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Cloud kitchens and legal compliance

Before starting any kind of food business, the owner needs to issue some important licenses to run their businesses legally. These licenses certify their brands that they are obeying the rules and regulations imposed by various departments of Food security, government bodies, and police.

It is always recommended to issue the license before starting to run the kitchen in order to not pay any kind of penalty when the legal authorities do a check-up.

FSSAI

  1. It ensures the security of food products (It ensures the food delivered/served from a particular kitchen follows the guidelines of the food safety standards)
  2. It is mandatory to be issued to start any kind of food business.
  3. It has a tenure of 1–5 years and can be renewed.
  4. It consists of a unique 14-digit registration number.
  5. Can be applied by filling up the application through https://foodlicensing.fssai.gov.in
  6. Documents required — Id Proof, Address Proof, Kitchen Layout plan, affidavit, NOC from the owner, Declaration of food safety management plan, List of food category.
  7. License registration fee — Rs. 100/-

Goods Service Tax(GST)

a. GST registration is mandatory for a cloud kitchen.

b. 5% is the GST charge for a food business.

c. It is issued on behalf of your brand.

d. It is applied by filling in necessary details in www.gst.gov.in

e. Documents required — photo of the owner, ownership details(electricity bill, property tax receipt), copy of the rental agreement(if rented space), details of the bank

f. License registration fee — Free

Trade license

a. It helps in ensuring that no unethical business practices are being carried out and all the guidelines are being followed by the kitchen.

b. Govt. has made this license a necessity for all businesses.

c. Eligibility — the applicant should be above 18 years, no criminal records,

d. It takes 7–10 days for the license to get processed.

e. Validity — 1-year

f. The license can be applied by visiting the respective state’s municipal corporation website.

g. Documents required — Aadhar Card, Property Tax Payment Receipt, a letter from the owner of the property, Sanction(Rent agreement/NOC from landlord)

h. License registration fee — Rs. 5000/-

Fire & Safety License

  1. It is not mandatory for business but is recommended by the Fire and Safety Dept.
  2. It adheres that the kitchen is following the safety rules and regulations.
  3. Validity — 5 years
  4. Can be issued from the fire station or department of a particular state.
  5. Documents required — Copy of site plan, site agreement, and license(if any)
  6. License registration fee — Free

Shop Establishment Act

  1. To run a food business in India, one must register its kitchen under this act.
  2. Registration should be done within 30 days from the business initiation.
  3. License varies from city to city.
  4. Can be applied in https://www.hubco.in/shop-and-establishment-registration
  5. Documents required — Pan card, Aadhar card, address proof, details of employees.
  6. Validity — 5 year
  7. License registration fee — Rs. 2000/-

I hope this article helps you understand the legal compliances that need to be done before running a cloud kitchen. All the legalities can be done on vakilsearch.com under professionals.

Thank You!

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HOW PRICING CAN MAKE PEOPLE BUY FROM YOUR CLOUD KITCHEN?

Running a cloud kitchen successfully not only requires good branding, advanced equipment, high skilled chefs, or high investment. It also depends on how the menu is designed, how the prices are structured, the offers the kitchen is providing, everything is essential.

Pricing is a crucial part and most food business owners don’t focus on this much. There’s a pricing science that is applied while setting price tags on each and every item served by your cloud kitchen.

In this article, all the pricing hacks that are used for setting a good price tag for your food items are explained. 

1: Have the first option with a high price (to be used for food aggregator)

  • Always set a high price in the starting by default as this gives the customer a reference point of the high number and this way he will be perceiving low prices items mentioned below as a good deal.

For Example, Faasos

2: Offer a decoy option

  • Have a bad option that none of them will want to buy but still keep it to make other options look good. 

For Example, McDonald’s

3: Display prices in small font size(website only)

  • Our brain perceives large font size as bigger and has more magnitude.
  • We should avoid fonts of a large magnitude but when offering a crazy deal or discount, we should write with a big font size in order to grab the attention of the customers.

For Example, Dominos 

4: Remove the comma

  • Researchers found that removing commas (e.g., $1,499 vs. $1499) can influence make your price seem lower.
  • Because when a comma is included, we will read 1,500 as one thousand five hundred but without a comma, we will read it as fifteen hundred. Less the number of words, the lessor the brain perceives.

For Example, Biriyani by kilo, Behrouz biriyani

5: Introduce features if you want to increase the price

  • If you want to increase the price of an object first increase the features or benefits then increase the price. Simply increasing the price can affect your sales as when a customer orders from you, the price of certain food items gets inherited in his mind. So, observing immediate changes can stop him from ordering from you.

For Example, if you want to increase the price of a chai, give an offer of biscuit/cookie along with the chai in the initial stage. Eventually, you can keep the price and stop giving free cookies with the chai.

6: Reduce the last digit by one while pricing

  • The last digit of a number decides the magnitude if the amount and when it gets reduced by one, researchers say it seems less to people. (even if the difference is 1 from the actual value, still the human brain perceives it as less amount)
  • A price tag of 2000/- may seem a lot but when having a price tag as 1999/- our brain perceives it as a lesser amount.

For Example, KFC, Dominos

7. Combo pricing to increase the ticket size

  • Many big brands use this hack to increase the overall expenditure of the customer while doing the billing. 
  • Once you choose the item, they will start asking you to add several more items to increase the ticket size. 

