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The Beginners Guide on how to start a cloud kitchen

Well, if you are someone who is not from the food industry then I will say you have landed on the right page.
No matter whether you are a food expert or entrepreneur, after reading this I can assure you that you would be aware of the things that are all required to start a cloud kitchen.
Here it goes… complete blueprint on how to start a cloud kitchen!

What is a cloud kitchen?
It is basically a kitchen that is an online-based food delivery kitchen. Cloud kitchen has many different names such as ghost kitchen, back kitchen, dark kitchen and delivery-only restaurant. Unlike restaurants, cloud kitchens don’t require a place for dine-in, waiters or parking. They attract customers through online marketing and food aggregators such as Zomato and Swiggy. Cloud kitchen may also have their own delivery boys hired, to avoid the dependency on food aggregators and help their brand grow.

What are the essentials to start a cloud kitchen?

  1. Location
    The first and foremost essential is location. You first need to decide on a suitable location near to your targeted customers to achieve more sales. To start with 180 sqft to 250 sqft is good enough to start cloud kitchen. Cloud kitchen can be built even on the backside of your apartment or a bit inside from the central market. It doesn’t affect your sales as people recognize you through online portals and not by your exterior looks.

  2.  License
    Before setting up your cloud kitchen, some legalities have to be followed. These licenses provide the authenticity and certificate to operate your cloud kitchen legally.
    a. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI): This is a mandatory license for all the food businesses in India. It ensures the security of food that is being delivered by you to the customers is of good quality. It has a tenure of 1 to 5 years and can be renewed once expired. If you register it yourself, then the registration fee is Rs.100/-
    b. Goods and Service Tax (GST): This has also become a mandatory license for all businesses and is advisable to issue on behalf of the company’s name. It can be issued by filling up the necessary details present on http://www.gst.gov.in. The registration is completely free.
    c. Trade License: It helps in ensuring that no unethical business practices are being carried out and all the guidelines are being followed by the kitchen. The license can be applied by visiting the respective state’s municipal corporation website. It has a tenure of 1 year. The registration fee is Rs.5000/-

  3. Equipment
    Initially, you can either purchase the new equipment or buy used ones to save some money. To start with, you can start your home kitchen machines and utensils. You should have basic equipment such as grinders, oven, refrigerator etc to serve people fast and good quality food.

  4. Staff Management
    As this has no dine-in services, there is no need of hiring much staff. For a decent cloud kitchen, 2 to 3 members can easily manage the entire kitchen and at the same time, this would create a hassle-free environment for them to work in the kitchen. A skilled chef, an assistant chef, and a staff to manage the orders are enough to run a cloud kitchen.

  5. Partnering with food aggregators
    Since this is an online delivery oriented service, one of the most important requirement is to get your cloud kitchen listed in the food aggregators to get recognition in the market and get more orders. The food aggregators also recommend your kitchen to people when you serve good quality food and acquire good ratings from customers.

  6. Marketing Strategy
    People always invest more in setting up their businesses rather than investing in marketing their brand. Marketing is a crucial part to attract more customers and bring in more orders for your cloud kitchen. A good marketing strategy always helps customers buy from you at a single glance and also retains them to get more orders from them in the future. In marketing, it is believed that “The more you interact, the better will be your sales.” Building your online presence is one of the most important things, try to engage with people socially on various social media platforms.

I hope this helped you in getting clarity on steps to start a cloud kitchen. Follow these steps and start setting up your first ever cloud kitchen brand as soon as possible. Comment below what is your key take away?

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How to design a sellable menu for your cloud kitchen?

Designing a menu for a specific niche or cuisine makes it more attractive and simple for people to understand.
Structure of the menu should be accurately designed by keeping the following points in mind.

No. of items

Do not include all kinds of cuisines in a single menu. This creates confusion for a customer looking to order from you.
Being specific to a single cuisine such as Chinese, Italian, Indian, Tandoor, etc helps people decide faster with limited items.
Keeping a vast variety of items also increases the net operating cost as one chef can’t manage to prepare all the cuisines and the cost of raw materials for so many items will increase.
For Example, Behrouz Biriyani: Comprises of only varieties of Biriyani

