can even try to conclude an agreement with the cafe owner for a price discount in exchange for daily purchases in his establishment. But you can still sell on your own behalf.

We make an assortment

Of course, for the whole day you won’t get enough with one pie and a glass of tea, but I suggest you start with this:

  • Tea, coffee, juices, mineral water
  • Pies and other pastries, pizza. By the way, you can read about the latest "squeak" of culinary "fashion" - pizza in cups, and how to organize such a business.

After you understand what this business is, you can make a more extensive and "essential" menu-assortment, consisting of first, second, and third courses.

What do you need to open a business

Let's look at the organization of the technical part of our own production of various dishes, since all that is needed for delivery is transport (even a bicycle).

  • First, you will need room for cooking food. This means that it must meet all the required SES criteria.
  • Secondly, your kitchen should have everything you need. inventory from kitchenware to microwave ovens and electric stoves.
  • For food delivery it is better to have your own automobile. As I already wrote, it can even be a bicycle, which, by the way, is a very relevant means of transportation in traffic jams, but a car, in my opinion, would still be preferable.

We arrange your business

Unlike the pie vendors on the street, you still have to formalize your business. You will work with a large number of people, and sooner or later rumors about your trading will reach the “right” ears anyway. Therefore, issuing an IP will be the best option - and you are calmer, and there is more trust from customers.

A few words about the staff

There will be just a few words, because there is nothing special to paint here. All your employees working in the kitchen must be professionals in their field, have health books, and proof of their qualifications.

In addition to cooks, couriers will be required to deliver orders. It is desirable that the courier has a driver's license, and combines the position of a driver and a delivery person.

How to find clients and make them repeat customers

How to attract clients? You can start with banal rounds of office buildings when the time is approaching dinner, and offer your products. And what?! No wonder they say - "the legs feed the wolf"! Buyers need to talk about it. That if they like the prepared dishes, they can order by phone. And leave your contact information.

Try to apply in your work a few simple tips that will allow you to succeed in this business:

  • Deliver orders always in time! Lunch time is limited, and wasting it waiting for delivery is a business failure.
  • Make a website through which you can take orders. So you will significantly expand the circle of your customers.
  • Periodically run various promotions, practical jokes. Make discounts for regular customers.
  • Food, in addition to quality and taste, should also be warmed up.

It is, of course, impossible to take into account all the nuances of business in one small article. But on the other hand, all this should be reflected in the business plan, which you must definitely draw up before you start your business. You can learn how to write a business plan here -