Entrepreneurs are often told to never invest in a restaurant. There is simply too much risk and a lot has to go right for it to be successful. After all, many restaurants close their doors within the first year of opening due to how difficult a business it is.
There are many other food businesses that are not nearly as risky as opening a restaurant. Since food is something everybody needs and wants, it makes sense to want to open a business in the food and beverage industry.
In this article, we will go over several of these ideas so you can see which one is the best fit for your budget and personality.
Table of Contents
1 – Catering
The pandemic has completely altered many consumer habits when it comes to dining out. Instead of business lunches, many businesses are opting for getting food catered to the building so people don’t have to go out to eat at a restaurant.
Catering also has a lot more opportunities for business than a restaurant. For instance, food cost is much lower since you will be buying the ingredients based on a headcount. You already know how many plates you will sell ahead of time. Not only that, but you are not offering a menu so you will be only focusing on the same dishes for everybody.
In a restaurant, there is a lot of waste since not everybody orders the same things. At the end of the day, some dishes didn’t sell enough and often needs to be thrown away. Overordeing is very common as it is not good to run out of food. Since you don’t know how many walk-ins you’ll get it is hard to order correctly without waste.
Overhead is low since you are only paying rent on a kitchen without a dining room or special food service areas. Catering supplies are much cheaper than restaurant supplies and there is less staff to have to pay.
2 – A food truck
Another low overhead food service business is a food truck. These are much cheaper than opening a restaurant as you only need to pay for the truck and outfit the kitchen to suit your needs.
There is no dining room, no huge kitchen and no need to pay a big staff. Often it is just you and maybe one other person in the truck making the food. And foot traffic is wherever you find it. If you open a restaurant and find there is not enough action in that neighborhood you can’t change it. In a food truck, you can try various locations before you settle on a winner.
Food cost is much lower since you have a very limited menu. Some trucks serve up one item and that’s it. It is alright to be limited as in this type of business it is better to have a niche within which you operate.
3 – Fresh pasta shop
Everybody loves fresh pasta, but not everybody has time to make it. In the right location, a fresh pasta shop is going to be a big hit. Especially if you also serve ready-made sauces along with it.
This is another very low overhead type of operation. The cost of flour, eggs, and oil to make pasta is very low and people are willing to pay a premium for quality food. There are so many opportunities for added-value products and services, as well. For instance, many pasta shops offer pasta-making lessons that are not cheap.
Deliveries are also easy to do since you don’t have hot food that is at risk of arriving at the destination cold and soggy. There are also a lot of wholesale opportunities by supplying local restaurants and stores with your product.
4 – Meal prep service
People are busy and are not interested in spending a lot of time preparing homemade food. Yet, they are looking for something healthy and not processed that still manages to fit into their busy lifestyle.
You can be the missing link by making food for the week for them and having it ready in containers. They can have a container for every day of the week so all they have to do is heat it up.
You can go fairly niche on the idea and supply food for bodybuilders, for instance, by creating meals specific to their diet. Diabetics also need to eat a specific diet so you can target that market. There are so many variations on this that you are sure to find the right market.
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