Jul 12, 2021
For anyone who’s planning on selling food as a secondary occupation during this time, since you’re going to make an investment, let’s gain a little more knowledge. When it comes to selling food, flavor alone won’t make you prosper, whether you’re doing it as a secondary or primary occupation. If you want profit, you need knowledge. Whoever thinks it’s easy, that simply investing some money will get you through, should be careful. You might end up in debt instead of profit. If, however, you have a little knowledge, you never know, this secondary occupation might become your primary occupation.
What should you sell? First things first, you have to figure out what to sell. Many people start with what they know or their personal preference. Some people might have a family recipe or they might search for a recipe on the Internet and improve it. Anything can be used. The important ingredients for success are than flavor and quality have to be just right. Attention must be paid to the ingredients. Then customers will be impressed and become regulars.
If you still haven’t figured out what to sell, we have recipes and instructions in our 7 Dishes for a Career to Make You Rich project with low cost and great profit. What are the recipes? Click to watch all of the videos here
What Buyers Should You Target? This one’s also important. Do you know your target market? This is the issue faced by a lot of people who can’t sell, even though they’re confident that their recipes, flavors and ingredients are all perfect. It’s because they forgot to analyze their target market to determine whether the food they sell or the prices they set are right. Therefore, whether you’re serious about selling food or doing it as a secondary occupation, you need to know what your target market is. The basic need-to-know information includes the gender, age, occupation, etc., of your customers, so you can do your homework on what to sell and what price to set.
Where do you sell? Related to who to sell to is where to sell or the location. This is another important factor which you have to choose carefully. A lot of people think crowded locations are good, but when they set up for real, they can’t sell. That’s because the people living in or passing through those locations are not suitable for the type or price of the food they sell. So, if you want a storefront, you have to analyze the location to see if it’s right for your food and price range. Spend the time to do your homework on the real location to see if sales opportunities exist or whether it’s worth the rental fees. What’s the buying power? How many direct and indirect competitions would you have? How’s the traffic? Is parking there convenient?
On the other hand, if you don’t want a storefront, food selling opportunities are wide open these days. You can do a ghost kitchen without a store front. Using a home kitchen to prepare food and selling via delivery services are popular right now. A lot of people turn their side business of selling food to earn supplementary income into serious a business and make quite a lot of income. An example of this is Thailand’s first ghost kitchen, the legendary JQ Puuma Nung, which can generate up to a hundred million baht and over at its peak.
If you want to start this business, what you have to do is apply for membership with delivery apps as your main sales channel. In terms of choosing which one to join, try comparing each platform’s terms and conditions before deciding. You can study additional information about delivery applications here, click
On the other hand, if you don’t want a storefront, food selling opportunities are wide open these days. You can do a ghost kitchen without a store front. Using a home kitchen to prepare food and selling via delivery services are popular right now. A lot of people turn their side business of selling food to earn supplementary income into serious a business and make quite a lot of income. An example of this is Thailand’s first ghost kitchen, the legendary JQ Puuma Nung, which can generate up to a hundred million baht and over at its peak.
If you want to start this business, what you have to do is apply for membership with delivery apps as your main sales channel. In terms of choosing which one to join, try comparing each platform’s terms and conditions before deciding. You can study additional information about delivery applications here, click Or, if you want to learn Is Offering a Delivery Service Worth the GP?, click here to read
Other major sales channels you can’t overlook are village LINE groups and Facebook, because operating a ghost kitchen comes with an online market. If you don’t have a storefront for people to see, having an online storefront is essential. If your online marketing stills are poor, you can study our free online course, Promote Restaurant Online for 10-Fold Increase in Sales.
[Food for thought.] The starting point for a food or beverage business is usually based on the following 2 principles:
- You have food or beverage recipes you’re sure are good enough and have selling points. Then you look for a location with the target market matching the food or beverages you want to sell.
- If you don’t have a food or beverage recipe, but you have an interesting location, you can find some food or beverages matching your location’s target market and sell them. Most restaurants start with these 2 principles, so search yourself to see what you’re prepared for and what you’re lacking and fulfill them and you can increase your sales opportunities exponentially.
