Since the pandemic, food delivery services have seen explosive growth; more people want restaurant-quality meals delivered right into their own homes. Worldwide, online food delivery for office was estimated to be worth an estimated $77 billion in 2022 and projected to hit around $1.4 trillion by 2027, with grocery delivery accounting for two thirds and meal delivery making up one third.
Launching your own online food delivery service can be an ideal way to take advantage of this booming industry. Working from home or a central kitchen also eliminates many of the costs and headaches faced by restaurant owners such as rents in prime locations. But where should you begin?
With the right approach, your passion for food can translate to a satisfying income stream. In this article, we'll show you how to launch your own successful food delivery business from its inception until completion - from initial business plan creation and online food ordering logistics management all the way down to managing delivery logistics! Let's dive right in!
- Craft a food delivery business plan
Here are a few essential steps for creating an effective business plan for your online food delivery company:
Conduct market research
A cardboard box filled with croissants sporting various delicious fillings. An orderly food delivery business means placing smaller, yet larger orders. Before getting into it, conduct research in your local market to assess demand for such services, the ideal target demographics/customer base, as well as potential competitors in this sector.
Consider whether to focus on consumers or corporate customers when considering online food delivery services. While the consumer market for online corporate lunch delivery can be large, dealing with lots of small orders spread over a wide delivery area; corporate food delivery allows you to complete multiple orders within one delivery to business parks or office buildings.
Your success in providing deliveries lies in how densely you serve an area; that will enable you to deliver more orders per hour and reduce cost per delivery and increase profitability.
Once you've identified which market you plan to serve, you can adapt your business idea by creating a distinctive selling proposition to set yourself apart from other zero delivery fee services.
Create a Marketing Strategy
How will you promote your business? Consider ways that social media, paid ads and referral marketing could reach your target audience and create content that resonates with them.
Financial projections
Use financial projections to estimate your revenue and expenses over an arbitrary time frame--this could be one year, three or more. By gathering this information, you can adjust pricing and marketing strategies in order to reach revenue goals while staying profitable.
If you need some assistance starting out, here's an excellent office lunch delivery business plan template from Up Metrics that should prove invaluable.
Always keep in mind, as an entrepreneur, your business plan should be an evolving document you revisit regularly to assess progress and adjust as necessary. Set a date every few weeks to assess and update the strategic direction of your company.
- Secure Necessary Licenses and Permits
Requirements will depend on your location; therefore it is wise to consult local government agencies.
Keep insurance as an additional safeguard - although not technically a license or permit! Consider getting auto, property and general liability policies to safeguard yourself in case accidents or injuries related to your business occur.
- Create Your Kitchen
In an industrial-looking kitchen, a bearded man wearing an apron checks his clipboard while filling takeout containers to cover a stainless steel table in front of him. Professional kitchens should enable you to operate efficiently and cleanly, which is key when running any lunch delivery service.
Consider investing in shelving units, storage containers or other organizational tools to help keep it neatly arranged. As part of your kitchen space setup, it's also crucial that you consider how efficiently you will manage your inventory. To do so efficiently and ensure there are enough ingredients and supplies on hand at any given time, inventory management software could be an ideal solution.
Finally, when designing or remodeling your kitchen it is wise to contact local government agencies first in order to avoid incurring extra remodeling costs due to complying with health and safety regulations.
