With the growth of the foodie and gourmet culture around India, the catering Industry is possibly the most booming business in India. However, especially in these times, raising the money to start a business can be difficult if you don’t have the right idea. 

The Catering Industry is an evergreen industry across the world. The demand for meals is never going to reduce, so entering the market is a safe bet. But you might not have enough money to set up the company.

Thankfully, we all have a kitchen in our homes and it doesn’t take much more than that to start a Catering company. So, do you have the heart and kitchen? Then we have 5 plan for you to start a Catering company with no money.

5 No-investment Catering Industry Plans

1. Tiffin/Meal Service

This is a no brainer. Start making tiffin or meals for your neighbours who are willing to buy from you. You will not need any investment except for the cooking supplies that you will be buying. All you need other than that is good cooking skills and reliability. When people around you understand that they can rely on you for their meals they will be happy to buy from you.

This kind of industry works particularly well in an area where there are a lot of college students or IT professionals. The more the number of bachelors in the area, the better your industry runs. Are you in a gated community? Even better!

2. Home Bakery

We all crave some sweet treats and baked goods at times. And it is to the bakery that we rush to satisfy that urge. If you have an oven at your place and love baking, then starting a home bakery is a great option for you.

You can start by making simple cookies and cupcakes. Slowly, you can grow your industry into baking birthday cakes and other items. Another great option is to start baking bread and deliver them hot and fresh to people. Who doesn’t love freshly baked food?

3. Catering Service

Can’t be around or don’t want to be around every day to run a Catering Industry? No worries! You can start a catering service from your home. This way you don’t have to be available every day and cook every day. Instead, you can just get to work as and when you get bookings.

Start with catering for small functions like birthdays, naming ceremonies, etc. If you are choosing catering it is good to market yourself to a larger crowd by setting up social media accounts for yourself, because compared to other Catering Industry, you need more people to know of you in order to run a successful catering service. It is not every day that your neighbours are having a function.

One catch with catering services is that you might require more and bigger utensils to meet the demand. Utensils for both cooking and delivering should be taken into consideration.

4. Ready to Cook Kit

This is an interesting plan that you can try out. Instead of cooking and selling something, assemble and sell packages that contain all the ingredients necessary to cook, and enclose a recipe. This is now becoming a trend in the meals industry and it is a great option for people who want to start a Catering Industry from home. This sells particularly well with people who want to be healthy and want to know what goes in their food licence online.

Create a menu that you are ready to make packages for and let the customer choose what they want from the menu. Or you can ask the customer what they want to cook and create a custom ready to cook kit for them. The kit will contain every ingredient they will need to cook a dish and in the right amounts. In other words, you will be doing meal prep for them and they will pay you for it.

5. Get Creative With One Thing

Instead of going with tiffins or meals or bakery, you can narrow it down to particular meals. For example, you can make homemade chocolates or chocolate arts. Or you can sell smoothies that are nutritious and improve health to serve health-conscious people.

The options are endless if you think in this line. But what will help you make good money out of this is your ability to be creative with it. If you are doing something like this you can always leverage the delivery option like Swiggy or Zomato as you grow and sell to larger crowds.

Tips to Succeed in the Catering Industry

Before I start listing out the tips and hacks on how to ace the no investment Catering company, one thing is absolutely necessary for your Catering company to survive: providing quality and tasty meals.

• Start with people around you and get feedback about your meals.
• Use social media like Instagram and Facebook for some free marketing.
• Align yourself with trends. The general trend is that people are starting to prefer organic and healthy meals. You can cater to that. Or another thing you can think about is the plan of zero waste and eco-friendly meals. 
• For small Catering company, repeat customers and word of mouth is the key to success. So, make sure every customer you serve is happy with your service.

Mandatory Requirement to Start a Catering Industry

While I have given you many plans for starting a no investment Catering company, there is one thing that you need to invest in: FSSAI registration.

Anybody in the Catering Industry, whether they have a restaurant or are operating from home, needs to have an FSSAI registration. If you do not register you are liable to pay a fine as it is against the law to have a Catering Company that is not regulated.

Don’t worry, getting an FSSAI registration is not a big deal, and Vakilsearch can do it for you.