For Example, In McDonald’s, the staffs are so well trained that when you ask for any burger or any meal, they will keep on asking you to add fries, to add any shakes. This is done so that the ticket size per order gets increased.

I hope this article will help you to structure your pricing appropriately. 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!

Thank you!

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How to market your Cloud Kitchen

Marketing of your brand plays a crucial role when it comes to scaling up your brand. Strategic marketing often results in growth for your business. If you successfully educate customers, keep them engaged, create a strong reputation in their minds, and smartly sell to them, your business will most likely do well.

Marketing adds value to your brand. So, choosing the correct marketing techniques often lead to building a strong brand.

Here are some of the best ways on how you can market your cloud kitchen to boost your sales.

Optimize your Website

Investing in building a good website helps attract more customers. (As most of the orders are received via the website or mobile app, it’s highly essential to build a good website)

  • One-pager website — (Single page, precise menu, feedback form, contact details, customer reviews)
  • SEO friendly — (Search Engine Optimization)

Building an SEO-friendly website helps the audience locate you easily on Google Search. Your website can show up whenever a keyword related to your niche is being searched in the Google search console.

  • Include Action buttons – (Order Now, Contact us)

Market on aggregator platforms

a) Paying aggregators to promote

  • Zomato
  • Swiggy

b) Using Aggregators as a marketing tool

Send pamphlets along with orders to attract customers for direct orders. Gather customer data, ask for feedback, send crazy offers to grab attention

For Example: Buy 1 Get 1, Crazy discount on items, 2+1 offers, etc

Online Advertising

  1. Facebook Ads
  • Running Facebook ads helps you to reach your exact targeted audience

(While starting the campaign, you can choose age, interests, and location of your audience)

2. Google Ads

  • Running Google ads improves the visibility of your brand when searched for similar keywords as your niche.

3. Online Customer Feedbacks

  • Try gathering positive referrals from various platforms.

(Facebook review, Google reviews, Instagram referrals, Website reviews)

  • Getting a good response of reviews can help your website rank higher in the google search visibility

Customer Retention

  • You can offer (loyalty rewards) to your old customers (discount on next order, special offer when buying for more than 300/- or you can include a free dessert with their next 2 orders)
  • Engage with them through Whatsapp, text messages, etc

Social media Presence

  • Build a strong brand presence using social media platforms. (Showcase pictures of your dishes, videos of preparation, hygiene regulations being followed)
  • Create engaging posts which attract the customer to order from you.

For Example: These kinds of posts help you to interact with the audience.

  • Greet your audience on every occasion. Remind them to order from you on special days.

These are some of the best techniques to market your cloud kitchen. I hope you liked this article, do follow, like, and share.

Thank you!

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How to start your cloud kitchen from home?

Yes! you saw it right. It is definitely possible to start a cloud kitchen from home. 

People often don’t start their cloud kitchen thinking of the high rent they have to pay for the commercial spaces, but they are not aware of the fact that Cloud kitchen is a ghost kitchen that isn’t visible to your customers. So, whether you have it in a rented place or at home doesn’t really matter until the food served is of the best quality.

Reading this blog would help you know what are the things required to start your cloud kitchen from your home.

  1. Investment

The initial investment would be comparatively low when you start from home. You can save on high rents that you might have paid when starting from rental space. The existing equipment can be used for cooking, so no additional investment in buying equipment. The salary of a skilled chef can be neglected if you can cook yourself.

    2. License

There’s a misconception in people’s mind that it is not legal to start a cloud kitchen business from home. Is it so? Well, there are specific licenses to be issued by the owner that makes him/her legally run the cloud kitchen even from home. 

The licenses are FSSAI, Shop establishment act, and Trade License. Other than these, while starting a cloud kitchen from home you have to issue the Non-Objection Certificate(NOC) from both police and society. It ensures that all the guidelines of the society are being followed by the kitchen. 

    3. Equipment

While starting a cloud kitchen from home with low initial investment, try to design your menu based on the existing set of equipment. This helps to save a lot of money on buying new and expensive equipment.

For example, let’s say you have an oven, you can make your kitchen serve bakery items. Cakes, cookies, muffins, etc can be prepared using the oven. In this case, you don’t need to spend on additional equipment. 

     4. Staff 

Staff is mostly required when you rent a commercial space for your cloud kitchen. When starting from home, you can hire a helper or an assistant who can help you and a supervisor to handle the grocery stocks and accounts. If serving a premium dish that requires a skilled chef, you can hire one, or else you can serve people by cooking yourself.

   5. Marketing 

Marketing is moreover the same whether you start from home or commercial space. You can distribute flyers of your kitchen to nearby societies, distribute business cards to your neighbors, use social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to target local customers. 

One best way of marketing is having good packaging for your food. It plays a major role in creating an impression from the customer’s end. Along with packaging, send appreciation notes with orders to gain customers’ interest.

   6. Food Aggregators

Food aggregators such as Zomato and Swiggy also lists home cloud kitchens. The procedure to get your kitchen listed is the same. You should focus more on direct orders rather than depending on food aggregators. They charge a hefty commission on every order, so why not go for direct orders and earn a good margin of profit? You can gain more direct orders by acquiring your customers’ information. You can create more engagement in your social media platforms by offering crazy discounts for the ones ordering directly from your kitchen. 

So, are you ready to start your cloud kitchen now? I hope this article gave you clarity on all the essentials required to start a cloud kitchen from home. 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!

Thank you!

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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!