20 Home Cooking Business Ideas To Start From Your Own Kitchen [2024]
Interested in starting a cooking from home business in 2024?
We put together 20 of the best cooking from home businesses you can start in today.
For each business idea, we’ll show you real-world examples of other cooking from home businesses to help you see what it really takes.
Here's the full list:
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 an online fitness business
Thinking of starting an online fitness business?
Online fitness is growing rapidly in popularity because it’s convenient, affordable, and accessible to everyone. The best part is that you can stay in your home to start.
Starting an online fitness business can be a great way to make money and help people. When you start an online fitness business, you don’t have to worry about overhead costs like rent or maintaining a physical location - all you need is a computer and an internet connection to get started.
How much you can make: $2,000 — $500,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $2,500 (?)
How long does it take to build: 60 days (?)
This case study is about a former personal trainer who launched his online personal training platform, TeamFFLEX, starting with no money and a lot of drive, and grew it into a 6-figure business in less than a year, now doing $48,000 a month with potential for continued growth.
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 dessert boxes store
Gifting is a culture that cements how we relate to those close to us. Consumer goods stores have innovated various gifting methods and dessert boxes happen to be one of them.
If you love baking and you have a passion for entrepreneurship, starting a dessert boxes store can be a highly rewarding venture.
Here are some ideas for your inspiration.
How much you can make: $2,000 — $500,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $1,000 (?)
How long does it take to build: 75 days (?)
Dick At Your Door is an e-commerce shop that grew almost 10x within the last eight months by selling anonymous pranks such as 5 oz chocolate penises, and its founder shares his journey that started as a joke to becoming a professional chocolatier.
5. Start a food startup
Starting a food business can involve opening your own restaurant, bakery, food truck, cake shop, or even starting a business or blog online.
Other kinds of food businesses include manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers. Food businesses prepare a wide range of foods such as snacks, sweets, and meals to sell directly to consumers and also include cafeterias at workplaces and similar facilities.
If you have a passion for food, starting a food business can be an extremely fun, challenging, and rewarding business venture.
How much you can make: $2,000 — $3,000,000/month
How long does it take to build: 135 days (?)
Trini Pepper Sauce co-founder and co-owner, Mustafa Mannan, shares how he successfully imported and manufactured his family's unique pepper sauce recipe and launched it through a Kickstarter campaign, now selling an average of $3,000/month in revenue.
6. 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.
7. Start a fresh pasta making business
Fresh pasta is an incredibly popular delicacy across the world. People love pasta because it is fairly affordable and offers incredible filling. Over the past years, pasta-making businesses have registered sustained growth.
With population growth, the demand for pasta will also keep increasing. Therefore, starting a pasta business today can be a profitable venture.
8. Start a gourmet cookie making business
9. Become a bed and breakfast owner
Bed and breakfast is a sort of hybrid between a luxury hotel and a private home. The host offers the guests affordable accommodation featuring a bed and breakfast at the room's price. B&Bs offer affordable accommodations and are becoming popular among travelers who prefer a private setting.
If you have realistic expectations, B&B can be a profitable and enjoyable business. To start, you can renovate and turn your home into an inn. Alternatively, you can build or buy a ready house and convert it into a modern B&B.
10. Start a dry sweets making business
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.
12. Start a pickle business
Pickle is a juice of vegetables or fruits preserved in brine or vinegar. The global demand for packed pickles is snowballing, making it a viable fruit & vegetable business idea.
How much you can make: $10,000/month
Brine Brothers sells all-natural pickle brine (pickle juice), generating over $10,000/month and winning an investment from Barstool and Jon Taffer, and is determined to become a million-dollar beverage company.
13. Start a homemade foods business
Cooking up a storm in your own kitchen could be the foundation of a thriving business. A homemade foods business allows you to turn your culinary passion into profit by creating and selling meals or specialty food items from scratch.
From baked goods to gourmet sauces, this business capitalizes on the growing consumer demand for authentic, high-quality homemade foods. Customers are increasingly seeking out unique and flavorful alternatives to mass-produced options.
Starting a homemade foods business involves recipe development, securing proper licenses, and marketing your offerings effectively. The effort can be substantial but rewarding, tapping into an ever-expanding market of food enthusiasts who value taste and quality.
Exploring this idea can satisfy your creative cravings while offering the potential for a profitable venture. If you enjoy cooking and want to share your culinary creations, turning your homemade specialties into a business could be a fulfilling and lucrative opportunity.
