Business – Dr Abhinav Saxena

Why Do Cloud Kitchens Fail?

March 7, 2022

by Abhinav Saxena with No Comment Business

Entrepreneurs these days are curious to start their own businesses and startups but are not willing to invest time in learning the entire pros and cons of that particular field.

Every industry has its own advantages and disadvantages. Before getting into any industry, one should be aware of which are the points where I can excel and the points where I can fail.

Being prepared earlier is always better than suffering later.

So, this article conveys the various reasons for cloud kitchen failure and all these are practical factors which when not practiced will definitely lead to failure of the kitchen.

a. Improper Location

Starting your cloud kitchen where your target audience is high in numbers creates a lot more possibility of your sales getting higher. But, often people search for space where rent is low no matter how far is it from their target audience.

If you are unable to serve your target audience then it is very obvious that you can’t sell more, which in turn will not make you enough profit and ultimately lead you to close your cloud kitchen.

For example, Crispy Burgers and Nexus Burgers are two cloud kitchens. Crispy Burgers have their kitchen settled in a locality where they have targeted the college students. So they have their specified targets of students. And when it comes to students, food items like burgers, pizzas, sandwiches are common interests. This is the reason it has a higher number of sales. On the other hand, there is Nexus Burgers, even though its food quality is good, they are located far from their specific audience. So, they are going low on their sales and are unable to sustain with such a low revenue.

So, location plays an important role while starting your cloud kitchen. Choose a target audience, search for commercial spaces near to them(8kms max.) and there is no compulsion that you have to set up your kitchen on the main road. It can be located 1km inside the main road as well.

b. Poor Market Research

Not selecting a unique cuisine.

You should select a cuisine based on your target audience. It should not be so common that every second shop makes it and it cannot be so rare that no one is asking for it.

For Example, Khichdi Experiment — Is a very nice concept of launching varieties of khichdi in a locality of family residencies. It is very healthy and unique for a person to choose over other junk foods. Even, for families, they can have it for lunch & dinner.

Behrouz Biriyani — Biriyani is a very common interest of the people and almost every second shop out there has Biriyani included in their menu. Still, Behrouz Biriyani has done wonders. This is because of their high budget marketing. So, until and unless you don’t have a high budget, do not choose a cuisine that already has a lot of competitors.

2. Not targeting any specific audience.

You can’t grow your cloud kitchen if your target audience is everybody. You have to be specific when it comes to choosing your audience.

For Example, Lunch box has a target audience of office employees, working professionals, etc. These audiences can directly order a meal box from them and have their lunch or dinner. This benefits both the audience and the cloud kitchen. The audience saves his time by not scrolling through many restaurants. He already has a good option of having a full meal on a budget.

c. Ineffective Setting Of The Menu

Including a lot of recipes on the menu.

Try to limit your menu to 15–20 food items initially. Be specific on what items you should include regarding your selected cuisine. More recipes = More raw materials = More chefs = More investment = More wastage

This menu has more than 40 items. It confuses the customer what to buy and this can lead the customer to not buy anything. It clearly shows that this kitchen does not have any specific audience. They have not targeted any micro-niche.

But in this menu, they have limited their items to a specific number. This helps the customer choose what they want faster and easier.

d. Ineffective Setting Of Price

Not setting the price according to your target audience.

For Example, If you are setting a price of 300/- for a meal box and your target audience is students and working professionals, it is not going to work. If we consider Faasos, they have rice bowls ranging from 145/- to 180/- Here, they can attract their target audience successfully.

2. Not setting a crazy offer initially to attract customers.

Introduce a crazy offer, in the beginning, to allow your customer to taste your food. Until and unless people won’t taste tour food, they are less likely to order from your kitchen. So, try to give a 1+1 offer, Dessert free with above 200/- cart price, etc

e. Lack of standardization

Standardize the quality of the food you are serving.

For Example, Story of Yumist — Gurugram-based food-tech startup Yumist has shut down its operations. The company had raised $1 Mn in February 2015. But, failing to standardize their quality of food made them a failed cloud kitchen.

2. Standardize portion size.

You have to train your chef in such a way that the portion of food he serves to the customer remains the same throughout. You can’t serve different portions all the time. You can lose customers if this happens.

3. Standardize operation procedure

Your kitchen should be “System and process-oriented”. This helps to stay consistent and a smooth running of the kitchen.

f. Customer Interaction

Not taking customer’s feedback.

