Did you know it’s easier than ever to make a few extra bucks from the comfort of your own home? Whether full-time or part-time, online hustles are full of exciting opportunities for you to tap into.
One of the fastest-growing hustles is meal prep businesses. In today's health-conscious world, almost everyone is looking for manageable ways to stay healthy and streamline their meals. That’s why so many qualified chefs, nutritionists, and those who simply have a passion for cooking are starting their own meal prep businesses.
With people’s lives proving busier than ever, the demand for these services has grown exponentially. While this busyness used to mean takeout or TV dinners, nowadays, customers have access to fast, delicious, and healthy meals for a reasonable price.
If you’ve been considering starting your own meal prep business, but you’re not sure where to get started, look no further. Here, we take you through all the ins and outs of getting your venture off the ground.
We discuss everything from obtaining specialized licenses, finding kitchen space and suppliers, and creating an online shop with fantastic photos of your dishes. Keep reading below to find out more.
How do meal prep businesses work?
Before we jump straight in, let’s dive into what a meal prep business really is, and how it operates.
When we typically think of meal prep businesses, we usually think of Blue Apron, HelloFresh, or Green Chef, which have been favored globally for the past decade. But there are a hoard of other successful meal prep companies out there, many of which are marketed toward specific diets, like the keto diet, or paleo.
Meal prep businesses will develop weekly or monthly meals for customers to choose from. These menus will typically offer a range of different options to suit different dietary preferences or goals.
Customers will choose the meals they’re interested in trying, and will order them in advance via the appropriate website or mobile app. Orders can usually be placed weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, depending on the model.
After receiving the orders, the business will then prepare the meals in bulk, whether that involves actually cooking the food so it’s ready to eat, or simply compiling the necessary ingredients along with a recipe card.
Meals are then packaged, then delivered directly to the customer’s door, or made available to pick up at designated locations.
Meal prep businesses can be run from a person’s home or a commercial kitchen, ranging from small operations serving local communities to larger businesses with broader delivery networks.
Pros and cons of starting a meal prep business
Pros
Little to no startup costs
One of the key benefits of meal prep businesses is that they’re incredibly cost-effective. You can prepare everything from the comfort of your own kitchen, significantly reducing overhead costs, such as rent and utilities.
Ingredients can also be purchased in bulk, reducing the per-unit cost of each item. If you’re starting a digital meal prep business, all you require are recipe templates and a place to sell them.
Flexibility
A major advantage for many owners is that meal prep businesses give you a great deal of flexibility. You can put as much or as little time into the venture as you like. You can even start small and manage the business on your own.
Work from home
Many meal prep businesses avoid working in commercial kitchens, instead choosing to run the business from their own home.
Scalability
Meal prep businesses are often incredibly easy to scale compared to other ventures. You constantly have different meals and plans to offer, plus you can increase the delivery area according to demand.
Once the operation is streamlined, it becomes easier to grow without significantly increasing costs. Those who offer digital meal plans experience unlimited scalability, with the ability to make a passive income simply by offering recipes online.
Steady revenue stream
Most meal prep businesses choose to operate on a subscription based model, which means you can rely on a steady, reliable income each month.
Cons
Crowded market
Meal prep businesses are experiencing a surge in popularity, which means that competition can be fierce. This is why it’s so important to spend time analyzing your competitors, to ensure you’re offering reasonable prices, and have a proper understanding of where the demand lies.
Limited shelf life
If you’re selling physical ingredients along with your meal plans, storing these can be an issue, as there will be a limited time before these need to be eaten. If customers don’t pick up their meals on time, this can lead to potential waste.
Operational issues
Depending on the nature of your meal prep business, managing each of the different operational tasks can be stressful.
Coordinating each aspect of production, such as managing meal prep schedules, ingredient sourcing, packaging, and delivery can be overwhelming, especially if you’re doing it all yourself.
Dietary trends
Though finding your own dietary niche in a crowded market is important, bear in mind trends can change over time. While certain nutritional habits experience a surge in popularity, they can pass just as quickly, so you need to be prepared to cater to an ever-evolving market.
Finding suppliers
Most businesses in the meal prep space go down the supplier/manufacturer route. However, finding the right supplier can take a lot of time and energy, as well as trial and error.
