12 Tasteful Business Ideas For People That Love To Cook
Are you looking to start your own business or side hustle, but still need to find the right business idea?
There will be countless exciting business ideas again in 2021. While it sounds exciting to start your own business, it's important that you find the right idea before going all in.
Your goal should be to build a business in a niche that is not only profitable but can also ensure your long-term success.
Hopefully, all of the food business ideas listed here will give you inspiration and a head start for the 2021 year.
1. Start a healthy meal delivery service
Meal prep delivery services offer healthy and nutritional meals to customers via e-commerce sites.
These services provide either DIY meal kits or Ready-to-eat meals, saving time and eliminating food waste.
They are particularly beneficial for busy people and health-conscious millennials who prefer nutritional food at home.
There are two types of meal services: online meal kits and fast food delivery services.
A meal prep delivery business can be profitable, especially when compared to restaurants, as they save costs on a storefront.
To make a good profit, one should invest less in groceries and ensure they have many customers.
How much you can make: $60,000 — $300,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $500 (?)
How long does it take to build: 7 days (?)
Healthy Chew is a profitable weekly meal preparation service that grew from 200 to 10,000 weekly bowls in just over 3 years, with an overall sales figure of $1.8 million, achieved through effective branding and personalised customer service.
2. Start a healthy meal delivery service
Meal prep delivery services offer healthy and nutritional meals to customers via e-commerce sites.
These services provide either DIY meal kits or Ready-to-eat meals, saving time and eliminating food waste.
They are particularly beneficial for busy people and health-conscious millennials who prefer nutritional food at home.
There are two types of meal services: online meal kits and fast food delivery services.
A meal prep delivery business can be profitable, especially when compared to restaurants, as they save costs on a storefront.
To make a good profit, one should invest less in groceries and ensure they have many customers.
How much you can make: $60,000 — $300,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $500 (?)
How long does it take to build: 7 days (?)
Healthy Chew is a profitable weekly meal preparation service that grew from 200 to 10,000 weekly bowls in just over 3 years, with an overall sales figure of $1.8 million, achieved through effective branding and personalised customer service.
3. Start a food blog
Do you love educating people on the importance of keeping healthy food? Starting a food blog can be rewarding and fun.
A healthy food blog can focus on educating website visitors the importance of keeping it healthy food. Besides, you can share recipes for healthy eating and budget-friendly options with the reader. To start, you may hire someone to configure your website and content creator to share insightful information with the audience.
To increase blog interactions, share informative insights with your readers.
How much you can make: $500 — $200,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $5,000 (?)
How long does it take to build: 90 days (?)
How one food blogger turned his passion into a business that brings in $15k-$20k per month through display advertising, affiliate marketing, and exclusive content, and doubled in revenue every year since going full time in 2018.
4. Start a catering business
A catering business is responsible for providing food & beverage-related services for vast types of events.
Catering businesses are known to be more flexible than other businesses because they don’t have to worry about location or pricing and can even work 24/7. They can cater anywhere and offer any price point that they want.
However, starting a catering business requires a lot of planning.
To start a successful catering business , you'll need to plan and prepare menus, manage budgets, handle clients, and more.
In addition, catering allows you to meet more people and show off your cooking skills.
How much you can make: $4,000 — $6,000,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $500 (?)
How long does it take to build: 90 days (?)
Spokeo is a people information service helping over 15 million users a month search and connect with others through organizing over 14 billion records into easy-to-understand reports generating over $6M per month.
5. Start a cooking class
Online cooking classes can be a great side hustle for seasoned chefs or cooking enthusiasts looking for a way to earn some extra cash. You can create content and teach your audience how to prepare meals.
Consider creating members-only content to earn more from your cooking class side hustle. Alternatively, you can sell recipes for a small fee as well. To grow your reach, consider offering some free content on your social media pages as a way to build curiosity among potential audiences. You can charge your audiences a subscription fee so they can have exclusive access to your content.
To start cooking classes , choose a niche and follow your passion. Create a website and maintain an active social media presence. Apart from online cooking classes or live sessions you can also offer exclusive offline weekend classes to give your audience a hands-on personal experience.
How much you can make: $100,000/month
Time commitment per week: Min. 5 hours/week
Hipcooks is a 7-location cooking school business that has grown organically to reach $100k/month in revenue, and attracts and retains customers through their communal approach, vibrant online presence, and updated Google and Yelp business pages.
6. Become a personal chef
If you’re looking for a career that allows you to work within your own schedule, look no further. Becoming a personal chef means setting your own hours, planning your own schedule, and taking on as much or as little work as you want.
