What do you think of this as a small scale business proposal? (long explanation)

[handlemecarefully]

When dd was smaller and pre-teeth(6 - 12 months old) I couldn't feed her jars - she hated them and I think she found them bland (certainly I did when I tried them to see what all the fuss was about), so I busied myself with making up Anna K and other recipes and either pureeing them or mashing them up for the freezer. With so little time as a busy mum I was often 'batch cooking' at 10pm at night and it was the bane of my life. Life is easier now that she will eat a wider range of normal food and can have what dh and I eat...(that's when she can be bothered to eat - bloody toddlers!)

However during that period I would have valued a frozen food health eating alternative to jars. All I could find was babylicious and they only did pure fruit purees not say baby friendly mushroom stroganoff and the similar which you can find in Anna K recipe books.

I was wondering whether there was a niche market for this sort of thing and whether it would be worth me cooking up healthy frozen recipes targetted at the older baby group. I would pitch the product locally only, and would develop a web page and advertise in local papers. I would take a minimum order to the value of £20 which would cover free evening delivery within a 20 mile radius of where I live.

I know that there would be all sorts of bridges to cross (I would presumably need environmental health clearance for preparing food at home - and I might need to make changes to my kitchen etc...but it is a large kitchen so I should be able to accomodate this)...

Would you have been interested in this kind of service when you had an older baby to feed? Tell me if you think the idea is a total waste of time.

Also, if the idea is a 'goer' does anybody have any suggestions about next steps that I need to go through to get it up and running (eg Environmental Health inspections / licencing)?

Thanks all. Hope I haven't bored you witless.

I would buy it, in fact I went through a stage of thinking similar thoughts when my baby was around 8 months.

I would buy it, in fact I went through a stage of thinking similar thoughts when my baby was around 8 months.

Just to let you know Babylicious do do other things eg fish pie, cottage pie etc I seem to remember. Always room for better nicer ones though!

Ohhhhh - I've thought about doing this locally.
What area are you in before I say any more!

Have a look here. I think it's already been done although I've not looked at the site thoroughly to see exactly what they're offering.

It looks like they only have yoghurt available at the moment (!) although they plan to have a range available.

Message withdrawn

Soupdragon - that's useful thanks - although as you say perhaps don't have market saturation yet as they only do yoghurts....

Thomcat - if I do this I would be targetting Winchester, Romsey, Salisbury, immediate New Forest area where I live and some parts of So'ton. What about you?

Pinner! I'm lazy!!! I've thought about it lots though, I love cooking and love seeing kids eat healthily and might need a new job VERY soon!

I might branch out to Northwood and Harrow etc!

Have a look in food. There was a thread recently. Think it was in food- someone new to the site was recommending a similar service that she used- in London I think, but she was accused of advertising (she wasn't! whoops!) so she may not be around anymore.

Handle, have to tell you that I used to run a very small catering business form 98-2000. Was passed by EHO etc and I too tried to tap in to this market, dropped fliers advertised in local mum and baby mags and even in wealthy North London it just didn't catch on.
I think it was because a lot of people who can afford it, and you would need to charge more than 20 quid when you factor it all in, rely on their nannies who they pay for anyway to cook the meals, if you see what I mean.

I did have a few clients I did the entire family meals for but that didn't turn out to be cost effective and when you are a small business people want to make endless changes to your set menus and treat it like a personal chef thing which really eats in to your time.

Never, do free delivery, unless it's for over 80 quid, it really is not worth while.

Also it will be a tremendously laborious task for you to shop for, prepare, cook, cool, package, label and freeze and you will have to have a refrigerated vehicle if you do it in any great quantity.

Just read this post back and it sounds so crushing. Sorry to be so pessimistic but just want to share my experience.

If you want any further advice feel free to contact me personally

Suzywong

No it doesn't sound crushing at all. A touch of realism and experience is useful.

I may still try it - for the learning experience if nothing else (i.e. so I can cut my teeth on how it feels to work for yourself / develop and run with a business proposal)....it shouldn't be a capital intensive 'business' to set up so I wouldn't loose a lot financially if it turns out to be a lame duck...so would be prepared to run that risk

Sue W - thanks also. I think I could meet most of the requirements in my kitchen...as for the record keeping on traceability, I am a very sad nerdy individual who actually enjoys making lists and keeping records!

Good on you , HMC

No you don't need a lot of captial to get going you are right.

But the intensity of labour is really something to consider. Your first step is getting EHO out to check out your kitchen and I don't know how old your kids are but they said I would have to move my washing machine out of mine when my baby came along ( I stopped when I had first child).
Also, IME and I did run the other side of my business quite successfully, people nick your ideas. It;s a simple as that. They too think 'I could do this' and do it for themselves after a few of your deliveries.
And bear in mind you may have to be making deliveries to working families at the only time they are in to receive it which may be the time when you want to cook dinner for your own family.

So have fun with the planning stage and please do feel free to contact me for any of the researc, etc I did. You won't be treading on my toes as I am full time SAHM and am moving to Australia in September.

Also, on a nosey personal level, I grew up in the New Forest, where abouts are you?

Good Luck