If done properly, finding a reputable supplier can save you a lot of hours and energy.
How to start a thriving meal prep business from scratch
Now that we’ve covered the pros and cons associated with starting a meal prep business, you should have a better idea of whether this is a venture you’d like to pursue.
If you’re ready to turn your love for cooking into a rewarding and exciting career, we’ve got all the steps below to make this dream a reality.
1. Find your niche
One of the first steps in creating your meal prep business is defining your niche. To do this, you’ll need to evaluate your interests and strengths. What are you most passionate about in the culinary world? You might have a specific interest in a particular diet, such as keto, vegan, or gluten-free, which you can use as a starting point.
You should also conduct some market research into trending dietary movements, and consider how you would create meal plans catering to these specific diets. For example, the keto diet typically requires followers to eat under 20g of carbohydrates per day, which can be challenging, especially for novices. Coming up with tasty and creative recipes catering to these needs can save subscribers a lot of time and stress.
It’s also important to analyze your competition. Check out what other meal prep services in your area have on offer, and look for potential gaps they aren’t fully addressing.
You can also look to social media to see what real customers are saying about current meal prep services and use this feedback to develop a better product.
Need inspiration to find your niche? Read our guide ‘Examples of businesses that found success by niching down,’ to find a wealth of useful insights for establishing your own business.
2. Choose a business model
After you’ve done some initial research and chosen your niche, you can decide on your ideal business model. Not all meal prep businesses operate in the same way, and there are a couple of different ways you can tackle operations. Here are four options below.
- Raw ingredients and instructions: In this model, you’ll ship raw, portioned and prepared ingredients to customers. Meal prep boxes will include step-by-step instructions for customers to prepare and cook the food in their own homes.
- Pre-cooked storable meals: You prepare and cook the meals yourself and ship these directly to customers ready to reheat and consume when ready.
- Cook and go: This operates via a meal prep workshop, which requires a commercial kitchen where customers will arrive at a designated time to prepare a meal under your supervision, or the supervision of an instructor, ready to take home and eat.
- Digital meal plans: The easiest and most profitable business model for meal prep services. With digital meal plans, you’ll design recipes for customers that they can download and cook from the comfort of their own homes.
Ready to sell digital meal plans? Check out our guide, ‘How to create digital products with no experience’. Learn step-by-step how to create, launch, and market digital products effectively – even as a beginner. Start earning big money fast!
3. Define your target persona
After you’ve successfully chosen your niche and settled on your ideal business model, you can start creating a target persona to help you make more informed decisions about marketing strategies, product development, and customer experience.
But what is a target persona? To put things simply, a target persona is a fictitious person that a marketer creates to help them better understand how to address their target audience. Marketers will gather key demographics about their consumer base, and then use this data to build a profile of that person, their needs, and pain points.
For example, let’s say you’re a meal prep business that caters specifically to customers following a ketogenic diet. Your target persona might be Bill, a 52-year-old IT specialist who earns approximately $80,000 per year.
He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes four years ago, and prioritizes a work-life balance, but finds it difficult to maintain healthy habits because of the demanding nature of his job.
His goals may be:
- Lose weight and experience an increase in energy levels.
- Find a diet plan that’s easy to follow and sustainable over time.
- Manage his diabetes successfully without constantly relying on medication.
To aid Bill, you might offer ketogenic meals tailored specifically to diabetic consumers. These would contain moderate amounts of protein, high levels of healthy fats, and low levels of carbohydrates.
To aid your target persona’s weight loss goals, you would include a detailed nutritional card to accompany the order, detailing the macros so they can account for this as a part of their daily meal plans.
You would also highlight that meals are diabetic-friendly and specifically tailored for those on a keto diet the packaging, so it’s easy for customers to identify.
Once you’ve created one target persona, you can go ahead and create several more. The more you produce, and the more specific you are, the better you’ll be at creating engaging meals tailored to individuals, ultimately building trust and increasing customer satisfaction.
4. Register your business
Next up, you’ll need to register your business and apply for the appropriate licenses to make sure everything is viable. As you’ll be handling food, the licensing process for a meal prep business will be more involved.
Licenses vary state by state and even by town and city, so you’ll need to thoroughly research your local laws and regulations.