Not everyone has the time to prepare meals for themselves. If you love cooking, you can start a personal chef business in your area and earn a good income from the side gig. The side hustle can fit into your schedule easily, and you can offer delivery and pick-up or curbside options to ensure more people are buying your services.
Personal chefs can work at various locations, including their client’s homes or restaurant kitchens. They may have regular clients who call on them to prepare meals for them weekly, or they may get called in to prepare meals for special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays.
How much you can make: $5,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $50 (?)
How long does it take to build: 360 days (?)
Time commitment per week: Min. 15 hours/week
Chef David Buchanan generates over $6,000 per month through his website Chefs-Resources.com, which provides professional chefs with free and paid access to detailed culinary information and kitchen management resources such as Excel sheets, resulting in gross revenue of $46,000 to date and a subscriber growth rate of over 1300% from 2015 to September 2021.
7. Start a bakery
Everyone loves baked goods, be it sweet items like cakes, muffins, and cookies or savory baked food like pizzas, buns, bread, and puff pastry. Baking takes a lot of effort and patience, which is why many people buy baked items from stores or restaurants instead of baking them at home.
Starting a bakery can be a rewarding business opportunity if you have a passion for baking. If you plan to start a bakery, consider that happy customers often become repeat customers. Therefore, always focus on quality and work on customer satisfaction.
To start a bakery , pick an ideal format. Some options include:
- Counter-style bakery
- A hybrid bakery with a cafe,
- Food truck with a bakery
- Home bakery.
Write a suitable business plan and choose the correct location.
How much you can make: $2,500 — $25,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $1,250 (?)
How long does it take to build: 75 days (?)
French chef and founder of online bakery Pastreez, Anthony Rosemond, shares keys to success including validating ideas with the market, focusing on SEO and organic growth, building customer relationships through email and SMS, never offering discounts but offering freebies, and diversifying the business with new products and content on social media.
8. Start a home bakery
How much you can make: $2,500 — $30,000/month
Moco Choco is a profitable Brooklyn-based private bakery that specializes in custom cakes, cookies, and chocolates, grossing around 60-80% on products that range from $70 to $650 and whose founder started the business amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.
9. Start a restaurant
If you love cooking and are passionate about entrepreneurship, starting a restaurant can be a fun and lucrative business.
To get started, choose a great location, and hire an excellent support team. You will need a chef to inspect the food and line cooks, waiters, and waitresses to serve the customers. No matter the restaurant type, you need great culinary and business skills to make your dream come true.
If you plan to open a restaurant , gain insight from consumer preferences and focus on serving modern consumers what they need.
How much you can make: $124,998 — $2,000,000/month
How long does it take to build: 120 days (?)
One Life Meals is a Toronto-based healthy meal delivery service that made 14,500 meals per month and generated $130k in monthly sales in 2018 through their one-on-one consultation, lean protein and seasonal veggies-based meals, and their focus on the client experience.
10. Start a farmers market
Farmer’s markets offer small businesses and farmers the chance to sell their products. The farmers’ market has become crucial to rebuilding local food systems and meeting the growing demand for locally produced food. A farmers’ market can be a successful business venture in your area if located strategically.
11. Become a food photographer
Food photography is a growing field in commercial photography, with demand for high-quality food images increasing as more businesses turn to social media and online marketing to promote their products. As a food photographer, you’ll capture mouthwatering images of dishes, drinks, and other food products for marketing, menus, and other promotional materials.
You'll need a few key pieces of equipment to start a successful food photography business. These include a high-quality camera and lenses, lighting equipment, and editing software. You’ll also need a strong portfolio of work to showcase your skills and attract potential clients.
Building a client base is one of the biggest challenges of starting a food photography business. To do this, you’ll need to be proactive in marketing yourself and your services. This can include networking with local businesses, attending industry events, and building a strong online presence through social media and a professional website.
According to a recent survey, the food and beverage industry is one of the top industries using professional photographers, with over 50% of businesses reporting that they use professional photography for marketing and promotional materials. With the right skills and marketing strategies, there is plenty of opportunity for success in the food photography industry.
How much you can make: $11,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $1,000 (?)
How long does it take to build: 15 days (?)
This case study follows the journey of Sean Audet, who built an award-winning commercial photography studio specializing in food and product photography, growing it from a part-time experiment to a full-time career that brings in around $11,000 a month, emphasizing the importance of taking risks and embracing new opportunities for aspiring founders in building and growing their own business.
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
