Starting a Food Business: How to Turn Your Skills into Your Job  

You know the old saying, “do what you love, and you will never work a day in your life”? Well, if you love cooking and want to work out how you can effectively turn your hobby into your profession, you’re in the right place. As an aspiring restaurant owner with a new idea and a set of skills, there is nothing to suggest that you won’t be successful in running your own business; however, that doesn’t mean to suggest that this is going to be an easy process either.  

Starting a business in any kind of industry can be a daunting process, and as such, it’s nice to have a grasp on some of the different ways that you can help your business moving forward. As such, this article has been created to provide you with a step-by-step guide on how you can effectively set up your own successful food business.  

Make a Solid Business Plan  

If you are starting at zero, which is where you are now with an idea and the passion to carry it out, and hope to get to 100, which is having a successful food business, you are going to need to carry out another 99 steps along the way. How do you work out what these steps are? With a solid business plan!  

Having a good business plan will be incredibly important when it comes to moving forward as it will give you a deeper understanding as to how you should be running your business in order to make sure that it is successful. You will need to think of the kind of customers you are hoping to attract as well as the means by which you will be doing that. Consider the following when making your business plan:  

*Who is your target audience going to be? 

*What is your business’ unique selling point that sets you apart from everyone else?  

*What do you want the style of your restaurant to be like?  

*What kind of food do you want to be offering people who go to your restaurant?  

*How are you going to define your overall brand?  

Once you have a solid business plan in place, then you will be making it much easier for your business when it comes to having the right direction. You will be able to properly know how you can get from 0 to 100 in an efficient way.  

Pick a Location for Your Restaurant  

This is an incredibly important step as the location of your business will have a massive impact on the kind of people you attract to it. This means you need to pick a location that comes with the clientele you want to be visiting. For instance, if you are opening a fine dining restaurant, then there is no point in opening up somewhere near a university or near university accommodation as students will not be interested in going to fine dining restaurants. The same goes for if you are opening something such as a casual diner – there is no point in putting this kind of establishment somewhere that people go for fine dining experiences.  

Consider the following when choosing a location for your business:  

*What can you afford to spend on your business’ location depending on the kind of money that you think you’ll be taking in?  

*How accessible is your business to your potential customers?  

*What is the proximity of your business like to your competitors?  

*What are your plans for the future, and does the location you are considering complement those plans?  

Choose the Suppliers You Want to Go With  

You would be surprised how many supplies you are actually going to need when it comes to starting up your business. You are going to need people that can provide you with the right amount of food, cooking ingredients and drinks for your customers. You will need to weigh up how much the prospective suppliers can get to you and your business and what their prices are.  

You are also going to need to try and work out how much of these supplies you will actually need. It’s always a good idea to go high with your orders to start with, and then if you end up having too much, then there are organizations such as GF Commodities LLC available who can pick up excess cooking oil to make sure you are still operating in an eco-friendly manner. There are other businesses like this available that can take care of excess food and ensure it is being sent to different food banks whilst it is still good to use.  

Learn How to Advertise Your Business in an Effective Way  

Having the supplies is all well and good, but you are also going to need to be able to advertise your business so that you are getting customers through the door. There are many different ways that you can advertise your business; however, a lot of the most effective ways revolve around digital marketing, given how many people are using the internet on a regular basis these days. In order to do this, you should:  

*Build a website. This is going to need to be a site that is incredibly easy for users to navigate and is available on both computers and mobiles. You will need to make sure that it clearly states your restaurant’s opening and closing times, as well as your menu, images of your food, a means to book and how you can cater to a potential customer’s special requests.  

*Make use of social media. There are so many people who use social media on a daily basis, and as such, having your products out there is a very effective way to show people what you’re doing. As such, get yourself on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram to flaunt what you’re making. You can learn more here about how to grow your TikTok following and this is a great way to really get your food business out there!

*Offer promotions to new guests. This means that you are giving new customers a free drink or dessert. When you do this, you are guaranteed to increase the amount of foot traffic that will come into your restaurant during those early stages, after which, word of mouth will take care of the rest.