If you want to sell food as a side job during this time, how should you prepare?
Anyone who is planning to sell food as a side job during this period, since you are going to invest, let's gain some knowledge. Because selling food is not necessarily successful if it is delicious. Whether you do it as a side job or seriously, if you want profit, you need knowledge. Anyone who thinks it is easy, just have investment money and you can do it, be careful or you will end up in debt instead of profit. But if we have a little knowledge, what we thought was a side job might turn into our main job.
What should I sell?
The first thing to think about is what to sell. Many people start with their own expertise or personal preferences, family recipes, or search for recipes on the internet to develop further. It doesn't matter which one you choose. The important thing is that the taste must be good and the quality must be good. Pay attention to the ingredients, and customers will be impressed and buy again often.
If anyone still can't think of what to sell, we have recipes and methods for making 7 menus for a career that will make you rich, with little investment and good profits. What menus will there be?Click to view all VDOs here.
Who are you selling to?
This is also important. Do we know who our target customers are? This is the problem for many people who can't sell, even though they are confident that... The recipe, taste, and ingredients are all perfect because we forgot to analyze the target group to see if it is right for the type of food we sell or the price level we set. Therefore, whether we are selling seriously or as a sideline, we need to know who our target group is. Basic information that we should know includes gender, age, occupation, etc., so that we can do our homework on what type to sell and at what price level.
Where to sell?
Related to who to sell to is where to sell or the location itself. This is another important point that must be carefully selected. There are quite a few people who see a location with a lot of people and think that it must be good, but in reality, they cannot sell because the group of people who live there or pass by is not suitable for the type of food or price level of our shop. Therefore, if you are going to sell with a storefront, you must analyze the location to see if it is suitable for our food and price level. Take time to really do your homework on the location to see if there is an opportunity to sell or if it is worth renting. What is the purchasing power like? How many direct and indirect competitors are there? Is traffic and parking convenient?
But for those who don’t plan to sell in a physical store, these days, selling food is very open. You can do it like a Ghost Kitchen, which means you don’t need to have a physical store. You can use your kitchen at home to cook food and sell it via delivery, which is a popular format. Many people have turned their lives around from selling for fun to selling as a side job to a serious business that generates income that is not a joke, such as the legendary Ghost Kitchen, the first in Thailand, “JQ Steamed Blue Swimming Crab”, which has sales during peak periods in the tens of millions of baht or more.
Another important sales channel that should not be overlooked is the village Line group and Facebook because when doing a Ghost Kitchen, what must come together is online marketing because there is no physical store for people to see. Therefore, an online store is very important if anyone is still weak in online marketing.Learn in free online courses!“Promote your restaurant online to increase sales 10 times.”
[Thoughts] In starting a restaurant or beverage business, the starting point often comes from two principles.
Have a food recipe or drink recipe that you are confident is good enough, have a selling point, then look for a location that has a target customer group that matches the food or drink that we will sell.
If there are no recipes or drink recipes, but the location is interesting, then find food or drinks that are right for the target group in that location to sell. Most restaurants are founded on these 2 principles, so first examine yourself to see what you are ready for and what you lack. To find and fill it up, it will increase the chance of making great sales.
Allocate investment funds
This is something I would like to leave you with to pay attention to, whether you are doing it seriously or doing it as a side job. The investment is real money that can legally pay off debts, not fake banknotes. Some people may think that they are just doing it as a side job and do not expect a profit. If they do not make a profit, they are satisfied. Be careful because thinking like this will make you go back into debt. Most new restaurant owners often make mistakes in allocating their investment budget. They do not divide the proportions properly, which causes the budget to go over. It is recommended to divide the investment budget into 3 parts:
1) Money for investment until the shop is open for business 60 – 70 %
2) Working capital within the store for approximately 4 – 6 months: 20 – 30%
3) Marketing budget 10 – 20 %
Let me emphasize that even if it is a street stall or a ghost kitchen, you should clearly allocate your investment budget. Otherwise, the budget will keep expanding. We will find things we want, things we must have, and buy and accumulate until there are so many of them, but we hardly use them. If you limit your budget from the beginning, any purchases will be made according to the budget. You will have to think more. You will have to make up your mind to stay within the budget proportionally.
Know about cost structure
Another important matter that has caused many people pain is the cost structure of running a restaurant. Many people think that selling food or running a restaurant is not complicated. Just buy as many ingredients as you want, use as capital, and then add in the profit and you're done. This is what has caused countless people to go bankrupt. Because selling food has a deeper cost structure than that, and it is very important for people who want to do this job to know, even if they are doing it part-time. Let's see what the cost structure of selling food is.
Food Cost Food costs are generally controlled at 35% of sales (but for Street Food or Buffet it can be as high as 50%).
Labor Cost Employee wages are controlled to be less than 20% of sales. ***Very important in Labor, don't forget to include your own wages!!!***
Other Control Cost Other controllable costs include water, electricity, gas, telephone, internet, shopping, and other controllable costs. Keep them below 10% of sales.
Rent: The rent for the space (if any) should be less than 10% of sales. Since rent is a fixed expense that does not vary with sales, what can make the rent lower than 10% is to push sales up (after deducting these 4 expenses, there should be a profit before deducting the next expenses of 25-30%).
Other Uncontrol Cost Uncontrollable costs include taxes, accounting fees, and administrative costs.
Depreciation & Amortization Depreciation and amortization, or simply put, is the investment cost for store construction. For expenses 5 and 6, it should be less than 15% of sales.
I would like to leave you with a final thought: selling food, even if it is a sideline, must have a goal of how much sales each day will be made, how much profit each investment must return. You must pay attention to what you do and be responsible to your customers. Most importantly, give importance to knowledge. Don't think that you can't do it seriously because this career has a future. If you do it with proper planning from the beginning, it can easily become your main business.
