This is where quick and easy weekday dinner recipes come in to save the day! These recipes are designed to be made in 30 minutes or less, using minimal ingredients you likely already have in your pantry. Plus, they’re tasty enough that the whole family will be happy to see them at the dinner table.
This could be a great opportunity for meal prep operators to increase their revenue and brand awareness. By offering meal kits, they would not only be helping residents with their dining choices, but expand offerings and boost their own business.
Here are a few simple steps to launching a meal kit business:
1. Choose Your Meal Prep Concept
There are many different ways to run a meal delivery service, so choosing the concept that best fits your goals and interests is important. Do you want to focus on healthy eating? Local cuisine? Special diets? Once you’ve decided on the concept, you can start planning the details of your business.
2. Write a Meal Prep Business Plan
If you want to start a food business, you’ll need to write a business plan. This document will outline the foundational elements of your business, help you secure funding from investors, forecast your sales, and keep you organized as you move forward. A well-crafted business plan will help you navigate any uncertainties you face as you get your business off the ground.
3. Find Your Target Market
Who would benefit most from your meal kit delivery service? Keep this person in mind as you develop your concept and create your marketing strategy if you’re making premade dinners that need to be heated, market to families, or busy people who don’t have time to cook an extravagant meal at the end of the day.
4. Get Funding for Your Meal Prep Business
By creating a financial projection from your business plan, you need to know how much money you’ll need to start your business. This will give you a budget to work with to apply for loans. Include all operational expenses like rent, utilities, salaries, and supplies.
5. Consider Dietary Restrictions
Different people have different dietary needs, and catering to those needs is a smart business move. By doing so, you can ensure you never have to turn down a potential customer. Alternatively, promoting yourself as a very specific meal service can position your business as the go-to option for that niche.
6. Obtain the Necessary Permits
Depending on your state and city, you may need certain permits and licenses to operate your business legally. Some common ones for food businesses include a food handler’s permit, a business license, and a food service license.
7. Order Supplies for Your Meal Prep Business
You will need the right supplies to make meal kits or meal prep food deliveries. This includes food containers, portioned-out ingredients, labels and other necessary materials.
8. Create an Ordering Platform
It’s important to have a website for your meal prep business. Primarily, your website is one of the most important customer aquisition channels. It needs to be high quality and easy to use to make sales as many customers value simplicity in the ordering process. Using a platform specifically designed for meal prep businesses can help with your prep reports, calculating macronutrients and offering subscription revenue as a recurring stream of income and orders.
9. Advertise Your Meal Prep Business
This means creating ad campaigns that are targeted specifically to your target demographic and will make them want to buy from you instead of your competition. This can be done through various channels, such as online ads, print ads, TV ads, or even just word-of-mouth marketing from satisfied customers. Again, having the right partner platform facilitate these marketing channels through referral programs, gift cards and other elements that incentivize customers to keep coming back each week.
Conclusion
If you’re considering launching a meal kit business, you should keep a few things in mind. Hopefully, this guide tells you all you need to know. You can launch a successful meal kit business with careful planning and execution.
KitchenFuel is your all-in-one meal prep software. Manage your meal prep, engage your customers and grow your business all in one place! Change meals, pause delivery weeks and keep customers in control, along with subscription or one-time orders to plan meals with simplified checkouts. Sign up now!