As well as a business license and employer identification number, you’ll also probably need a food handler’s license (also known as a catering license), health department permits, and compliance with safety regulations.
Some locations even require you to take courses to obtain your permits. New York, for example, is one such location. Here, you’ll take a Food Protection online course, which trains individuals in food protection practices to ensure the safety of the food sold in the city.
In addition to this, you’ll also need to register for taxes. Chances are as your business scales, you’ll need to hire employees along the way. That’s why it’s important to obtain an employee identification number (EIN). Doing a quick online search will direct you to the application for a federal tax ID, along with some other resources to help guide your business needs.
Want to dive into the details of starting a subscription business? Read our guide, ‘How to start a subscription business: The secrets to monthly revenue’. Discover how to set up your business and pick the perfect subscription model to ensure consistent success!
5. Create your digital meal plan
Next up, you’ll need to create your meal plans. This step is important if you’re operating on a digital or raw ingredient business model, as customers will require detailed instructions for planning and cooking their meals properly.
You want to create a meal plan that’s high-quality, and visually appealing to attract and retain future customers. While the actual content is the most important part, the design is also an integral component in establishing the professionalism of your product.
To create the perfect meal plan, consider some of the following steps:
Research your recipes
First and foremost, you’ll need to research and test your recipes, ensuring they meet the correct standards. This will give you confidence in the product you’re selling. Once you’ve compiled some recipes, you can organize them into different categories.
This could be as simple as breakfast, snacks, lunch, and dinner. Each recipe should contain a comprehensive list of ingredients, detailed instructions, and accurate nutritional information.
For this last item, there are several online nutrition calculators you can use to compile your recipes, including MyFitnessPal.
Develop meal schedules
Next up, you’ll need to decide on meal schedules. Depending on your product’s niche, you might organize meal schedules for customers to use on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
For example, if your meal prep service caters to bodybuilders, certain weeks may be dedicated to ‘cutting’ or ‘bulking,’ according to specialized fitness goals.
Design your product
Now it’s time for the magic. Designing your product may sound challenging if you don’t have any prior experience, but online tools such as Canva and VistaCreate make this process easy for novices.
All you need to do is make sure the layout is clean and well-organized, with high-quality and appealing images of the meals. You should also ensure any fonts you use are clear enough to follow.
6. Streamline packaging
If you’re delivering physical goods to your customers, you need to carefully consider packaging. Chances are you’ll need insulated cooler bags, ice packs, and sturdy containers to preserve the integrity of the contents.
If sustainability is one of your priorities, choose compostable packaging or reusable containers. Many customers often appreciate businesses that care about the environment.
Depending on how creative you’d like to be, many meal prep businesses choose to use custom labels, stickers, or sleeves to give their meals an added boost of professionalism.
This can ultimately increase your brand’s visibility, and make it more recognizable among customers.
It’s also important to think about the cost-effectiveness of your packaging. Buying packaging in bulk from manufacturers can help you save money in the long run.
Online companies like ULINE, WebstaurantStore, Eco-Products, and FoodServiceDirect offer a wide range of options for meal prep businesses.
7. Find a supplier
If you choose to supply physical goods to your customer, you’ll need to source these ingredients from suppliers. Depending on the season, you might source different ingredients from a variety of different suppliers. For example, if you’re starting your business in spring or summer, then you might use local farms.
If you’re purchasing ingredients off-season, then grocery stores or wholesalers may be your best option. Make sure your combination of suppliers suits your budget, while still offering high-quality products.
You’ll need to research your chosen suppliers thoroughly, ensuring they meet the appropriate food safety standards, and assess their reliability with orders and delivery.
8. Rent cooking facilities
While many meal prep businesses have the space to prepare food from their own kitchen, others will need to rent facilities to undertake the work. A commercial kitchen, also known as a commissary kitchen, will provide you with most of the equipment you need, along with good refrigeration storage space to prepare your meals without any hassle.
Before you’re able to rent the space, most kitchens will require proof of your business license, along with a permit.
Even if you’re preparing your meal kits from home, you’ll still need to follow certain regulations, like registering your kitchen, and labeling packaging as ‘Made in a home kitchen.’
9. Sell your meal plans
Next up, you’ll need to decide on a space where you’d like to sell your meal plans. This is one of the most critical steps in the whole process.