Send pamphlets with your food parcels asking them about the taste and quality of food. Ask them to give their review on google, your website, etc. If you have data of customers, call and ask them to give feedback.

For Example, Consider Dominos, they ask you for your feedback via text message.

2. Not interacting with customers through WhatsApp and SMS.

For Example, Burger King, Dominos, KFC, all these brands interact with their customers by sending text messages of various offers, deals, etc to make them direct orders from their kitchen.

3. Not having a social media presence.

For Example, Marky Momos have a very strong social media presence. This can help you bring in more orders. People always judge you on the basis of your social media feeds, so update each and every offers and deals on your social media pages.

g. Depending On A Single Source Of Income

Not having your own website/app for direct orders.

Relying on Zomato and Swiggy for sales won’t work. You should have your own website for accepting direct orders and in this way, you can even collect customer information which can help you later to reach out for direct orders.

2. Only having customers from food aggravators

You can distribute pamphlets of your kitchen in the locality of your target audience. This can help you get more direct customers.

h. Poor Marketing

To get more orders, to increase sales, to get known by more people, you have to invest in marketing.
Not marketing on social media platforms

For Example, Faasos is a big player when it comes to digital marketing. In social media platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook, keep on posting ad campaigns because they know people these days spend most of their time using social media apps and they can convert them by showcasing their offers, foods, smart quotes, etc.

How To Promote Your Cloud Kitchen Business In Zomato?

February 14, 2022

by Abhinav Saxena with No Comment Business

Cloud kitchen business models are mostly reliant on third-party food delivering partners. Zomato is one of the oldest and best third-party food delivery partners across India.

Zomato was founded by Pankaj Chaddah and Deepinder Goyal in 2008. It is available in 24 countries and in more than 10,000 cities. The company expanded operations internationally in several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Qatar, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, and South Africa.

The current stats say Zomato has nearly 27 million monthly active users. So, partnering with such a food aggregator would help your brand get proper recognition as well as it can reach out to more people.

There are several ways on how you can promote your cloud kitchen in Zomato. Firstly, the food aggregator provides the cloud kitchen the platform for running advertisements of their brand to be on top of the search list. And there is also an organic way that can help your cloud kitchen brand be on top.

Here are some of the hacks that can be used by cloud kitchens to promote their brand on Zomato –

Happy Hours

Analyze the data on which time more orders are being placed during the entire day. Keep that time phase as happy hour and provide exciting deals only for that period. People are always keen on having free foods so, they won’t lose this opportunity to place an order from your cloud kitchen.

Happy hours mostly includes deals such as “buy 2 pizzas get the third pizza free”.

Today’s special

Including a special dish for the day is a good hack to attract more customers to order from your cloud kitchen. Having it included in your menus on weekends would get you, new customers.

People are always curious to try out new things. So, considering this as an opportunity, your cloud kitchen can introduce special dishes on weekends and make them available for that day.

Special Deals

Provide special deals and discounts to your customers once in a while to ensure your old customers order from your cloud kitchen again and again. This would also help you attract new customers to order from you. This is one of the best ways how you can make your food taste to new customers.

Crazy discounts on first orders for new customers and fifth-order for existing customers are some kinds of special deals that you can offer to promote your cloud kitchen.

Stay consistent

Never compromise the quality of food you serve and the service you provide. Staying consistent is the difficult part when you do business. It’s always easy to be on top of your performance in the beginning, but once you be consistent with your service, you won’t lose your customers ever.

Serve the best quality food, with fast preparation time, and provide the best customer service. These qualities will make your cloud kitchen earn good ratings and reviews from customers. Once your ratings are high, your cloud kitchen would automatically be on top of the search list.

Cloud Kitchen – Modes Of Serving People

February 7, 2022

by Abhinav Saxena with No Comment Business

Being a cloud kitchen, there are various modes in which you can serve people. Unlike restaurants, you don’t need to handle dine-in customers instead, can work in a hassle-free environment with less staff and a definite space.

For a cloud kitchen, there are multiple ways to target your audience in various forms. These are some of them, that can be done to attract more and more customers.

1. Tie-up with Swiggy/Zomato

Tie-up with food aggregators to be recognized by the local areas. Food aggregator helps in the visibility of your kitchen.

