BusinessHABCampus Ready-Made Meals: People want to eat good food, but their busy schedules don’t allow them to cook the food they want to eat.
By making meals that are ready to eat, you can quickly establish a large customer base.
This can eventually lead to a restaurant and other business options.
When it comes to college choices, picking the right meal plan probably isn’t high on most students’ to-do lists.
Campus Ready-Made Meals
Campus Ready-Made Meals
However, it can pay to pick the right plan.
According to the Hechinger Report, the average college or university charges around $4,500 per year for a meal plan.
With many schools charging much more.
While meal plans are often mandatory for freshman.
There are usually a variety of options to choose from, some more cost-effective than others.
Get the lowdown on the different types of college meals plans.
Including tips for choosing the right plan and how to save.
Read also: 17 Tips to Open Tomato Paste/Ketchup Production Unit in Nigeria
Campus Ready-Made Meals
Running your own business is a stressful but good career and life choice.
It demands your patience and passion.
Start by expecting to live your work until it is established.
So it can get off the ground. There are many different opinions about how to start a business.
Below are some basic ideas and guidelines to get you started.
1. Come up with an idea.
- Come up with business ideas by identifying things people need and are willing to pay for, that isn’t provided in your area, or online, or which you can provide better than anyone else.
See also: HOW TO START A FISH FARMING BUSINESS IN NIGERIA
2. Consider if it is possible.
Before going too far, think about how plausible your idea is.
Is it something that people would actually pay for?
Will it turn enough of a profit to be worth spending your time to do it?
You will also need to be sure that it is possible to put into action.
While it would be great to have a computer which makes food magically appear out of thin air.
This is simply impossible (unless you’re Patrick Stewart.)
See also: How to Start Egg Production Business in Nigeria
See also:How to Start a Fishing Trawler Business In Nigeria
3. Be sure it’s unique.
Whatever your idea is, be sure it’s as unique as possible.
This will help you eliminate or significantly combat competition.
Which will make your business more successful.
Simply putting a small spin on a currently existing product.
Making blue Red vines or something like that is not usually enough to build a business on, so push the envelope.
Read on: How to start Bureau De Change business in Nigeria
Campus Ready-Made Meals
4. Determine your cost of operation.
You will need a solid business plan to present to any investors and the best place to start would be with determining your basic cost of operations.
This will outline and help you determine how much money is needed to produce the product or offer the service you intend to offer or produce.
It includes production costs, shipping, taxes, worker’s wages, rent for workspace, etc.
- Knowing your cost of operations will be vital to determining if your business will be profitable, since you will need to make more than this baseline in order to remain in business.
See also: How to start Shrimp Farming Business in Nigeria
5. Look at the market.
Study who your customers and competition are.
Is your target your classmates, your teachers, adults, etc.?
And what are other businesses competing with you or sharing the same product?
The idea of this step is to see if your business can succeed and if it has a niche in the market.
Read on: 10 Ways to Improve Your Business Name in Nigeria
Campus Ready-Made Meals
6. Once you’ve studied your target customers, find out how you can lure them into your product/service.
How will you advertise? Also, now that you know your competition.
Find out what will set you apart from them.
What will make customers want to go to you rather than to go to your competition?
This step will help you understand your market and will help with your business plan.
See also: How to Start cassava flour business in Nigeria
7. Determine your potential market.
Be realistic. How many people will realistically use your business?
How much will they pay to use your services?
If either number is too small in comparison to how much it will cost you to stay in business.
Then you should reconsider or change your plans.
8. Determine impediments.
You will need to plan ahead for all of the problems which can get in the way of running a business.
Evaluate your competition; if their market share or product offering is too strong and stable.
Then you will have a very hard time breaking into the market.
No one will want to buy an equally priced.
Or more expensive version of a perfectly good product or service which already exists.
Read on:How to start crèche business in Nigeria
9. Campus Ready-Made Meals
You will also need to explore the associated regulations and laws, especially regarding taxes.
You should ask your local state authorities, as well getting information from the IRS.
Make sure there are no prohibitive costs.
Such as equipment which is too expensive to make the business profitable.
For example, cars didn’t take off until Ford figured out how to make them cheap by building more efficient equipment.
See also: 20 creative business in Nigeria you can start right now
10. Find out the basics.
Pricing is something you need, along with your calculation of profit.
