We give you some unique ideas to start a food business of your own with minimal investment.
If you are a foodie, you could be yearning to start a business that allows you to work with what you love the most. But maybe you are not interested in becoming a home baker, catering for parties, putting in long hours running a restaurant or serving meals on a daily basis. You could be looking at something different or something where you don’t end up investing loads of money or burning the candle at both ends. Well, this is for all foodies who want to explore getting into the business of food but who are looking to do something different, and possibly less risky.
1. Food blogging: This is possibly fairly risk-free. You could start blogging even while holding a regular job. If your blog picks up and gets a huge following, then you could earn money on your blog through ads. But, remember, there are zillions of food blogs out there. Think carefully about what you want to blog about. How do you make your blog different or unique? How do you attract followers? How do you make money off your blog? It isn’t enough to just decide to start a food blog. Explore options. You could review restaurants. You could bung in recipes into each review. What about specializing in a particular cuisine? You could write on that and share recipes. Or it could be on health foods. How about interviewing celebrity chefs in your blogs? The possibilities are endless. You need to find your niche.
2. Social media influencer: If you are a hugely popular food blogger or vlogger, or are considered an authority on food, a particular cuisine or nutrition, etc, you could become a social media influencer. These days, micro-influencers are raking in the bucks and laughing their way to the bank. For this, you would need a dedicated band of followers who engage and interact with you. However, do remember the competition is stiff, and today many establishments are wary of social media influencers who ask for freebies, etc.
3. Food trails: More and more people are becoming foodies thanks to MasterChef, Instagram and celebrity chefs. Whether it is in their own city or when they are travelling, they want to taste local food and partake of the local culture. If you are knowledgeable about your local culture, why not start food trails? All you need to do is loads of research. You don’t even need to give up your job because initially, you could do the trails on weekends. And the best part of this business is that it doesn’t require you to bust your bank balance…and you get to enjoy good food on the job!
4. Personal chef: This could work well for you if you are not interested in investing too much money. Many wealthy people are looking for personal chefs. Of course, you will either need to specialize or learn new stuff because they may have their own preferences.
5. Nutrition coach: For this, you will need specialized knowledge on nutrition and if you have a passion for, let’s say, vegan food or Mediterranean cuisine or soups and salads, you could tailor-make diets. You could work out of home and have clients visiting you. You could start a website and give online consultations and share diets and nutrition charts.
6. Cooking Instructor: More and more people are wanting to learn how to cook or make salads, bake cookies or learn vegan dishes, etc. If you have an area of expertise, you could start teaching. If you plan to teach at home, you will need a large enough space to accommodate people, and you will need to invest in equipment, etc. You could also explore the option of becoming an online instructor by starting your own YouTube channel.
7. Recipe book writer: Yes, you could write your own recipe book or series of recipe books. Look at someone like Tarla Dalal, who was a prolific recipe book writer. Of course, you will need a repository of recipes. You need to decide on whether you are going to focus on a certain type of cuisine. Or, are you going to concentrate on health food? Or baked dishes. Or soups and salads. Or just desserts and sweets? The world is your oyster! It’s up to you to decide. Start your own website and share the recipes there. Once you have a loyal following, your books are sure to fly off the shelves.
For food lovers, there are so many options to go the entrepreneurial route. You just need to decide what you want to do and how to go about it. Clarity is the key. Once you have homed in on your idea, work hard and let it take wings!
