Homemade cakes, jam, chutneys… whatever you enjoy making in your kitchen, you can bet someone enjoys eating it! Perhaps you’ve discovered that you’ve got a real talent for making delicious treats for friends and family and hope to take things a stage further by starting a business from your kitchen.
Creating delicious produce at home and selling it for a profit is incredibly rewarding. But before you turn your baking or cooking hobby into a moneymaking business, there are a few things to consider:
Health & safety
Do your research before you start selling homemade produce to ensure you comply with all the necessary health and safety regulations. This can include registering with your local authority’s environmental health service, obtaining health and safety certification and learning about practical aspects such as ‘best before’ dates and allergy information.
Quality
You may have had great feedback from your friends and family but paying customers are often more critical. Find impartial guinea pigs that will tell you the truth to test your products on before you attempt to sell them. You may need to tweak your recipes to make sure the flavour and consistency is just right.
Scalability
Think about what you can realistically achieve from your own kitchen. There’s a big difference between turning out a couple of cakes a week for friends, to creating enough to sell at a farmer’s market. And if you land a contract with a local retailer, you’ll need to make sure you can fulfil your orders. Consider whether your home kitchen is big enough to cope and whether you will need new equipment or staff to help you.
Packaging
If you are hoping to sell your produce to the public, packaging is really important. Not only should it look good but also should it adequately protect the produce and give the customer all the information they might need about the product – such as allergy information and nutritional information. Seek the advice of a professional packaging designer to help you get it just right.
Marketing
If you want to create a sustainable business from your kitchen, you’ll need a range of skills – not simply cooking or baking talents. You might need to set up your own website, create your own marketing materials and learn to negotiate with retailers. Take a look at local business and marketing courses to help you brush up any areas you don’t feel confident in.
Family life
Think about the impact of running a business from your kitchen will have on your family life. Will the family be banned from the kitchen during busy production periods? Will you still be able to cook family meals and have storage space for your household food and ingredients? How will you juggle your new business around family commitments? If your kitchen business really takes off, you might need to move operations to a separate facility but, until that happens, think carefully about how you will keep business and family life separate.
Keep the passion
Starting a business can be stressful but the pride and accomplishment you’ll feel when you see people enjoying the products you’ve made will be worth it.