And how you will get your product (buying from manufacturer, making it by hand, etc.)
Also make charts for your products to calculate anything you need to.
Don’t forget things like shipping in your costs.
See also: Top 20 emerging business in Nigeria to do
Campus Ready-Made Meals
11. Write your business plan.
This will be 15+ pages so be ready to write.
Your business plan should include who you are, your experience, what you do/sell.
What your market it, pricing, profit, gross income, goals for the future.
Where your business is headed, etc.
Hint: When stating goals, don’t say “We hope to…”, say “We will…”.
It makes you sound confident and not hopeful.
You need to believe in what you’re doing.
Read on: How to Start Filling Station Business In Nigeria
Campus Ready-Made Meals
12. Approach friends and relatives.
People who know you for a long time are most likely to have faith in your ability and intentions.
These are also the people who are likely to stand by you.
If the going gets tough in the initial stages of your venture or you need to raise more money.
However, make it clear the money is intended as risk capital.
And they might lose it completely or may not be returned in the short term.
Read on:How to Start Cinema Business in Nigeria
Campus Ready-Made Meals
13. Get an office.
You will need a space from which to run your business.
This can be a home office if you require little space and will not have employees.
Or it can require an entire workshop or warehouse.
Look at renting in a low cost neighborhood or business incubators instead of a fancy address.
Some universities make space available at a low rent for new business ventures.
Based on an innovative scientific idea.
It depends on what you will be doing and how big you intend your business to be.
Make sure the space is coded and legal for how you intend to use it and within your budget.
See also: How to start Cold Room Business in Nigeria
Read also: How to start football viewing center business in Nigeria
Campus Ready-Made Meals
14. Purchase equipment.
Purchase all of the things you need to start work.
This can mean mechanical equipment, computers, telephone, or craft supplies.
It all depends on what you are doing.
Try to purchase from business supply companies as they will have significant discounts.
If you are short of capital, lease or rent is an attractive option too, so as not to block your funds.
Read on:Top 15 Inverter Business Setting Plan in Nigeria
15. Advertise.
Get the word around. Just like gossip, your business could spread throughout the entire school.
Set up fliers (but be sure to get the schools permission).
16. Make use of marketing and PR.
You will want to reach out to potential customers in ways that make them want to use your business.
This is especially important when you are first starting before you have an established, regular customer base.
- Advertise in a way that catches customers attention at a minimum and hopefully goes beyond to capture their imagination. Be creative and appeal to the right aspects of the customers you want to use your business.
- Offer free samples of what you do to the right people, in order to get people saying good things about what you have to offer. Word of mouth (i.e. good PR) is the best way to attract new customers. If you get bad reviews or negative feedback, respond positively and fix the problem. People will be much less judgmental about mistakes if you’re willing to fix them.
Read on: Tips to Make Business Wills in Nigeria
17. Have great customer service skills.
Be good at interacting with people. Practice reading between the lines of what people say.
Learn how to meet needs they didn’t know they had.
Figure out how to make people happy.
Be charming. Most importantly, be humble.
The customer may not always be right but you need to be able to let them think they are.
See also: Top 12 Palm Kernel Oil Extraction Business Setting Tips in Nigeria
Campus Ready-Made Meals
18. Have a website.
The world has moved online. Any business that wants to survive the next ten years is going to have a website.
People will use it to contact you, find your location, learn your operating hours.
Ask you questions, make suggestions, and maybe even buy your products or services.
In having a website and services which are available over the internet.
You will be able to expand your service area out across your region or even the world.
Read on:How to Start Forex business in Nigeria
Campus Ready-Made Meals
19. Require payment.
Don’t let people take advantage of you.
Require payment within a specific window of time (whatever is appropriate for what you do).
Invoice people as soon as you possibly can.
If someone is late in a payment, talk to them.
If you ignore these problems hoping that they go away.
You will find yourself working for free and your business in the tank.
Read on: How to start yam flour production business in Nigeria
20. Campus Ready-Made Meals
Always start small, meaning start online.
And only produce what you are sure you can sell.
You can always make more if demand increases.
Start by marketing yourself on social media, and start a virtual store front on a site like Etsy or eBay.
Have fun! Do things with your profit and enjoy yourself, reward yourself! Good luck.
BusinessHAB