When the kitchens are searched by users for the specific area, your kitchen gets visibility which in turn helps you bring in orders.

The food aggregator covers a 12km radius from the area it is situated.

It shows your kitchen for people near to you as well people residing within 12km from your kitchen. This helps you get more recognition.

2. Direct Order

You can always have your own website or distribute pamphlets to get direct orders. Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads can be run to grab the attention of more people. A personal delivery boy can be hired for delivering direct orders to nearby customers. Reach out to existing customers through Whatsapp and provide crazy offers to make them order directly from you.

Get reviews from your customers on your google page. (This may help you get more orders as people can judge you on basis of those compliments).

Crazy deals attract customers and make them taste your food.

3. Tiffin/Meal box

You can tie-up with corporate offices to provide them lunch/dinner tiffins. Meals can be provided to small scale factories, workshops, etc. With a minimal price tag of 99/- you can even tie-up with sports centres to provide them with healthy meals.

4. Occasion orders/Catering

You can take orders for small birthday parties, family functions. You can offer them to provide a dish free on ordering for more than 50 people. Catering can be done if you have good manpower. (Catering service for wedding functions/ceremonies can be taken)

5. Subscription

One of the best ways to have a side income flow from the kitchen. Having a subscription system for working professionals, students, help you get a fixed monthly amount. Subscription can be done weekly as well as monthly. They can have an option for a custom menu. (So that they don’t get bored of eating the same thing daily)

I hope this article will help you in understanding the multiple ways you can serve people through your cloud kitchen and help gain more customers. 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!

B2B Sales Techniques For Cloud Kitchen

January 24, 2022

by Abhinav Saxena with No Comment Business

1. Create Offer

a. For whom?

Be specific on whom to serve your food. Targeting a specific group can help you get more responses.

You can target small scale startups
A community of staffs from offices can be targeted

b. Serving time

Choose a specific time, when you will serve. Also, that depends upon whom you have targeted.

If office staff, then breakfast can be provided. (mostly office employees do not have time for having breakfast at home)
Also for office staff or any startup companies, lunch can be served.

c. Serving Dish

Now, what are the dishes you would be serving? Again, it depends upon the target chosen.
The menu can be designed according to the group’s interests. Providing them the clarity of what you will serve will make them respond faster.

For Example, Lunchbox from Rebels Food has targeted office staff, students, bachelors who are working from home or having online classes and are unable to prepare food.

Lunch square from Bhubaneswar (our community) has targeted office-going people, with meals, rice combos, and thali.

(https://www.instagram.com/lunch.square/)

d. Package pricing

Price your meals or thali according to whom you are serving. Also, varieties of thali with different pricing structures can be provided.

Apply pricing science while setting the price tag.
Set your price on the dishes served as well.

For Example, Veg Thali – Rs 99/-

Paneer Thali – Rs 129/-

Special Chicken Thali – Rs159/-

e. Building Trust

It is very important to build trust when it comes to B2B. Businesses will only want to opt for your service when they feel it’s safe and secure to work with you.

Place a sticker on your food package saying the Chef as well as the delivery boy’s body temperature.

Send sanitizer sachets along with the packages to aware your customers on hygiene.
Print certifications on the package of your licenses. (this shows that you are authentic)
You can record visuals of how the chef is preparing your food by following all the protocols of hygiene. Also, visuals of sanitization of the delivery van can be recorded and posted on your social media handles.

2. Ways To Approach

a. Email Id

Copy this entire code.

Paste it in the google search bar
Google will find all the email ids of HRs of several companies

You can search email ids according to your requirement by just typing their job position within the inverted commas.
Put the same city name where you are searching.
Once you get all the email ids, press ctrl-A and then ctrl-C.
Now, go to emailx.discoveryvip.com and paste it on the email extractor.
Now, click on extract.

Here’s a template of an email body which you can send by filling required details to company HRs as a proposal.

Also to follow up with them, either hire a team or you can use yesware which helps in setting up reminders to send mails again on set time and date to specific HRs.

b. LinkedIn

Approach the company’s HR and send them your proposal or convince them for a one-to-one telephonic call or zoom call.
The same email template can be used as a proposal also.
Find HR groups on LinkedIn and add yourself to them. Post your proposals inside the group.

c. Phone Call

Call HR departments of organizations and offices and aware them of the current situation along with convincing them that you can provide them a safer environment when it comes to food. Tell them that you are concerned for the staff, so you are willing to provide healthy and hygienic food.

