There are many advantages to a home-based catering business: it reduces costs; it enables easy involvement with the family; it provides part-time work. All of these are important points indicating that working from home may be the most practical way to operate a food business in the initial stages.
RECIPE FOR SUCCESS INGREDIENT CARD
Ingredient
Cooking for Cash-Ideas
Question:
How to start a home based catering business?
Answer:
It is essential that before embarking on your food business, you find out whether or not you are permitted to run a food business from your home. Different local government authorities have different regulations.
If it is illegal in your area then the law requires that you find an outside kitchen eg: churches and other public institutions such as sports clubs (eg bowling clubs/small golf clubs) and corporate kitchens. Or perhaps a shared workplace establishment where a group of cooks carry out their activities in one commercial kitchen.
It is most important that before you start your home-based catering business is to make sure you gain as much hospitality and business knowledge as possible so that you are well prepared. Consider legalities, marketing, customer service, menu design, finances, purchasing and staff.
And don’t forget the many ways to cook for cash market stalls, confectionery, celebration cake service, bar and hotel food, lunch boxes and picnics, making preserves for sale, cooking for dinner parties and running a freezer service, weddings, corporations and the list goes on…
You are (or will be) investing a lot of time and money into your new food venture, so for your success, it is vital to gain business management knowledge and, of course, discover ways to ‘cook for cash’.
