A stay at home mom who loves to make and bake homemade cookies can start this home-based business. Who in their right mind would ever turn down the scrumptious morsel of a freshly baked brownie, chocolate chip or almond cookie? Cookies are as American as apple pie and millions of moms and grandmothers bake the absolute best cookies straight out of their homes. The marketing niche of this business is that you bake cookies and then deliver them hot to a customer. The business model is very much the same as that of the pizza delivery business. In the pizza business, they bake pizzas to order and then deliver them to their clients straight from the oven. This is exactly what you do in the hot cookie delivery business. This is how the business works. You have ready-made dough, which you have either pre-made or purchased from the store. I would suggest that you find a great recipe from your grandmother or from someone you know and bake it yourself. Customers call in their order with at least an hours notice and give you their order. (You should stipulate a minimum order and a maximum driving distance; otherwise, you will be baking five cookies and delivering it to a home 20 miles out of town) Once they give you their order, you bake the cookies, and then place them in a container that will hold its heat so that your cookies do not arrive cold. You can market your hot cookie delivery business to local businesses around your neighborhood. If possible, you want your market to be very close to where you will be baking the cookies. It will be even better if you live in a city where there are hundreds of businesses located in a very small area. To get the word out you can make and bake a sampling of your cookies to hand as a taste test. Good business targets are real estate agents, accountants and any office workers who can take five minutes to taste your cookies. Before you leave make sure they get an ordering guide and even some coupons for first time orders. I hope that this article has inspired you to try this business idea. The beauty of this business startup is that you can start it with very little initial capital. You will need a quality oven, a phone that can stay open for order taking and possibly even a fax machine. Once you outgrow your startup location, you will need to find a small kitchen with a commercial oven. At that point, you can begin to approach the Small Business Development Corporation for assistance with planning for your business growth. For now let us focus on the first step of getting started, established and financial healthy, I wish you all the best in starting your new business. |
