A Business Idea in Schools

Everybody likes to have food delivered....It's best to have a restaurant that people can dine at and deliver from that location, cause people sometimes like to eat out....good food, good service and a nice clean relaxing atmosphere, but your most important asset is a good chef that is reliable and committed to excellence...You have to keep a close eye on all your employees and let them know you're watching....good luck

There are plenty of rules and regulations that you must follow to comply with health and safety laws. Not usually a problem unless you ignore them. Kitchens are subject to inspection by the health department and they can shut you down if you fail the inspections. Do your research first.

There is also a lot of competition in the food industry and very, very few make it big. I recommend getting a job in a restaurant long enough to learn what makes it work. Anyone who goes into business for themselves is asking to work long days with very little payback. Some food trucks, on the other hand, do fairly well if they can find the right area with lots of customers.

Lastly, students really don't have much money or sophistication in taste buds so they may not be the right crowd. Junk food, on the other hand, sells pretty fast.

Advertising is also something that is overlooked. Getting the word out that you are in business is expensive but how else are people to know that you exist. Word of mouth takes forever and you may starve before that has any effect. Expect to spend as much on advertising as you spend on food for several months. Both are perishable and both have a very limited shelf life.

You should budget at least 20% loss due to spoilage. If you make people sick, expect to lose everything you own. Not a happy thought, just a realistic one.

At this point, I was going to say, "Good Luck". Obviously, it takes a lot more than luck. The truly lucky part comes from finding plenty of good customers.

Lastly, for all businesses in general, the statistic is pretty horrible. Some 19 out of 20 businesses fail within the first year. The causes range from not knowing the rules to not being able to keep up with the paperwork. No scare tactics here, just the truth.

Around here students use delivery services for things like mac and cheese or just warm cookies until around 2 AM.

Good business if your prices are low enough to attract customers, but high enough to cover your cost.

keep it stupid simple

have fun with your new idea!

Give it a try.

Good luck.

One of the tricky things will be to scale up your tasty recipes to make large batches. It's surprising but some recipes don't scale well at all - if you even double it, the taste is changed. A professional chef can help if you have trouble with that scaling issue, how to adjust to try and get close to the original in a large batch.

There are some different models for food business emerging in recent years.

A new business model is to limit your menu offerings to two or three items which you have made fresh that day. You can cook as many different things as you like, but offer them on different days. The daily menu typically has one vegetarian option and one omnivore option. They are usually open only at the time those meals are ready to be served, and close when it's all gone. You could tailor a takeout delivery model to the hours that you want to serve ie students late at night. This is a leaner cost model for a startup which seems to work well - clients will try whatever you cooked once they find the standard is good. You just have to offer two choices.