How to Ramp Up Your Restaurant Business with At-Home Meal Kits

Restaurants run on razor-thin profit margins. If you’re in a great location, this can work out just fine. So long as you keep getting a good amount of customers every week and are in the black, you’re golden. If your restaurant struggles because of its location, however, then money can get tight quickly. 

This is particularly true if your restaurant is located in a tourist-heavy space. If you see a massive influx of customers during the summer months, for example, but so few that it’s actually worthwhile closing down during the cold months and coasting on your summer profits, then it’s time to shake things up by selling meal kits and even ingredients. 

Any restaurant can do this to boost not just their profits but also their notoriety. This is particularly true if you’ve managed to attract viral attention for any reason. Riding the high and working on skyrocketing your sales means thinking outside of the box or, specifically, off of your restaurant floor. 

There are so many restaurants that take their notoriety and sell beyond their restaurant business. You have the proof of concept, you have the customer base, and now it’s time to use that popularity to further increase your profits and the security of your business. 

How? You sell meal kits. You sell spice mixes. You sell products that make it possible to recreate your own meals at home. This can be cookbooks, pre-mixed sauces, and so much more. Most customers won’t be able to eat out at yours all the time, but they can still support your business and get the flavors that they love right at home by buying these products. 

Unless those customers are exceptional cooks themselves, selling these products won’t make your own restaurant business defunct, either. Even if they prepare meals exactly like yours, you offer the full experience that sells itself. 

In short, there’s no reason not to sell meal kits, no matter what form you choose. The only thing holding you back is getting from point A to point B, so use this guide to bridge that knowledge gap.

Start First with a Plan of Action 

You can eventually sell a huge collection of products and meal kits, but first, you need to prove the concept. This isn’t because expanding your operations isn’t a good idea, but because it can take time for customers to get with the program and to first know there’s a kit or spice mix option, and two, to take a chance on it. 

A good way to address this period is to create a plan of action that’s divided into stages. Start first by picking out the best possible product to focus on. If you’re known for your herb mixture or spice mix, for example, then you can start there. Sell a spice mix under your restaurant’s brand name. You can buy bulk garlic and all the other spices you want and then personally mix a small batch in-house. If those spice mixes sell like hotcakes, you can then work on establishing more effective suppliers that take the production process out of your hands. For now, you want to soft launch and keep those costs low, so mix that spice in-house and work on getting it approved by the FDA. 

Get FDA Approval 

To sell a spice mix, you must first have a certificate from the FDA and the Department of Agriculture. The process, of course, will vary if your business is outside of the United States. If you don’t want to do this, then you can instead partner immediately with an already-certified business. Take your pre-mix spice to them so they know what it should taste like and the recipe. You can then start selling that spice mix quickly since you’ll be working with pre-approved suppliers. 

Create Winning Packaging 

You can use something as simple as a label maker in your early days, but to really succeed, you need your products to look the part. A good way to do this is to splurge later on by hiring a brand designer. These designers can expand your current brand assets to include a variety of stunning product packaging options that even revamp your takeout options. 

Once you have that beautiful packaging, you’ll want to find a supplier to create them for you and buy them in bulk. You can save by buying components that need to be assembled, but keep in mind you’ll still need at least one employee to put them together. 

Getting Your Products Out in the World 

There are many places you’ll want to sell your meal kits, spice mixes, and so on. The first is on your very own website. Say you’re a seasonal restaurant. If people look you up online during the off-season, you can use your website and social media to advertise your meal kits so that they can enjoy their favorite dishes right at home. 

You can also sell those kits and spice mixes right on the floor of your restaurant. These can be located in the reception or waiting area so that those waiting for their reservation or just hanging out waiting for their party members to finish with the bathroom before leaving will see and may even buy. 

Then, of course, there’s getting your products out there in other stores. Meal kits can even be sold in grocery stores, though you’ll need to partner with an approved supplier and jump through many hoops when it comes to storage and packaging. Considering just how much you can sell when you create ready-meal versions of your meals, this can absolutely be an avenue worth investigating. 

Spice mixes, of course, are far easier to get into grocery stores. Start with local grocers near your restaurant, and then expand slowly from that epicenter. Soon, you can make your products available in a wide area. You can even sell nationally by partnering with the right businesses to get your products out there front and center, at which point you won’t just be a restaurant, you’ll be a commercial success.