Running take away from Home?

[Bubblegum80]

Hi Guys
Looking some advice on anyone who may of started a food buisness from home.
Im a chef, have lost my job, am a single parent and am looking into hiring a kitchen to start my own food buisness, obviously i have an up to date food hygiene certificate and im. Aware I will need a license and to inform the council ect. So i can be inapected, Also take out insurance ect.
But wanted any tips or advice you have if you started out from home? I will be concentrating on traditional Mexican food (im half Spanish) which ia also my passion. But just any general advice or positive stories would be amazing thankyou 😁 ❤️x

A guy in my town did exactly that. Started cooking street food style from his driveway (with all the relevant permissions) and it was an absolute hit. He now does breakfasts from his home about 5 days a week and cooks from a recreational club kitchen in next town over 5 days a week as their "resident chef". Very popular, wonderful success story.

What is your street set up? I'm in a quiet cul-de-sac and I'd be pretty annoyed with constant coming and doing outside my home.

There are a few Indian ladies who s it round here from their homes. The food is amazing, loads better and cheaper than a normal restaurant or takeaway but I don’t know how much money they make out of it

There's a couple of people that do this locally to me. They also only deliver, don't allow pick up, so no traffic issues for neighbours.
I think you can run into problems if you have any pets though, which might be something to be aware of.

I wouldn’t stick to one type of cuisine because that automatically limits your audience. Where I live local caterers that usually do weddings and functions etc are now offering at home dinner party type meals delivered for re heating etc. So posh food at less than restaurant prices. They also do home cooked “ready meals” for old and vulnerable people

We have a guy round us who has done something similar very successfully. He takes pre orders for meals which he delivers on the day, in 2 time slots (3-5 and 5-7, I think). The food is for cooking at home, but is all preprepared.
Means he carries on with the majority of his chef work, but doesn't piss off all the neighbours with constant traffic.
The guy who delivered more cooked food has been much less successful. BUT that could be down to the sheer social media prescence if the first guy. He spends a significant amount of time promoting what he is doing.

You’ll also need to consider the smell you’ll create, from cooking and your waste. Having lived next door to occasional professional caterers doing spicy food I can tell you that it has a massive impact on your neighbours. You need to be prepared to be unpopular with your neighbours unless you properly manage your operations. That aspect is more important than the food, to run it as a business you need to treat it as a business first, not an expanded hobby.

A bloke did this with M&S ready meals and a microwave and advertised it as Italian take away food, delivery only. Worked quite well apparently.

I like the idea of having a few different 'income streams' so old people / family ready meals to reheat could be delivered / cooked in the morning. Then focus on prepping 'nearly ready' for delivery in the afternoon and then finally full on takeaway evening.

Agree re point about promotion etc as social media will be very important but is also very time consuming to do it properly so I'd recommend investing in someone who can do it mostly for you.