There are a few different options available, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Here are some top platforms to consider:
Your own website
Selling meal plans through your own website will give you total control over the customer experience, branding, and cost. However, it also requires you to set up e-commerce functionality, which can be both costly and time-consuming.
Platforms like Shopify or WordPress with WooCommerce are some of the most popular options for building an online store, but you’ll need to account for the associated costs.
Social media
Many meal prep businesses choose to sell their plans through their social media profiles, using platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook.
Nowadays, with useful features like Instagram Shopping and TikTok Shop, followers can easily purchase meals directly from your profile.
Delivery apps
Some entrepreneurs choose to partner up with food delivery apps to deliver meals to customers. This works especially well if the food is already prepared and cooked ready to consume.
Apps like Uber Eats, Grubhub, DoorDash, and Postmates provide wide exposure to potential customers. Bear in mind, however, that they usually take a commission for their services.
Local markets
Many food prep businesses targeted toward a specific area will set up a booth at local farmer’s markets. This is a great way to connect with local community members and promote your meal prep business in person.
One of the benefits is that customers can actually sample your meals, giving them more of an incentive to purchase if they enjoy the food.
Third-Party marketplaces
If you want to get your meal prep business up and running quickly without the technicalities of running a website, selling through a third-party marketplace is a great option.
Whop is a great platform made specifically for selling digital products, such as meal plans. You can set up your own whop and drop that link in your bio. It’s incredibly easy to get started, and you can start selling in no time.
10. Decide on a price
Next up, you’ll need to decide on a price for your meal plans. Deciding on how much to charge is a critical step in the process, as pricing too high can alienate potential customers. Alternatively, pricing too low may negatively affect your profit margins, and undermine the product’s quality.
When formulating a price for your products, consider the following:
Time value: If your product has taken a long time to produce, and includes personalized consultations or custom plans, make sure to factor these costs into the final price. If additional work is required, such as specialized requests, this should be priced accordingly.
Market research: As with any aspect of planning your meal prep business, doing the appropriate market research in terms of price is an important step. You can start off by checking how much competitors are charging in similar niches. Consider setting introductory prices or packages to attract your initial consumer base.
Target persona budget: As we mentioned before, factoring in budget when creating your target persona is important. If you’re selling meals to busy professionals, then you can probably afford to charge a little higher.
If, on the other hand, you’re catering to budget-conscious moms, or students, then you’ll need to make your plans more affordable.
Upsell opportunities: This is a great way to bring in some extra cash, and involves bundling your meal plans with additional products or services to increase the price.
So, for example, you could offer weekly check-ins with your subscription packages, or offer exclusive content and recipe updates.
Most meal plan services operate via tiered pricing. So, you might offer a more basic plan for $20, a more extensive plan for $40, and a premium plan for $70. Premium plans could include personalized coaching sessions, granting customers access to exclusive nutritional advice.
Whop is home to hundreds of coaching courses revolving around nutrition. Diet and Exercise Made Easy is one of these. He has over a decade of experience in health coaching, and dedicates his time to transforming the lives of others by crafting simple, sustainable plans and advice.
If coaching is something you’re interested in, check out our article, ‘How to start a profitable online coaching business’. Here, we help you enter this fast-growing realm and set yourself up for success as an online coach.
11. Create a marketing plan
Now you’ve got everything else sorted out, it’s time to come up with an effective marketing plan to drive traffic to your business. The key question you should be asking yourself is: What sets my meal plan service apart from the competition?
Do you focus on locally sourced ingredients, personalized meal plans, or focus on specific dietary requirements? Either way, this will factor into your marketing angle.
Your USP (unique selling point) should clearly communicate what you have to offer potential audiences. Here are some top ways to market your products successfully:
Social media
One of the easiest and most accessible ways to market your products, social media is a great tool for spreading word about your business. Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook are all visually driven platforms, allowing you to share high-quality photos of your meal prep creations.
You can use relevant hashtags, e.g #mealprep, #nutritiousmeals, #foodie to increase visibility under posts.
As well as this, you can also leverage the power of behind-the-scenes videos to engage your audience, or user-generated content (e.g. customer photos) to build your reputation.
