Home delivery business. Business plan for home delivery of products: necessary equipment and documents to start

Business magazine IQR got one more for readers interesting story from the first person about creating your business from scratch. Our heroine delivers ready-made food to events and offices. This business case is noteworthy for two reasons: the starting capital is $150, the heroine’s starting knowledge in the field of cooking is zero.

How and why I decided to start my own banquet food delivery business

Rice with vegetables

I’m Vika, I’m 28 years old, I live in Kursk. In 2011, I was forced to engage in an activity that I had previously had a very vague idea about - organizing the delivery of banquet dishes.

The reason for the need to cook food to order was my pregnancy, and I didn’t really want to be left without my own income. Due to its “interesting” position, it was not possible to work outside the home, and the “shop for the production of culinary masterpieces” was safely located in a rented apartment of 30 square meters, in which I lived at that time, with a tiny kitchen and two-burner gas stove with oven.

Organizing food delivery, business plan on your knees

Of course, initially I was not particularly enthusiastic about this idea, since I was sure that the service would not be in great demand, given great amount all kinds of cafes and restaurants - from the most expensive to budget ones. It should be noted that in Kursk there were already several organizations providing ready-to-eat food delivery services; in our area it was called “Kitchen or restaurant at home.” But I decided to try anyway, since the losses were minimal.

Considering that by the age of 23 I didn’t even know how to fry an egg, the process of preparing dishes to order was the most difficult for me.

So I invited my friend Olga, who worked as a cook in one of the local eateries. Olya had to cook and at the same time initiate me into secrets culinary arts, I, in turn, did the “rough” work in the kitchen and generated ideas for organizing delivery, compiled a menu, placed advertisements in the newspaper “My Advertising” and on “Avito” in the services section. It was planned to buy food and disposable containers at the nearest supermarket and wholesale warehouse.

Calculation of income and expenses, first profit

The first order came in March 2011, they asked for a “memorial” set of dishes, which cost 180 rubles per person, the number of people was 20, respectively, our first sale was in the amount of 3,600 rubles. We spent a total of 4,350 rubles (products - 1,900 rubles, disposable containers - 300 rubles, advertising in the newspaper - 2,000 rubles/month, taxi services), as a result, we lost 750 rubles from the first order.

We received income from the next order, since we no longer spent money on advertising. During the first month of work, we had 7 orders totaling approximately 22,000 rubles, the total income was approximately 10,000 rubles. Mostly we ordered it home or to the country (taking into account the spring-summer period), once we ordered it to a recreation center, which provides space for a banquet.

The enterprise achieves stable profits

Within the first three months, our “enterprise” acquired its own pizzacon website, where the client could familiarize himself with the menu and delivery conditions. We also acquired glassware for decorating dishes, and edited the menu, which is still in use today. The number of orders increased to 7-8 per week. People order ready-made meals for anniversaries, funerals, birthdays, and weddings. All this increased our income to 40,000 rubles per month for two.

New Year's Eve corporate parties And New year's night They gave us two months' income, although we ourselves were destined to completely forget about the holidays - such is the work.

Is it possible to manage such a business alone?

About a year later collaboration Olga and I stopped working together, I began to work alone, the responsibilities of a dispatcher, courier, and cook fell on my shoulders, fortunately, by that time I had learned to cook quite well. I rented a separate one-room apartment for work, since preparing and storing all the attributes of my business in the cramped apartment where I lived with my baby was, to put it mildly, not very comfortable.

I bought a car and now independently delivered finished products to the client. Over the next two years, the work progressed steadily, there was no shortage of orders, but there wasn’t much progress either. I “built up” a client base and didn’t do much promoting my service, until at some point the number of sales dropped significantly.

It even happened that in a month there were 4-5 small orders, this is very little. Most likely, this was due to the fact that such activities became quite popular among mothers like me who found themselves in maternity leave, the benefit of superpowers and great starting capital not required.

I specifically panicked because this job was my only source of income. Debts arose, and something had to be done urgently.

Business development - food delivery to the office

This is what the menu looks like

Service promotion. It's all about the price!

In 2014, I launched a new service - delivery of set meals to enterprises and offices, which provided me with a daily stable income. I had to drive around construction sites, markets, and branches of various banks in Kursk, looking for those willing to eat “hot home-style lunches.” The cost of one set lunch was only 80 rubles, so, of course, there were plenty of people willing - 12 people at the bank branch and 25 at the construction site. I bought a large thermal bag and successfully “fed” 37 people from Monday to Friday every week.

Plus, my orders for banquets did not go away, although there were not as many of them as I would like, but they were enough for me; in total, my weekly income minus the cost of food was about 15,000 rubles.

Switching from home kitchen to professional equipment

That same year I rented a room in mall. In the family cafe "Evrasik" the kitchen was not fully used, so they let me work in the empty part for a small rent - 10,000 rubles plus 5,000 (electricity) monthly, providing me not only with space, but also with some pieces of kitchen furniture (tables) , sink, racks for dishes) and some dishes.

I bought a professional stove and oven from my landlords, so my production could be called full-fledged and complete. I didn’t have to register my activities, because now I began to work closely with the owners of the very cafe where my business was located. workplace. On the website of my services, I posted individual items from the Eurasika menu that I did not have - pastries, desserts, catering services, which strengthened our partnership and allowed me to act on behalf of landlords.

How much does a successful food delivery business bring?

How to organize a business

When the number of orders for set meals approached fifty per day, I hired a professional chef from wages in the amount of 10% of the total turnover - this is approximately 17-20 thousand rubles a month - a normal salary for our city. And now my responsibilities only include accepting orders, delivering raw materials to the enterprise and finished products to the client.

On holidays, when there are a lot of orders and my employee can’t handle it alone, another person comes out to help with the purpose of earning extra money - this is a young student guy who, despite very young age, loves his job very much and treats the process of preparing dishes with trepidation and zeal. I, of course, like it, because although I learned to cook, I never got to love this process. Therefore, I will gladly accept this guy into my team for permanent basis immediately after his training. My immediate plans are to acquire a courier and devote myself to deeper promotion of my services, as I see great prospects of this business, and finally formalize its activities in the form of an independent small business entity.

What are the prospects for this business, is it worth starting from scratch?

My Native sister, who lives in a village 25 km from Kursk, and in that area her services are even more popular than mine in Kursk. She cooks at home, takes orders on my website, she has a three-room apartment and a huge kitchen with an area of ​​22 square meters, so her activities do not particularly constrain her household. So my company now has a kind of branch.

To summarize, I can confidently say that it was not in vain that I once decided to organize the delivery of banquet dishes and set lunches. My initial capital was only about 4,000 rubles, after 4 years my monthly net income is 60-70 thousand rubles - this is not much, I know that you can earn much more, and I am ready to work on this project to get the most out of it.

Quality service, including delivery of goods, is the first rule successful business. Company owners are interested in ensuring that customers receive their orders quickly and safely. But not everyone runs their own courier service; more often they attract outside companies.

 

Courier service as a business is one of the options for starting your own business with minimal initial investment. This type of business does not require deep special knowledge, large capacity or complex legal procedures. However, there are nuances, knowing which, it will be much easier to start and succeed in this business.

Logistics trends: business relevance

To understand whether the business of delivering goods is profitable, let’s consider the main latest trends in the field of logistics - the process of moving goods, documents, valuables from the seller (manufacturer, supplier) to the buyer (customer, consumer).

1. According to the research agency Data Insight, online trade is growing by at least 25% per year even during a crisis, at the same time, most online stores use outside courier services to save money. The result is an increase in the number of parcels that require courier services.
2. In 2016, the demand for delivery of goods to pick-up points and post offices increased significantly.

   For example, customers prefer to pick up almost 90% of orders in the Svyaznoy online store from pick-up points. Buyers reserve goods on the website with the opportunity to pick them up within 48 hours from the most convenient store location. Third-party courier services are used to deliver such orders.

3. 2016 was a year of growing demand for the delivery of specialized goods: large cargo, food products (including ready meals from restaurants, cafes, specialized bars).
4. Many large companies announce tenders for courier services.
5. The authorities are discussing the topic of legalizing online trade in medicines, alcohol, and jewelry. If this happens, then a surge in demand for services for the delivery of these goods is inevitable. Some of them require special conditions, for example, temperature conditions for medications.

Business registration

You can work both as an individual entrepreneur and as an LLC. Taxation - simplified tax system - 6% of income or 15% income minus expenses. OKVED codes according to the current classifier: 53.20.3 Courier activities; 53.20.31 Courier delivery various types transport; 53.20.32 Delivery of food to your home (if you plan to deliver food); 53.20.39 Other courier activities. A license is not required for this type of activity.

At first, you can use your own home as an office, and your personal home as a communication device. mobile phone. In the future, it is advisable to hire a dispatcher (manager) who will take orders and rent office space.

Open courier business makes sense in major cities, since in small populated areas, where everything is within walking distance and there are no constant traffic jams, it is easier for people to pick up the goods themselves or send an employee.

It is necessary to decide on the format: will it be delivery within the city or intercity courier services. Use personal transport for work or hire couriers with their own vehicles: trucks (when transporting large cargo), cars, scooters, bicycles (when organizing the delivery of documents, postal correspondence, printed materials and small goods).

If you plan to deliver by public transport, you need to purchase travel tickets for couriers, this will reduce transportation costs.

Unusual formats - setting yourself apart from competitors

Courier services in large cities are not a novelty, therefore, there is competition, and to successfully enter a niche you need your own “tricks” that allow you to find, and possibly lure away customers from competitors. How to achieve this? For example, a unique unusual offer could be:

Velopochta. Fast delivery of documents by bicycle (or scooters and mopeds). Students can be hired to work during the summer. The disadvantage is seasonality, since it is not very convenient to ride a bicycle in snowfall in winter and in autumn through slush and rain. But this idea can be done additional service for the warm season. Pros: low costs (no need to spend money on gasoline, travel documents), students are always interested in additional income, and among them there are many cycling enthusiasts.

For example, the American express mail UPS delivers packages not on conventional trucks, but on bicycles with a trailer.

Congratulatory courier service delivery of flowers, gifts, sweets, balloons and other holiday attributes. People don’t always have time to congratulate loved ones in person, and with proper advertising, such a service can be in good demand.

24 hour delivery. Not every courier service can boast of 24 working days. This can play into the hands of a novice entrepreneur: orders at night are valued higher and are delivered faster due to the absence of traffic jams. But here you will need to hire additional employees to work in shifts.

Delivery of women's small items or children's goods. Girls can be absent-minded and they have situations when it is not possible to go to the store, for example, tights are torn at work, hairspray has run out, diapers for an infant and many other options. You can position your service as a delivery service for the necessary little things or make it an additional service.

Delivery of auto parts , building materials or large cargo, help with moving. In this case, additional loaders and cargo transport will be needed.

Delivery of products grown on summer cottages (can be organized in the summer-autumn season) or in greenhouses: potatoes, beets, cucumbers, tomatoes and other crops.

And old as the hills, and, nevertheless, working methods of setting yourself apart from competitors - offering a more loyal pricing policy, faster delivery times compared to competitors.

Participants in thematic forums, sharing their own experience in opening a courier delivery service, advise the aspiring entrepreneur to “get to know this kitchen from the inside.” That is, get a job for a short period of time in a successfully operating courier delivery service and learn all the nuances of the business.

Where to look for clients

A natural question arises: is it difficult to find clients for a delivery service? We answer: if you know how and where to look for them, then it’s not difficult. Of course, in the business plan courier service you need to include advertising costs, but if you are smart, they will be small.

So, here is a list of options for finding clients that work, and most importantly do not require large investments:

Such customer search channels will definitely help you find customers for the first time; in the future, you shouldn’t stop advertising. It’s better to immediately include an item in your monthly expenses: advertising. When profits begin to grow, you can think about expanding, creating a website, hosting contextual advertising.

Courier service franchises

Another option to simplify your start is to open a franchise business. Below short review two franchise offers from Russian companies.

1)CDEC

The Novosibirsk company SDEK Logistics Solutions offers a franchise on the following terms:

• Lump sum payment- 150 thousand rubles.
• Royalty: paid from the 7th month of work - 10%.
• Amount of investment to start: from 200 thousand rubles.
• Return on investment: from 3 months.

You can fill out an application or send a questionnaire on the company’s official website.

2) Express.ru

The company's franchise offer is valid for the cities: Krasnodar, Volgograd, Kazan. The conditions are as follows:

• Entrance fee: from 75 to 200 thousand rubles depending on the city;
• Payback: 14-21 months.
• Royalty: 8% (paid from the 4th month).

The company's head office is located in St. Petersburg. Partners are provided with comprehensive support, consumables, training, descriptions and instructions for all business processes.

I received instructions, which consisted of 8 A4 sheets. First there is a list of job responsibilities (for example, show up 15 minutes before the start of your shift, take car mileage readings). A lot of attention is paid in the instructions appearance courier, his behavior, permission conflict situations. There is also a list of prohibited words: “damn”, “in short”, “what’s his name”, “bitch” and so on. A separate page was devoted to tips and how to accept them - this point surprised me. I didn’t even think that the courier could also receive a tip. In general, the training phase was very easy. After oral explanations from the head of the courier service, Maxim, we went with him to deliver the first order. The girl urgently demanded a wok and rolls at the Shipyard.

“I started working as a courier completely by accident,” Maxim began the story when we were already on our way with food. – I’m interested in a vacancy in a newspaper as a courier driver. I really love driving, so I immediately got a job, without even knowing what kind of job it was. Now I understand what it is good way earn money. A lot of money, however, is spent on car repairs due to the fact that the roads in our city are terrible. During the year of working as a courier, I learned all the potholes on the roads and now I change shock absorbers less often.

The courier's working day lasts 12 hours on a weekday and 14 on weekends, the schedule is two every two. Students also work, but they have their own conditions there. My earnings depend entirely on my speed. If I deliver more than 10 orders a day, then for each additional one I will receive 70 rubles. For example, my maximum earnings per day is 2,500 rubles, but this is not the limit. Transportation costs are paid by the company.”

We've arrived. We go to the first client together with Maxim. I repeat memorized phrases in my head and am afraid to blurt out “Delivery All at once” instead of “This and all at once” when calling the intercom. Everything went painlessly. The girl was very nice and friendly. Judging by the shoes in the hallway, she lived alone. I gave the order, exchanged her 1000 rubles for the change I had prepared in advance and wished her bon appetit.

Coming out, Maxim said: “This one is still calm. It happens that they offer you passage, close the door behind you and invite you to share dinner. I have to refuse. You’re on duty and you need to carry other orders.” The whole thing reminded me of a stereotypical small screen movie plot. “But sometimes couriers leave numbers,” my partner added with a smile.

"Orders are made different people: starting from first-graders whose parents left money to grandmothers who don’t understand what rolls are. There are absolutely drunk clients. They say: “Who are you, why did you come? I didn’t order any pizza.” In fact, he ordered it, but he just got drunk and fell asleep. In this case, you call the operator, say that the client refuses to take the order, and take the order to the kitchen. The guest will then be blacklisted. There are cheerful and sincere companies. They will amuse you and give you money for a tip. You will move on with a positive attitude. There are foreigners - everything is simple with them. You show the amount on the check and wish you bon appetit in English. They love to order rolls bank workers. There is always some kind of discrepancy with them when calculating the total amount. Sometimes they give little money, sometimes a lot. If they gave a lot, you must report it so that clients don’t say: “Oh, you took our money!” In addition, banks often pay with coins, almost ten-kopeck coins. You go to your next order, change rattling in your pockets.

Since I had quite a lot of experience in the service sector, I was entrusted with delivering the next orders myself and was instructed to immediately call the operator if something happened. The task was simple: to deliver two lunches at once: woks to a beauty salon in the Ursa Major area, then pizza to the Partisan Monument. I took everything from the kitchen, food, and almost immediately ran into a traffic jam at Sinelnikov, where I lost 10 minutes. Having approached the house, I decided to find this beauty salon in 2gis (it indicates which side of the building the entrance to the establishment is on). Empty. I start wandering around the house trying to find at least something related to beauty. I go into some basement and see only a manicure shop there. I decide to ask there. I go in and there’s no one there. Just an empty room in the basement. And, you know, like in a horror movie, with an uncertain step I make my way to another door and modestly say: “Is anyone here? Delivery Syo and immediately.” A woman’s voice came from somewhere around the corner: “We didn’t order anything, you probably need to go to another salon further down the corridor.” Glad that I wasn’t stabbed to death on my first self-delivery, I go through another door. They were already waiting for me here. The girls-masters quickly accepted everything and even allowed me to take pictures.

It became clear why operators take insurance and say that the order will be delivered within an hour and a half. In fact, I delivered my first order within an hour. If it weren’t for traffic jams and the search, then within 30 minutes they would have had him. I arrived right on time for my next order. It was not very pleasant that due to external factors I was almost late.

When I didn’t have orders, I sat in a separate office with other couriers and operators. Someone watched YouTube from a tablet and drank tea, someone listened to music. I tried to find out what other problems there are during delivery.

“Many roll lovers finish their work day at six and order rolls home at seven sharp,” said one of the vacationing couriers. “No one thinks that he might get stuck in a traffic jam while getting home.” As a result, when the courier arrives, he is waiting for the client. Is it difficult to order rolls not for 19:00, but for 19:30? But if the courier is late, a universal catastrophe begins. But anything can happen. For example, at the previous address the client spent 20 minutes looking for money in his wallet. As if something terrible will happen if you eat 15 minutes late. Some people specifically carefully calculate how many minutes they were late in order to try to get themselves a discount. As a result, when the courier arrives, they delay him even more.”

“Traffic jams are the biggest problem in our work,” adds Maxim. - They don't count good reason for being late. This means that I chose the wrong road and had to look for a detour. I don’t want to break traffic rules in case my license is taken away, and I don’t want to wreck my car on terrible roads to take a shortcut. But there are no hopeless situations. Once I was stuck in a traffic jam, there was a one-way traffic jam, traffic police, and my order was running out of time. I abandoned the car right on the road and went on foot... The main thing is that I managed to give the order.”

I didn’t have any particular problems during the day of work. Most likely, because I worked on a weekday and delivered only six orders. The most interesting things usually happen on weekends. The guys say that on such days there is no time to even have lunch. And today I saw only friendly, sometimes embarrassed faces of people.

For one work shift I received 1,600 rubles, plus compensation for gasoline expenses. Nobody gave me a tip. Having been in the shoes of a courier, I was able to look at this profession from a different angle. Traffic jams, sluggishness of clients, their ignorance of their own address - these are the main reasons why couriers are late, but you will never know about it, because they are not supposed to justify themselves to you according to their job description.

» Alexey Gisak wrote a column for the site in which he summarized his experience in organizing food delivery. The author is convinced that if not properly managed, delivery can completely destroy a retail outlet.

When you open a point in a food court, street retail or even a small pavilion in central park city, you will most likely want to load this point with delivery at some point. Or, in principle, make delivery. And focus attention on it.

Indeed, delivery is a significant part of the business fast food, which looks very attractive. It has small capital investments, it is easier to replicate, and this replication seems simpler than building a chain of free-standing cafes. Yes, delivery is a very promising story, but in order to make money on it, you need to do a few key things right.

Firstly, we do not give all our franchisees who have opened new locations the opportunity to make deliveries for the first four to six months. Many people think that they do not have enough turnover and that delivery can cope with this task. In a sense, yes, but only when the processes at the point are well-established, there is no chaos and chaos, the speed of service is high, the team’s work is well-coordinated, all planned peaks are predictable, and the team is prepared for them. In fact, delivery that doesn’t work well can completely ruin the point and alienate the audience.

When we opened our first kitchen factory on Semenovskaya and there were temporary problems there, we moved delivery to the Metropolis shopping center, thereby completely blocking it. It's amazing that people want to eat at the same time. Consequently, the peak of delivery and work at the point occurred at the same time.

People's negativity grew - when you stand in line, you can visually plan when the order will be ready. But if online orders are still wedged into this queue, it starts to infuriate you as a guest. And the person who ordered on the Internet is annoyed that you are taking a long time to deliver, even though you are nearby. After a month of suffering, we returned delivery to the factory.

Delivery is not a panacea. Delivery will not save you if work at the point is close to chaos. Delivery works in fast food if you manage all the day's traffic well, the employees handle it efficiently, and you can safely handle additional orders at the same peak time. You can't get customers to order lunch later, even if you have a million additional discounts and offers.

I remember we did a lot of promotions on the theme “order after 16”, everything is cheaper and so on. But this gave a very weak response, and I made one simple conclusion - people want to eat, exactly when they want. For the sake of a discount of even 100 rubles, a person will not endure hunger (unless, of course, he is ultra-greedy).