  1. Ease of preparation
    Having a limited item on your menu reduces the difficulties in preparation.
    More items = more raw materials = more equipment = multiple chef = more preparation time.
    For Example, Wow Momo dedicatedly provides a variety of momo recipes. Here the preparation for them is easy as they only have to make the steam momo and then according to their customer’s desire, they can pan fry it further, they can grill it, they can make a gravy item out of it. But the base item is momo.
  2. Combos
    Include combos in your menu to increase the overall ticket price. For a customer, ordering a combo of Noodles and Manchurian for 190/- is always better than only ordering Noodles for 150/- Here, your ticket price increased in the cart.
    Also, you can introduce combos for making people taste new items. You can try different combos and price it low so that people can order and taste the item and then once it is frequently ordered, you can make it a permanent item.
    For Example, Mcdonald’s (instead of going for a single burger and coke for more than 100/- the Big Mac Combo meal costs 159/-)
  3. Speed of making
    People always want their food to be delivered as soon as possible. So, the items which are taking more time for preparation can be eliminated from the menu.
    A Half-cook versions of some items can be kept so that during the preparation process, the time gets reduced.
    For Example, If your kitchen serves pasta, the pasta can be pre-boiled and kept so that whenever you get an order you can simply prepare the sauce and use the pre-boiled pasta. This helps you serve your customer with less time.
  4. Pricing
    Set your price tags according to the demand for that food item. Do market research on what your competitors have set, maybe if you sell the same while having a slightly lower price, people get attracted to you.
    Apply pricing science while setting price tags. Pricing science says always reduce the last digit of the amount by 1. For Example, 149/-, 99/-, the human brain perceives these amounts as low magnitude than price tags of 150/-, 100/-

I hope this helps you structure your menu appropriately and bring more sales to your cloud kitchen. If this is worth enough to read, then do give a thumbs up and share it with your mates.


Confused? Still, wondering how to make it attractive? Do join me in LIVE Cloud Kitchen Masterclass where I talk about it in detail about deciding the menu and How to launch Cloud Kitchen in the next 30 days.
Click here to register.

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How to brand your cloud kitchen the proper way…

Starting a cloud kitchen these days are not so tough but making it a recognizable brand is way too complicated.

People are always curious to make profits and often start a business thinking they can earn big profits by investing less money. Well, the bitter truth is no wealthy businessman out there have this mindset. The more you put in, the more you get in return. 

So this article is all about, how you can make your cloud kitchen brand stand out in this competitive market.

  1. Name 
  • Always keep your brand’s name simple and radio-friendly(easy to spell). This helps your brand get searched by people easily. Also when the brand’s name is not too complicated, people suggest it to others easily.

Ex: “South Express” and “El passado” both are two different brands. So, it’s very obvious that the first brand can be remembered as well as spelled by people easily. So, rather than searching for the second brand, people would go for the first one and it can also be easily referred to other people.

  • Your brand’s name should convey your niche. 

Ex: Behrouz Biriyani: From the name itself, one can know that its specialty is biriyani. 

Wow momo: It completely conveys that it deals with a variety of momos.

  • One word brand names are more appropriate and easily remembered by people. 

Ex: Faasos, Kebabsville, Wendy’s, McDonald’s.

  • Brand name should be protectable. 

Before registering your brand, it is always recommended to search it on the web whether it already exists. As you can’t duplicate a brand name, legal actions can be taken by the existing brand which in turn can trouble you a lot.

2. Logo

  • Should be simple and classy.
  • Should be readable.
  • Use a single color to design the entire logo(color theory can be referred according to niche).
  • Avoid using multi-design fonts in the logo.
  • Design a unique logo. Avoid copying.

Ex: McDonald’s

3. Packaging

  • Start thinking packaging as a way of marketing technique.
  • Invest more to get your food delivered to the customer in an attractive package. Often people keep packages that are unique and attractive and this can market your brand.

Suppose, your brand is providing a unique bowl packaging, your brand name is present on the box, the box is attractive and the customer keeps it with him. Now, when someone visits their house and they see something this unique, they would definitely be interested in knowing where had they got it from. Here, marketing of your brand is being done.

  • Provide different packaging for different food items. 

Ex: Faasos

4. Social Media 

  • Create your brand’s page on various social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, etc
  • Grow your brand on social media platforms by posting unique content and testimonials.

These help in audience engagement. More audience = More brand value

5. Website

  • Having a personal website helps people know more about your brand.
  • Also, the personal website helps in marketing. Customers can easily refer others to visit your website and order food.
  • It also helps you get more sales.

Ex: Behrouz Biriyani

I hope this article helped you in getting clarity on how to do proper branding of your cloud kitchen. Follow these steps and start setting up your first ever cloud kitchen brand as soon as possible. If the blog is worth enough to read, then do give a thumbs up and share it with your mates. And do comment below your feedback!