Email marketing
Email marketing is a great way to send personalized content directly to your customers’ mailboxes. You could offer special discounts, such as promotions for first-time customers, holiday specials, or exclusive deals for long-time subscribers.
You can also send weekly or monthly newsletters, filled with information about new meals, offers, or cooking tips. You can grow your email list by creating a free lead magnet like a sample meal plan or a downloadable guide on healthy eating. You can offer this in exchange for email sign-ups.
Paid advertising
If you want to reach large audiences, then paid advertisements are usually the way forward. Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram offer highly targeted ad options, so your content reaches specific demographics, interests, and behaviors.
As well as social media hubs, Google Ads is another great option for targeting people specifically searching for meal plans.
SEO optimization
In order to market your business effectively, you’ll need to be well versed in SEO. This is a crucial step in driving traffic to your products. If you're selling via your own website, make sure to use keywords potential audience members are likely to look for.
So, for example, if you’re producing paleo meal kits, ‘paleo meal prep,’ ‘paleo meal delivery,’ ‘healthy paleo meals,’ and ‘paleo-friendly meals,’ would all be classified as likely searches.
In addition to this, you can also create blog posts and content providing value to your target audience, and funneling these directly to your website.
Upselling
After you’ve employed other pertinent marketing techniques, and you’ve gained a steady following, upselling and cross-selling are excellent strategies for maximizing the lifetime value of your customer.
There are a few ways you can do this, including offering coaching sessions, selling recipe books to complement your meal plans, and providing monthly subscription services with new meal plans, recipes, and access to exclusive content.
If creating your own ebook sounds like a venture you’d be interested in, check out our guide, ‘How to write an ebook and start making passive income.’ In this guide, we walk you through the entire process of writing and monetizing your ebook, broken down into easy digestible steps.
12. Customer feedback
After you’ve applied all the steps above, it’s important to allow your company to continue to grow and meet evolving customer expectations.
If you’re not sure how your audience will respond to menu tweaks or altered price points, it’s useful to gather direct feedback. There are a few different ways to do this:
Social media
If you regularly post content on your businesses’ social media pages, be sure to read through the comments to see what people are saying. You could even share polls, quizzes, or ‘meal rating’ content to collect feedback.
For example, if you’re considering updating your packaging, you could offer three different design options, and ask your customers to vote for their favorites.
Surveys
Email-based surveys are another great tool for gathering data from existing customers. Platforms such as SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, or Typeform are all great for creating personalized surveys you can share with audiences.
One option is to send them a follow-up email after receiving their meal, to check how satisfied they are with the product. You could ask them how satisfied they were with their meal, if their meal was delivered on time, if the quality of the food was up to their expectations, and if they have any suggestions for improvements.
Feedback widgets
Feedback widgets are useful tools to include on your website. They can be embedded on your homepage, allowing users to share their opinions, report any potential issues, or provide suggestions about their experience. Because they’re so easy to complete, feedback widgets often experience a high response rate, which guarantees a steadier steam of testimonials.
Did you know that 93% of customers will read online reviews before making a purchase? Naturally, businesses with more positive reviews appear more credible and trustworthy.
That’s why it’s so important to turn satisfied customers into vocal advocates of your brand. In our article linked below, we walk you through the art of requesting reviews while simplifying the process for your customers. We even provide some handy templates to help you get started.
Need advice on how to gather useful customer feedback? We’ve got you covered. Our guide, ‘How to ask for a review: Tips, templates, and timing that work,’ gives you all the tools you need.
Thriving meal prep businesses on Whop
If you’re eager to start selling your meal plans today, it’s a good idea to check out some other businesses that are killing it right now, delivering their services to hundreds of satisfied customers.
Below, you’ll find some examples showcasing the best meal prep businesses on Whop.
The Balanced Plate
The Balanced Plate is a meal prep service designed primarily for busy professionals who struggle to find time for meal planning and healthy eating. It’s also perfect for people who have tried multiple diets but struggle with losing weight and keeping it off.
The course is designed by Caroline, a Certified Nutrition Coach who helps people reach their health goals with realistic, sustainable nutrition—no crash diets, just balance!
Whether customers want to lose weight, build muscle, or just feel their best, Caroline promises hands-on guidance with 1-on-1 coaching and tailored meal prep plans.
