When it comes to food, it’s not a question of whether people love it, but a question of how much. Quite simply, everybody loves food. And wouldn’t it be cool to start a business that combines a love for food with a love for business?
I’ve made this list of eight food-related business ideas to help inspire you to turn passion into profit!
1. Publish your own cookbook
If you’ve got some secret recipe, maybe it’s time to finally share it with the world! A cookbook is a great way to showcase your expertise and unique recipes.
With online, self-publishing, it’s become easier to produce books. You no longer have to sign a huge book deal or worry about distribution or shipping. This does mean you’ll have to do your own promotions, so this option is best for people with a strong DIY ethic.
2. Become a culinary consultant
Culinary consultants help restaurants create menus and recipes. This idea is related to the cookbook projects. Since you’ve already amassed all these recipes, you can monetize them again by tweaking them a bit and selling them to restaurants. Just make sure you’re ready to adjust your recipes to suit the specific needs of the restaurant.
3. Sell your food online
If becoming a “consultant” sounds too serious, you can always just sell food online via a blog (more on that later) or online shop. Using the internet is a great way to expand your reach, instead of just relying on weekend markets or physical shops.
4. Become an expert for hire
While there is no shortage of classes that teach you how to cook, you’ll be surprised that there are relatively few classes that teach you how to appreciate food. Quite simply, we need more classes that teach people how to eat.
And this is where you come in. You can position yourself as a sort of sommelier for a wide variety of foods. You can organize special themed tasting parties (with paid entrance, of course), say for pastas one day, and cupcakes the next. You can use these events as an opportunity to collaborate with other cooks.
5. Become a food photographer
Photography is one of the most important skills a cook could use apart from actually knowing how to cook. Knowing how to take good photos will help you with your cookbook, blog, and tasting parties.
But beyond that, you can also offer your skills to paying customers. Food photography is one of the most rewarding food-related gigs you can try out.
And since I mentioned food photography, you could also try…
6. Food styling
See all those pretty food pictures in books an online? Photography is just one ingredient that makes the images awesome. Food styling, or the arranging and presentation of food prior to photography, is other. If you know how to take good photos, knowing how to style food will make you doubly appealing to clients because that means they’ll be paying only one person to do the job instead of two. (You can still charge more than if you only did photography, though)
7. Join food competitions... as a judge
The entries in food competitions are the stars of the show and for good reason. But without judges, you wouldn’t have a competition, just a really good cookout. If you’ve built enough credibility via your other food businesses, it should be easy to offer your unbiased expertise to competitions.
I once spent a weekend judging at a barbecue competition down south, and it was one of the most awesome food-related experiences I’ve had. The food and company were great, and it was also great that I got paid to judge food.
8. Make artisanal pet food
Okay, this idea is pretty leftfield, but hear me out: people love their pets, and there’s a big demand for non-mass produced pet food. Basically, these food are human grade; they’re just marketed for pets and contain no ingredients that may be harmful to them. I think this is still a young market, and there’s a lot of opportunity for a forward-thinking business person such as yourself.
Your Turn
These are my ideas for making a lucrative food-related business. Got any more ideas? Have you successfully started a food business?
Let’s hear your stories!
I’ve made this list of eight food-related business ideas to help inspire you to turn passion into profit!
1. Publish your own cookbook
If you’ve got some secret recipe, maybe it’s time to finally share it with the world! A cookbook is a great way to showcase your expertise and unique recipes.
With online, self-publishing, it’s become easier to produce books. You no longer have to sign a huge book deal or worry about distribution or shipping. This does mean you’ll have to do your own promotions, so this option is best for people with a strong DIY ethic.
2. Become a culinary consultant
Culinary consultants help restaurants create menus and recipes. This idea is related to the cookbook projects. Since you’ve already amassed all these recipes, you can monetize them again by tweaking them a bit and selling them to restaurants. Just make sure you’re ready to adjust your recipes to suit the specific needs of the restaurant.
3. Sell your food online
If becoming a “consultant” sounds too serious, you can always just sell food online via a blog (more on that later) or online shop. Using the internet is a great way to expand your reach, instead of just relying on weekend markets or physical shops.
4. Become an expert for hire
While there is no shortage of classes that teach you how to cook, you’ll be surprised that there are relatively few classes that teach you how to appreciate food. Quite simply, we need more classes that teach people how to eat.
And this is where you come in. You can position yourself as a sort of sommelier for a wide variety of foods. You can organize special themed tasting parties (with paid entrance, of course), say for pastas one day, and cupcakes the next. You can use these events as an opportunity to collaborate with other cooks.
5. Become a food photographer
Photography is one of the most important skills a cook could use apart from actually knowing how to cook. Knowing how to take good photos will help you with your cookbook, blog, and tasting parties.
But beyond that, you can also offer your skills to paying customers. Food photography is one of the most rewarding food-related gigs you can try out.
And since I mentioned food photography, you could also try…
6. Food styling
See all those pretty food pictures in books an online? Photography is just one ingredient that makes the images awesome. Food styling, or the arranging and presentation of food prior to photography, is other. If you know how to take good photos, knowing how to style food will make you doubly appealing to clients because that means they’ll be paying only one person to do the job instead of two. (You can still charge more than if you only did photography, though)
7. Join food competitions... as a judge
The entries in food competitions are the stars of the show and for good reason. But without judges, you wouldn’t have a competition, just a really good cookout. If you’ve built enough credibility via your other food businesses, it should be easy to offer your unbiased expertise to competitions.
I once spent a weekend judging at a barbecue competition down south, and it was one of the most awesome food-related experiences I’ve had. The food and company were great, and it was also great that I got paid to judge food.
8. Make artisanal pet food
Okay, this idea is pretty leftfield, but hear me out: people love their pets, and there’s a big demand for non-mass produced pet food. Basically, these food are human grade; they’re just marketed for pets and contain no ingredients that may be harmful to them. I think this is still a young market, and there’s a lot of opportunity for a forward-thinking business person such as yourself.
Your Turn
These are my ideas for making a lucrative food-related business. Got any more ideas? Have you successfully started a food business?
Let’s hear your stories!