What is POS? What to look for in a POS?

January 10, 2022

by Abhinav Saxena with No Comment Business

A POS system allows your business to accept payments from customers, keep a record of sales, and food inventory. Modern POS systems are completely digital thus making it simpler for the user to perform all these activities at ease. The POS tracks all these reports and keeps them in an organized manner. Some POS systems act as credit card processors as well, they have the feature of card swipe to make a payment.

While buying a POS for your cloud kitchen, you should see whether all these features are included in it –

It should provide daily sales report
It should be able to keep a track of the inventory.
Identify inventory based on serial codes.
Keep track of customer’s purchase history.
Collect basic information about the customer.
Should track the payment history of all the orders placed.

What are the top 5 best POS systems for your Cloud Kitchen?

1. Toast POS

It provides advanced employee management and multiple ordering options. It also provides the user with payroll management and a custom kitchen communication feature. They have started a new feature after this pandemic that enables a customer to place a contactless order by using the phone.

It provides 24×7 customer support without any additional charge for a lifetime. The professional US-based support team guides you through all your problems in simple language.

Charge: $79 per month for each terminal (excluding additional hardware costs)

2. Shopkeep

It can be an option for complete contactless order processing. It is mobile-friendly and is mostly suitable for small cafes and cloud kitchens. It provides its software on a monthly subscription model.

It provides the features of daily report tracking, inventory management, and payment processing. Pricing varies from business to business depending on hardware, licenses, and specific demands.

Charge: Ranges from $69 — $199 per month

3. Lightspeed

Lightspeed Restaurant is arguably one of the most feature-rich POS systems on the market. Lightspeed offers unique events to push certain items or reward hard-working servers. It allows the user to place an order from their mobile to the kitchen from wherever they want.

Key features include menu management, food cost and inventory management, purchase order support, and adjustable floor plans to update the seatings. It offers detailed reports of product management, reports, and sales tracking.

Charge: $69 per month for one POS terminal

4. TouchBistro

It is an iPad POS and integrated payments solution built for restaurant and cloud kitchen owners. With its clean and attractive look, it is the most preferable POS system in the market. TouchBistro’s unique model allows you to run your entire restaurant on an iPad, even with no internet connection.

Key features include ingredient management, report tracking, and processing of multiple payment gateways. It allows the user to integrate the system with several other apps to manage inventory and staff. TouchBistro also integrates with third-party delivery services, custom floor plans, kiosk options, and tableside ordering functions.

Charge: $69.99 per month (free trial available)

5. Square

It is widely known for its mobile-friendly features along with payment processing gateways. It is one of the basic POS systems and can be purchased by someone who is just starting his cloud kitchen. It provides a sleek design and a big display making it easier to use for the user.

Key features are menu management, inventory control, table management, and discounts. You can create and customize your menus in a matter of minutes. You can manage your entire restaurant remotely if required, it provides you to track real-time sales monitoring.

Charge: There are no monthly charges to use the basic version. You’ll only pay the standard 2.6% + $0.10 transaction fee for accepting in-person payments. The plus version costs $60 per month.

A POS system helps to save a lot of time by tracking and managing several reports and processing payments. Each and every cloud kitchen, restaurant, cafe, etc should have its POS system to stay organized and reduce manpower. I hope this article will help you understand Point-of-sales systems and the various software and its features.

Thank you!

Best Social Media Marketing Tips For Cloud Kitchen

December 13, 2021

by Abhinav Saxena with No Comment Business

Social media marketing has become one of the best marketing techniques in this digital generation. Social media platforms have become the hangout place for 90% of the people, no matter which age group you want to target, which locality you want to target, which gender you want to target, everything is possible through social media marketing.

Using social media helps you build brand awareness, increase your customer base, and connect with current customers. It allows you to target your specific audience and grab their attention towards your service. It helps your brand to reach millions of customers worldwide.

Being a cloud kitchen owner, you have to be very creative while designing your feed. It showcases your brand value. You have to be authentic about visual posts, stories, writing captions, using proper hashtags, etc.

Here are some 2021 trendy social media marketing tips to boost your cloud kitchen sales –

Interactive –

Your brand’s presence will grow only when you start interacting with your audience through several contests, posts, stories, etc. Do QnA rounds on weekends to know what are dishes your customers like from your cloud kitchen, organize online contests on special occasions and reward your customers.

