The pandemic has forced many people to think hard about making money. The reason is, many employees have been forced to take salary cuts and swallow bitter pills such as layoffs in the midst of the rampant spread of the Corona virus. Not only does it impact employees, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are also affected and even have to close down.

Therefore, to survive we have to think extra creatively. Government policies that force us to stay at home and work from home also do not allow us to carry out outdoor activities.

Reporting from the Bisnis.com page, General Chair of the Indonesian Jasaboga Organizers Association (PPJI) Irwan Iden Gobel revealed that although the turnover of catering businesses has fallen by 90 percent due to the impact of the corona pandemic, due to the creativity of business actors who utilize online marketing channels, turnover has increased to 30 percent of sales.

From this we can conclude that the catering business still has the potential to be carried out during this pandemic. The reason is, food is one of the basic needs. It is not surprising that the food business, including catering, is still considered promising. Because, even though people are forced to stay at home, they don't have time to shop and cook for themselves. As a result, buying food from outside the home or ordering catering becomes a solution.

In fact, seeing this opportunity, many dine-in restaurant entrepreneurs have also switched to selling side dishes or complete home-cooked ready-to-eat menus. Why is that? Because this is the only way they can survive amidst the ban on dine-in at restaurants. Like it or not, entrepreneurs have to adapt to changes and look at catering businesses as an alternative for their business.

If you really have good cooking skills, a large enough kitchen and complete cooking equipment, you can also use this as an opportunity. Even though the competition is not small, try creating a unique catering business with a variety of promotions, and can be ordered online. Qasir is optimistic, this method can make your catering business have good prospects.

How? Have you started saying, "Yeah, yeah...that seems okay"? If so, let's find out what you need to prepare to open a catering business at home!

Preparing to start a catering business at home

Have you decided to open a catering business at home? There are many things you need to prepare. Before moving, make sure you have done the steps below!

Set your target market

Whatever you do, never miss this part. Although there is always the urge to sell to the widest possible market, remember to define your market specifically. This will determine the uniqueness of the product you sell and its sales strategy. Then, analyze again what menus are selling well among your intended targets.

For example, if you want to target people who care about health, you can create a vegan menu variant in your menu series. Or for example, if you want to target the Korean drama lover community, you can also add Korean style menus, such as BBQ chicken mozzarella.

Show the uniqueness of your catering

Opening a home catering business is already commonplace. However, so that your profits can be doubled, you also need to add uniqueness to your catering. This can be a selling point that you can use as an advantage.

For example, you can make different menus every month. If you have made Indonesian dishes in one month, you can continue with dishes from other countries, such as Japan, Korea or Europe to add variations to your catering menu.

Not only food from different countries, you also need to look at some foods that are currently hype. For example, ramen with a mixture oftoppokior baked spaghetti which is served every day so that customers will still wait eagerly for your catering presence.

Collect business capital

This is the most important thing before you start a business. First prepare the business capital you need. So, for that, let's try to imagine it first! Let's say you want to create a BBQ Home Service catering that both adults and children will like. The presence of this home service was taken from the opportunity when people could not enjoy restaurant BBQ menus due to the ban on dine-in during PSBB to minimize gatherings.

To make this Home Service BBQ, what do you need? Yes, it's clear that it's not just rice, vegetables and side dishes that you need to prepare. You also need to prepare a grill pan stove with a portable gas stove for IDR 100,000 for one stove. You also need to prepare meat as a basic ingredient for IDR 15,000 to IDR 35,000 per portion. This price is quite affordable for some groups.

In addition, you also need to prepare lettuce, a few slices of sausage, onions, and various sauces, such as chili sauce, Tabasco, black pepper, granulated sugar, salt, and so on. Apart from these additions, you also consider the cost of the labor you use to send equipment and food ingredients or delivery services to minimize labor.

Determine your catering price

Do you still remember the economic principle: keeping costs as low as possible to get the highest profits? Yup, this is what you need to prepare to determine your catering price. The profit you can get is at least 10 percent of your business capital.

For example, the capital you need for cooking costs IDR 20,000, meaning you can sell it for IDR 40,000 per portion. Pretty big, right? So, for this reason, you also need to reduce other supporting costs. Starting from choosing cheaper food ingredients, reducing the size of the food, to setting a catering quota system where you will carry out catering according to the number of orders that come. So that every incoming order can be neatly arranged, download the Qasir application let's go! Here you can manage and monitor business turnover and existing product stock via cellphone or laptop. It's really easy again. Just log in to your Qasir account and start checking business reports wherever and whenever you are. To find out the complete guide to using the Qasir application, click here.

Still not sure how much to order?

"What if it turns out the business doesn't sell?"
"What if no one orders?"

Hey, BossQ. Again, the business you create must be unique. Uniqueness is the essence. So that more people know your business, try starting promotions via social media platforms.

Apart from social media, you can also use word of mouth promotion. For example, try through someone close to you, such as a cousin or work friend. Maybe you can give him a free portion of food with beautiful packaging. That way, they will be happy to promote your product, at least through word of mouth or sharing on social media.

Even though there are many promotional methods, it turns out that the word of mouth method is the most effective, BossQ. Fortunately, this promo only requires a little capital.

You can also promote via your business website. With just one website, you can enter all social media links and marketplace links where your business is registered. You can also display your products, you can even receive orders that come in from the Business Website directly to your Qasir application. You can get all this by paying less than IDR 200,000 per month.

Click here to subscribe to the Business Website.

Therefore, let's start finding out your cooking skills, get to know the market, and determine your uniqueness, reduce your costs, and start making promotions! By repeating this method continuously, CUAN will flow rapidly towards you. Remember that analyzing your business is also important, you know. If you feel like it's not as fast as before, start following the changes and adapt!

Especially during a pandemic like now. Let's start exploring what else you can do!

Also read: