Introduction
‘Having a lot to offer and a little space to do it’ – The typical pain and agony of any homemaker who lives a perfect reality of their bigger picture within their headspace. ‘How to go about it?’ is an inexplainable challenge for anyone who has a dream to pursue. Nevertheless, it is yet another challenge if you have a roadmap and are still unable to find that safe space for your abilities to voice out. In that context, in recent years, the Indian homemakers living abroad specifically in countries like Canada have been turning into home cooks with the entry of meal-kit delivery services. The meal-kit delivery services in Canada have transformed the ideal functioning of the restaurant industry with an intent to address the growing demand for customised home-cooked meal options. On one end meeting the need for home-cooked meals for the customers and on the other end, it is about employing local talents who aspire to start their cooking business yet lacking a proper platform to showcase their talents. Here are five key ways in how which meal-kit delivery services help Canadian home cooks scale themselves to be future entrepreneurs.
1. Platform to showcase cooking abilities
As we are aware, the pandemic has completely redefined restaurant services with the surge of home food delivery services in Canada. It not only entails the aspect of convenience but also the changing consumer food references towards adopting a healthier food option. One of the significant components of a meal-delivery service kit is that it incorporates community participation from the home cooks in the Canadian neighbourhood. To quote a few, entrepreneurs like Nilpa Jadeja have embraced an army of home cooks serving the localities around Brampton, Canada. With a built-in capability towards networking, these platforms are a lifetime opportunity for home cooks to not only showcase their culinary skills but also to hone them.
2. Roadblocks removed to start the business.
Most of the business aspirations fail to set foot in reality because of the lack of financial index. Correspondingly, beginning with a food business, especially outside your country of origin is no easy task considering the significant amount of investment required to begin with. Additionally, the typical business model can only involve setting up a physical storefront. More so, the idea of setting up their restaurant involves one’s headspace to go through compartmentalised thinking of multiple parameters starting the financial coverage, location, marketing and whatnot. However, with the availability of home-based food businesses in Canada, the entry barriers are significantly reduced allowing these homemakers to set foot with their professional journey saving their sanity in the first place.
3. Chance to develop a loyal customer base
As a home cook, appreciation for your servings of favourite kichadi and dhal from the usual attendees after a point certainly dissolves. As a passionate cook, it is crucial to keep yourself feeding in with appreciation from a new crowd. These home-prepared meal delivery services are of good help to develop a proper customer base who turn out to be your lip-smacking loyal fans. Since most of thehome-food delivery service applications promote the products and recipes of their subjective home chefs through multiple online channels, it is a cost-effective way of self-promotion for the home chefs. So, by entering partnership with such platforms, there is a higher chance for your recipes to see outpouring demand from a wider set of audience without needing to invest surplus towards brand-building.
4. Opportunity for recipe-building and innovation
Most of the home-prepared meal delivery services try and cater to the diversified Indian palettes. While most home cooks enjoy the freedom and accountability of running their cooking show, still the vital component of customisability paves more way for recipe building and innovation. It not only pushes their comfort zone but also encourages them to experiment with new cooking methods, explore different cuisines and thereby carve a niche for themselves. For instance, stretching from vegetarian to curating plant-based meal options can favour them in reaching their niche customer segments like vegan activists and fitness enthusiasts.
5. Safe space for scaling
Another significant advantage of joining the meal-kit services community is the chance to achieve scalable growth. Unlike a restaurant service operating in a standard procedure, these meal-kit services centred around flexibility and convenience offer greater elasticity for the home cooks to decide on their specified offerings. Accordingly, some of them begin their journey to provide only lunch and gradually scale up to include multiple levels of servings eventually.
The ultimate business end goal is to deliver satisfaction to all its stakeholders. Consequently, the home-food delivery services stand erect embodying a holistic future of the entire food service industry. The increasing demand for home-cooked food can only highlight the changing consumer preferences in the current scenario and it is certainly an indication of what to look forward to in the future. More so, the opportunities catering to such intensifying demands cannot miss out on building a more inclusive business model by imparting further local talents who are just waiting for that one opportunity to get them one step closer to their entrepreneurship dream.