How much you can make: $17,000/month
How long does it take to build: 105 days (?)
How co-founders of Crowded Kitchen, a plant-based recipe website and creative content business, grew their social media following to nearly 200k and became a leader in the plant-based recipe space, while also offering photography and recipe development services to major food and beverage brands.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. Start a candy making business
You will need a few essential ingredients and equipment to start a candy-making business. These include sugar, corn syrup, food coloring, flavoring extracts, and tools like a candy thermometer and a silicone candy mold. You will also need a kitchen or workspace to prepare and store candy.
To operate your candy-making business, you must develop various tasty candy recipes. The candy may require trial and error, as well as research on popular flavors and techniques. Once you have a solid selection of recipes, you can start taking orders from customers and creating candy to their specifications.
To market your candy-making business, you can set up an online store or sell your products at local markets and events. You can also consider partnering with local companies, such as coffee shops or gift stores, to sell your candy on their premises.
Starting a candy-making business requires creativity, dedication, and attention to detail. With suitable recipes and marketing strategies, you can turn your love of candy into a successful and sweet business!
How much you can make: $3,000/month
How long does it take to build: 450 days (?)
Brandon Nolte, the co-founder of Stello, a stress diffusing mint company, shares his journey of launching a new company after +8 years and +$10 million in sales in the CBD space, including the challenges and opportunities of product development, branding, and marketing strategies in the CBD industry.
17. Open a cafe
A charming and profitable venture worth considering is opening your own café. Imagine a cozy corner where people gather to enjoy good coffee, delicious pastries, and the comforting hum of conversation—this is the essence of a café.
Starting a café involves securing a location, developing a unique menu, hiring skilled staff, and marketing your new hotspot to attract customers. It's a venture that combines culinary arts, hospitality, and community-building.
The allure of owning a café lies in creating a welcoming space that becomes a daily ritual for patrons, a place where stories are shared and friendships are forged. If you’re passionate about coffee culture and enjoy creating inviting atmospheres, this could be a highly rewarding business idea. Embrace the challenge, and you could become the heart of your local community.
How much you can make: $15,000 — $108,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $2,600 (?)
How long does it take to build: 95 days (?)
This case study follows the co-founder of Camper Cafe, a mobile coffee van business which started as a hobby and now has 6 units that supply the UK's biggest sporting events, commercial and film shoots, generating around £150k from working only 70 days of the year.
18. Start a cake business
Everyone loves cake, right? Sink your teeth into a wholesome cake business. Here you can bring joy, comfort, and flavor to people’s lives with your scrumptious creations.
Custom cakes for birthdays, weddings, baby showers are in constant demand and people appreciate quality. Attract clients with your unique cake designs, delectable flavor combinations, and exceptional customer service, and you’ll be rolling in dough in no time.
Link up with local restaurants, cafes or event planners as dessert suppliers to expand your business. Offer classes or cake decorating kits for those DIY enthusiasts.
Why wait any longer? Pop on your apron and whip up some decadent magic with your very own cake business.
If the thought of bringing a sweet spark to someone’s day excites you, this could be the recipe for your enterprise success! Enjoy the icing on the cake of life with your passionate cake venture.
How much you can make: $4,000/month
How much does it cost to start: $500 (?)
How long does it take to build: 90 days (?)
From pastry chef to owner of a successful bakery, learn how Bradford Bakery achieved a 550% increase in SEO in just a few months through community outreach, building a website, and utilizing social media and advertising on platforms like Facebook and Groupon.
19. Start a handmade chocolate business
The handmade chocolate business involves creating artisanal chocolate treats. To start the business, you will need chocolate, molds, and other ingredients. In addition, you will need a workspace where you can create your chocolates. To operate the business, you must create recipes and designs to offer customers.
You can market your chocolates through social media and online or by reaching out to local stores and events. The handmade chocolate business is a creative and delicious way to share your love of chocolate with others.
20. Start a jam production business
A jam production business makes different jam flavors packaged in jars for distribution.
Packed with taste and flavor, jam is one of the essential food products that enhance the taste of bread and other foods. Besides, jam is a healthy food product containing fruits and necessary supplements with vitamins and minerals.
Market data forecasts that the global jam market will reach $9.87 billion in a few years. Therefore, starting a jam production and sales business can be a lucrative business opportunity.
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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.