Budget allocation. We want to you to really pay attention to this, whether you’re doing this seriously or as a secondary occupation. An investment fund is real money that can be used to legally repay debt. This doesn’t include novelty banknotes. Some people might think they’re just doing it to supplement their income. They don’t expect to make a huge profit. They’re satisfied as long as they don’t lose money. Be careful. This way of thinking can leave you in debt. In addition, most amateur restaurateurs overlook budget allocation and then disproportionately divide their fund and go overbudget. We recommend dividing your funds into the following 3 portions:
1) Funds for investing until your restaurant opens for business: 60 – 70%
2) Working capital for the restaurant for about 4 – 6 months: 20 – 30%
3) Marketing budget: 10 – 20%
We repeat, even if you only have a street-side stand or a ghost kitchen, you should still establish a clear budget. Otherwise, you’ll gradually go over-budget. You’ll buy what you want. You’ll buy and accumulate a lot of what you need and end up rarely using them. If you limit your budget from the start, your purchases will be based on your budget. You’ll think things out more thoroughly and have to restrain yourself as you buy within your budget.
Learn about cost structure. Another important issue a lot of people have gotten hurt over in the past is cost structure for the restaurant. A lot of people think selling food or running a restaurant is easy, that it’s just figuring out how many ingredients to buy, how much is invested and add profit to that and they’re done. This is what’s driven countless restaurants out of business. Making food to sell has a more complex cost structure and it’s very necessary for people in this business to know about it, even if you’re just doing it as a supplement. Let’s take a look at what the cost structure for a food selling business is like.
1. The food costs are generally controlled at 35% of the total sales (although this might go up as high as 50% for street food or buffets).
2. The labor costs are controlled at under 20 % of the total sales. ***Most importantly, don’t forget to add yourself in the labor costs!!!***
3. Other control costs, including water fees, electricity fees, gas fees, telephone fees, internet fees, fees for traveling to buy products and other controllable fees are controlled under 10% of the total sales.
4. Rental fees (if any) should be less than 10% of the total sales. Since rent is an expense that doesn’t fluctuate with the sales, what you can do to make the rental fees lower than 10% is push for high sales figures.
(After deducting the above 4 costs, the remaining profit before deducting the costs below should be 25 – 30%.)
5. Other uncontrolled costs include taxes, accounting fees and management fees.
6. Depreciation and amortization, or, in layman’s terms, the investment in the construction of the restaurant.
The costs in Items 5 and 6 should be lower than 15% of the total sales.
Finally, as food for thought, although you might be selling food to supplement your income, you need a goal like what your sales figure per day should be and what percent of profit you should get from each investment. You have to pay attention to what you do and show responsibility toward your customers. Most importantly, give importance to knowledge. Don’t think you’re doing it just for fun because this is a profession with a future. If you plan it right from the start, it can easily become your primary business.
Images from: JQ Puuma Nung Delivery
2. The labor costs are controlled at under 20 % of the total sales. ***Most importantly, don’t forget to add yourself in the labor costs!!!***
3. Other control costs, including water fees, electricity fees, gas fees, telephone fees, internet fees, fees for traveling to buy products and other controllable fees are controlled under 10% of the total sales.
4. Rental fees (if any) should be less than 10% of the total sales. Since rent is an expense that doesn’t fluctuate with the sales, what you can do to make the rental fees lower than 10% is push for high sales figures.
(After deducting the above 4 costs, the remaining profit before deducting the costs below should be 25 – 30%.)
5. Other uncontrolled costs include taxes, accounting fees and management fees.
6. Depreciation and amortization, or, in layman’s terms, the investment in the construction of the restaurant.
The costs in Items 5 and 6 should be lower than 15% of the total sales.
Finally, as food for thought, although you might be selling food to supplement your income, you need a goal like what your sales figure per day should be and what percent of profit you should get from each investment. You have to pay attention to what you do and show responsibility toward your customers. Most importantly, give importance to knowledge. Don’t think you’re doing it just for fun because this is a profession with a future. If you plan it right from the start, it can easily become your primary business.
Images from: JQ Puuma Nung Delivery