Food delivery and delivery of goods in an online store are two huge differences. If you order a phone, it doesn’t matter to you whether it arrives today, tomorrow or even the day after tomorrow and that delivery will cost another 400 rubles. You order food at the moment when you are already hungry, therefore, you are prepared to wait a maximum of an hour. After this, you yourself are no longer glad that you ordered, you begin to leave angry comments in in social networks, call and find out the status of the order.

And needless to say, for delivery costing 800 rubles you are unlikely to be willing to pay another 400 on top. Hence all the difficulties - you need to unscrew the whole full cycle receiving an order, preparing it, assembling it and delivering it in a maximum of 60 minutes and also include the cost courier services inside the order cost. The client needs everything to be as quickly as possible, the cost of a mandatory order to be minimal, and the delivery itself to be free.

Separately, I would like to note that not all fast food items can “live” in delivery. Therefore, you definitely need to do a stress test of the product: pack it, leave it for as long as possible (for example, two hours), then open it and see what happened to the product, the packaging, and how presentable and edible it remains. And based on the test, you begin to adjust the product so that it retains its presentation as much as possible and taste qualities in delivery.

For example, we conducted many tests, as a result of which we had to change the noodles - because certain noodles swell in two hours from the moisture formed inside the box and absorb all the sauce - at the end the guest gets a soggy noodle porridge, which also has a dry filling . Or boxes that, while in a thermal bag, begin to fade and lose paint. The delivery time, even if you plan the process, at certain points can increase three to four times. This is where understanding of this is needed stress state product.

In general, our delivery story has had a spiral development. Let me make a reservation right away: we did several things, in my current opinion, that were categorically wrong, but they worked to our advantage. Our delivery began from one factory, which was located near the metro, and for the first few years it was these factors that determined the logic of its development.

We realized that we would deliver exclusively by metro. And exclusively from the factory. This was the number one mistake we lived with for many years. Now I believe exclusively in decentralized delivery with a narrow radius - only such a model can provide economic benefits to the process and guarantee delivery time.

The moment you have a unique product in the market, people will be ready to wait for you for an hour or three, but as soon as you have competitors who start delivering it faster and only in the area, then many, even if your competitors have a little worse quality and service, will choose the nearest fast delivery. Because speed is king in food delivery, and customers are sometimes ready to sacrifice even quality for the sake of it.

For example, my house has sushi delivery, which I don't really like. But sometimes, returning from work, when I’m tired and hungry, I realize that I’m too lazy to wait and order sushi on the way, and 10 minutes later I go down and pick it up. Yes, maybe this sushi is much simpler and less interesting, but I am guaranteed to pick it up in exactly 10 minutes. Speed ​​and hunger - you don't have to choose.

Mistake number two was that we listened to our brave delivery director, who said that he was ready to deliver all over Moscow, and only responded to our concerns - don’t be afraid, guys, we’ll break through. We immediately declared a zone up to the Moscow Ring Road and there was nowhere to retreat further. Of course, we immediately collected a huge number of all possible jambs and overlaps in such a large area - we were late, got lost, and so on.

If you are making a delivery, the zone should be increased smoothly and predictably so that you clearly understand that you are within the promised time limits. But the big advantage of this step was that by reaching out to the entire territory of Moscow and launching advertising on social networks, we became recognizable throughout the city. And a small chain of five noodle shops, but delivering throughout the city, automatically pumped up its fame and its outlets. Delivery also served a marketing function for us.

Basically, the delivery service operates on several key points- necessarily locally, within a strictly defined radius, decentralized and preferably from points or small satellite premises in each of the districts that work specifically for this district.

Delivery on time and taking into account peaks is a strict regulated process, for each phase of which a clear time limit is allocated - only then can you meet the delivery time.

Not to be completely unfounded, our model has really changed dramatically since 2010 - then we could transport anywhere for an hour, sometimes three hours, the couriers were difficult to manage and it all worked in manual chaos mode. The delivery turnover was about 15 million rubles, but there was almost no profit due to large quantity couriers and a bunch of internal problems.

But having come to local delivery from a point, there is a due number of couriers who, on the one hand, will not increase your payroll, and on the other hand, will not leave the finished order on the counter for half an hour, because now there is no courier. Even though we are regaining lost momentum (at some point, realizing that we were doing a lot but getting little, we gave up promoting delivery for a couple of years and it lived on its own), but the delivery profitability now tends to ~25%, which becomes clearly more economically interesting.