When you interact with your customers, it makes the bond familiar and helps you to make them order from you again and again. Post creative content on your social media pages wishing your customers on special occasions.

Description Of The Social Media Page –

Only opening the social media pages of your cloud kitchen brand on various social media platforms is not enough. The customer’s first priority is to know who are you and your description should be such that it grabs the attention of your customer and would definitely make them order from your cloud kitchen. Keep it simple yet informative. Long descriptions turn off the customer.

Considering the example of Faasos, it is so clear and to the point. First, two lines say what it sells, next comes the current discount it is providing, third is the link of its website from where the customer can order.

Facebook and Google Ads –

Facebook Ads is one of the best ways to target your specific audience. More than 2 billion people use this social media platform. It provides you the freedom of choosing the age group, gender, locality so that you can only run the ads on a specific targeted audience.

Google Ads is also a good marketing technique when you want to showcase your cloud kitchen to a large audience. Whenever you run a google ad for your cloud kitchen, it will show on the top of the search list when any of the customers is searching for a cloud kitchen using a keyword related to your brand.

Monitoring Social Media –

Many business owners only open their brand’s social media pages just to showcase their product without going through the real statistics. The main aim of being present on the social media platform is to reach out to more people through your creative content and excellent service.

Analyzing the statistics on what’s the engagement rate of your posts, is it reaching enough audience, how many impressions are being created, etc helps your brand grow on the social media platform. There are many social media tools that provide you the insights of the same.

Re-share Customer Feedback –

Encourage your audience to get involved in your posts and virtual contests. Ask them to tag your social media page and drop a review on their page. Highlight those contents in your feed to make the customer feel how much you care about their opinion.

Ask your customer to use your cloud kitchen’s hashtag to gain more attention from people. Share user-friendly content and tag them in your post.

How To Tie Up Your Cloud Kitchen With Food Aggregators?

November 22, 2021

by Abhinav Saxena with No Comment Business Uncategorized

In India, two well-known food aggregators are currently in the game and those are Zomato and Swiggy.

Zomato started in 2008 and from then it has marked its spot in the market. Zomato is present in over 10,000 cities across the globe with over 1.4m active restaurants on our platform. So, trusting a food delivery partner of such a kind is easy.

Zomato charges a commission of 17%-26% on all orders placed through Zomato. In order to be consistently at the top of the search, you can do advertisements on Zomato platforms.

The most important documents required to tie up with food aggregators are –

PAN card details
GST details
FSSAI license
GST number
Permanent address

Cloud kitchen owners can tie up their kitchen with Zomato by following the steps below –

Visit Zomato.com and scroll down till the end of the page. At the footer, you will find a tag called “Add a restaurant”.
After clicking on that, a form will appear asking for the basic details. Fill it up.
Once all the details have been filled in by you, click on the “Add restaurant” button.
These are some of the basic details asked by them in the form.

a) Restaurant name

b) State/City

c) Contact details

d) Owner details

e) Restaurant status

f) Type of cuisine

g) Operational timings

h) Restaurant personal credentials(website link, email id, contact details)

I) Mode of payments

5. Your kitchen listing is now completed.

6. A Zomato sales representative will contact you to verify all your documents before making your kitchen live in Zomato.

Swiggy is India’s largest and highest-valued online food ordering and delivery platform. It was started in 2014 and has been a great competitor to other food aggregators such as Zomato. Swiggy has a presence in over 500 cities, and 140,000 restaurants on its platform, and 2.1 lakh active delivery partners.

Swiggy charges a commission of 18%-23% on all orders placed through Swiggy. It also provides restaurant owners the platform to advertise their restaurant and be on top of the user’s search list.

Cloud kitchen owners can tie-up their kitchen with Swiggy by following the steps below.

Visit Swiggy.com and scroll down to the footer of the page and click on the option of “Partner with Us”.
A form will appear on the screen after clicking the option. Fill in the details appropriately.
The questions asked would be very basic. It includes –

a) Name of your restaurant/cloud kitchen

b) State

c) Pincode

d) Owner details

e) Contact details

4. Once the filling process is completed, click on the submit button.

5. Documents regarding your restaurant/cloud kitchen will be asked in the next step.

Soft copies of FSSAI, GST, and Trade license should be attached.
You would require pictures of your restaurant/cloud kitchen. Pictures of the kitchen, dining, and packaging examples should be there in jpeg format.
Additional information such as website link(if any), type of cuisine, mode of payments, restaurant details is asked to fill up.

