10 Precise Steps on How Start a Food Delivery Business From Home In Nigeria.

The food delivery business is taking a drastic upward curve recently. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, people have decided to stay home, hone their cooking skills and provide food for those who are not chanced or don't know how to cook. 

You too can start this very lucrative business if you are interested and you know you can run it. For those that have decided to go ahead with it, let's start you up.

                                    

Ten things you need to know and prepare for before starting a food delivery business/service.

1.Know what you are good at. If you must serve food, you must answer this question; what do I know how to prepare perfectly? you might be very good in the preparation of so many dishes, but what I preach majorly is to focus on your speciality. If you can bake, then go into the baking field. If you can cook very well, then do it.

 You don't want to do trial and error with customers food. Wofai fada started with just Edikang ikong and she did pretty well. You just have let them know that you know what you doing and you have to get them covered.

2.Know your target market. We both know that not everyone will patronise you. It's not that they don't eat on even take food delivery. But not everyone will be interested in your kind of food. It just like selling pork chop in the northern part of Nigeria, or trying to sell chicken and chips to a vegan. We both know that doing all that won't take you far.

This is where knowing who your potential customers are will go a long way. To know your market, you just need to know the culture, location, gender, interest and ethical value of the people around you. You also need to know the food associated with people of that group. If you are doing snacks, then pupils and students in schools are your best target.

 Do you sell healthy meal, diet meals or food that are rich in protein? then gyms, sports centres and fitness centres are your best bet. Do you sell soups? then bachelors, career women and men are just the best people for you. 

You can also go to google and search for food commonly searched for in your 

locality. or Just search for restaurants in your locality and look through their menu for the type of food that they serve. This way you will know more of what people eat.

3. Capital Investment: One thing I love about running a food delivery business from home is that you don't need much capital. You pretty much have most of the equipment that you need at home. 

You just need to invest in necessary utensils like big pots for bulking cooking, a refrigerator or freezer if you don't have one. You don't want to unnecessarily go to market every now and then. More cookers for multi-tasking and other items to cook with. You also need the ingredient to kick-start your cooking.

4. Develop a marketing strategy: Before you start selling or taking orders, you just don't want to start selling. You need a plan and strategy to draw the attention of your potential customers, as well as get those very tasty delicacies out there. You want to make sure your customers know how and where to find you when they need your services.

My first recommendation is to let your family and friends know that this is what you do. Give then a COLD CALL, chat them up and post it on your personal social media platforms. From my experience, they are usually the first to patronize you. You also get referrals from them, which is a plus.

Your strategy can also be discount offers, buy one get one free, order a meal and get a drink for free, free delivery and lots more. Another very effective means is advertising or promoting online. We will hit more on this, as we proceed

5. Branding; For a start-up business like yours, branding shouldn't be a big deal. All you need is signature that people can recognise you by. Signature in this context can be a logo, motto, slogan or any catchphrase, good food pictures and other works that give your business a face.

To get all these done, you can outsource your logo or flyers to a graphic designer. On the other hand, you can do these yourself by playing around and being creative with apps and sites like LOGO MAKER, CANVA e.t.c These apps are relatively free unless you want to enjoy their premium service. For now, you just need something that is nice and works.

Another very important branding is the packaging. The packaging is one business prep that cannot be thrown into the bin. How do you intend to serve you a meal? What impression do you wish to give your customers as they eat your meal? All these perks come with packaging.

6. Getting a license and permit. To be sincere, in a country like Nigeria, getting a license or work permit is not the first thing that comes to mind when starting a business. Especially the ones started at home. People just go ahead with their businesses. You too can just go ahead and start, or you can upgrade your business by getting the necessary license. This will get your customer to trust you.

In Nigeria, Organization like the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is a good place to start. You can also go online and get a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) certificate; which is relatively free or very cheap if you search very well.

When you put all these in place, flaunt it to your potential customers to let them know that you care about their health and that you run a legal business.

7. Launch. By now you must have gotten your first set of clients. Do your best to create a very good first impression. Do not forget to take a photo-shoot of those beautifully packed food for social media purposes. Ask for feedback and politely let them know that their referral would go along way.

8. Invest in online Promotion. It is now obvious that word of the mouth is not enough to give you the number of customers that you want and bring in more orders. This is where you put your other strategies into play.

By promoting your business online, you will increase your broadband of customer and cover more ground. So a Facebook promotion would go a long way. Online ads are cheap but needs specific tweaking to make them precise, thereby reaching the audience that they are intended for. NEIL PATEL wrote extensively on how to run online paid campaigns. on the other hand, you can get the services of a digital marketer to help you run it. Anyways, promoting your business online will help boost your business.

9. Get extra hands: If you have gone through all this stage practically, I am so sure that by now, you won't be able to handle the business alone or even meet the vast demands of your customers. So you would need additional workforce or staff to help out. 

Initially,  you might want to cut cost by including family members or friends. But as time goes on, you will need the services of a person(s) with the know-how to assist. You can put it outside there that you need a cook, more dispatch riders or food delivery man and digital marketer. You necessarily need to hire all of them at once. Start with one that is urgently needed, then expand.

10. Customer care service: As your business expands, so does the demand, complaints, enquiries, and customer appreciation. If you can get yourself to do all this, go ahead. I advise that you get your digital marketer to help handle customer service, or you can just hire a customers service agent to help respond to other customers need. Businesses with good customer service tend to improve, grow and retain customers than those without one.

Lastly, remember to expand if need be. If your house is small, rent a bigger space and run your business peacefully and jejely. 

I wish you good success as you take these practical steps in making a name for yourself and earning a living.

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