6. Some original copies are also required to partner with Swiggy.

a) Menu

b) Cancelled cheque or passbook

c) Takeaway bill

7. A Swiggy sales representative will contact you to verify all your documents before making your kitchen live in Swiggy. Your kitchen would go live within approximately 15 days of registration.

8. After completing all these processes, a confirmation from Swiggy will be received by you. Once the confirmation is received, your kitchen is live. You can start accepting orders now!

I hope this article will help you in partnering your restaurant/cloud kitchen with food aggregators such as Zomato and Swiggy. 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!

Cloud Kitchen vs Restaurant/Cafe

November 11, 2021

by Abhinav Saxena with No Comment Business

The Cloud kitchen model has been the most preferable model for most food business owners these days. Rather than spending hefty amounts on fancy interiors and decoration in restaurants, it has become easy for them to open a cloud kitchen that requires none of these.

After this pandemic, the restaurant industry has faced a huge loss as people are now more concerned about their safety and hygiene. So, most restaurant and cafe owners are now shifting towards the cloud kitchen model. It has become feasible and an efficient option for them.

When you differentiate cloud kitchens from restaurants or cafes, there are some major factors that make the cloud kitchen a better and profitable model.

At the end of this article, you can easily decide which model is the best to start with and also how cloud kitchens stand out from a restaurant in various aspects.

1. Investment

In cloud kitchen,

Low initial investment (Renting out a big space is not required. The minimum area required is 200-300 sq ft)
Low operational cost (Minimal Staff requirement)
Designing of interior and exterior costs neglected.
Only equipment maintenance is required.

In restaurants,

High initial investment (Renting of big space is required. Minimum space required is 550-750 sqft)
High operational cost (Have to hire staff for the management of restaurant)
The design of the interior and exterior is high.
Have to spend on additional charges such as ac maintenance, security guard, etc.

2. Location

In cloud kitchen,

Can be located anywhere(backside of apartment, individual residential property)
Doesn’t require much space to set up
Can be operated from your own residence.

In restaurants,

Have to be located in a good locality/central market
Requires large space to set up
Can’t be operated from own residence

3. Staff

In cloud kitchen,

Minimal staff is required
1 or 2 chefs is enough to run the kitchen
No additional cost is required for hiring waiters, managers, etc.

In restaurants,

Having more staff is compulsory for the smooth running of the restaurant.
More chefs are required for serving people faster
Additional costs are required for hiring waiters, managers, etc.

4. Scalability

In cloud kitchen,

Can be expanded easily
Franchises can be taken in a lower value
Can grow their kitchen at low cost

In restaurants,

Requires large investment for expansion.
Franchises of dine-in restaurants are higher
Requires proper location, planning, staff to expand

5. Multiple Brands Under The Same Roof

In cloud kitchen,

Can open multiple brands under the same roof
Do not require various kitchens to operate separately
Same chefs can prepare recipes for all the brands

In restaurants,

Can’t have multiple brands under the same roof
Requires separate kitchens to operate for multiple brands
More chefs, staffs, are required to handle the restaurant

6. Higher Profit

In cloud kitchen,

Can save on high rental costs
Can save on additional labour costs
Can save on maintenance charges, staff salaries, decoration expenses

In restaurants,

Can’t save on high rental costs
Can’t save on additional labour costs
Have to bear the expenditure of the staffs, maintenance charge, high electricity bills, etc.
This lowers the profit margin when compared with cloud kitchen

I hope this article gives clarity on how cloud kitchens and restaurants are different from each other in various aspects. These factors differentiate that the cloud kitchen model is more profitable than starting any restaurant or cafe.

Thank you!

The Beginners Guide on how to start a cloud kitchen

February 6, 2020

by Abhinav Saxena with No Comment Business Uncategorized

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?

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.
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/-
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.
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.
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.
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?

How to design a sellable menu for your cloud kitchen?

February 6, 2020

by Abhinav Saxena with No Comment Business Uncategorized

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

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.
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/-)
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.
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…

February 6, 2020

by Abhinav Saxena with No Comment Business Uncategorized

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.

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!