Maeve Lifts Nutrition Guide
Maeve Lifts Nutrition Guide is designed for fitness enthusiasts looking to complement their workouts with optimal nutrition for better results. It’s also targeted toward nutrition-conscious individuals who are eager to understand the balance of protein, carbs, and fats in their diet.
Course designer, Maeve, has spent years perfecting the art of nutrition to complement fitness. Her passion is to empower customers through science-backed meal plans that adapt as they progress in their fitness journey.
The course promises custom meal plans, precisely designed to support a 12-week transformation and help customers achieve fitness goals.
Meal plans are supplemented by a full nutrition ebook, which comes with a calorie guide tailored to you. Maeve also offers a ‘glute builder’ program, which grants access to advanced glute exercises and intensified routines, along with individually tailored programs to meet specific fitness goals.
Create your high-earning meal plan business with Whop
There you have it! Our complete guide for starting your own meal prep business. Once you’re ready to start selling your products, make sure you check out Whop and the great services it has to offer new business owners. It’s an incredibly influential platform for selling digital products like meal plans, coaching, and community access.
If you choose to start your meal prep business on Whop, you’ll have access to the following:
- Your own whop: Think of your whop as your hub on the internet. It’s a place where you can create and sell your digital products, choosing from a wide range of customizable apps tailored to you and your unique business goals.
- Meal prep plans: Once you’ve created your meal prep plans, you can upload them directly to your Whop using the files app. You can share a wide range of material, including ebooks, templates, and trackers.
- Giveaways: Whop has a Whop Wheel app, which gives creators a great way to engage with communities, offering easy-to-use and great looking giveaways designed to increase consumer interaction.
- Chat app: Whop’s chat app is a great way for creators to engage with subscribers. It’s a great community building tool that allows customers to communicate with one another (and you) about their favorite meals and recipes.
- Webinars: If you hope to include 1-1 coaching sessions as a part of your meal prep services, you can easily set these up using the video calls app. You can host webinars with larger groups of people, or specifically geared toward individual members of your community.
- Selling your own course: Chances are, if you’re entering the meal prep game, you have a lot of knowledge to share, whether that’s surrounding, nutrition, fitness, or cooking. With Whop, you can easily create your own course in just a few simple clicks. Just add the courses app to your whop to create and start selling right away.
- Affiliates: If you want to increase traffic to your shop, the Whop affiliate program is a great way to achieve this. The program allows other people to post your product on their site with a link that leads them directly to your Whop.
Ready to share your delicious meal plans? Start selling with Whop today!
Selling meal plans online offers huge potential for those who are passionate about food and nutrition. With Whop, you can streamline the whole process, and start cashing in immediately.
Once you join Whop you’ll be exposed to millions of potential customers eager to try your services.
On top of this, it’s incredibly convenient. Instead of managing multiple tools, you get everything in one place, making it easier to focus on delivering value, while allowing Whop to handle all the heavy lifting.
The best thing? It’s completely free to sell on Whop. The platform takes transaction fee when you make a sale - perfect for smaller businesses since there’s no flat fee, and Whop doesn't take money unless you make money.
So what are you waiting for? Join Whop today and start reaping the rewards right away!
FAQ
What are the three most popular categories in the meal prep industry?
In the meal prep industry, there are three categories most businesses will fall into. These are:
- Healthy: directed towards specific lifestyles, e.g fitness and nutrition.
- Low maintenance: quick and easy meals that are simple to prepare.
- Custom-made: tailored toward customers with specific dietary requirements.
Are meal prep businesses profitable?
When it comes to establishing a meal prep business, there are several variables involved that can impact its success.
The profitability of your business will depend on factors like operational efficiency, cost management (including ingredients, packaging, and labor), plus the ability to scale. You’ll need to develop a strong customer base to maintain revenue.
Pricing strategies, competition, and marketing also play important roles. That’s why it’s so important to conduct thorough market research beforehand, so you feel confident about the products you’re offering.
Nevertheless, there are a lot of potential issues that can arise, including fluctuations in ingredient costs and supply chain problems. You’ll need to be adequately prepared for these potential challenges before launching your business.
How much does it cost to start a meal prep business?
This question really depends on the type of meal prep business you’re planning. For example, if you’re launching a digital meal prep business where consumers are simply provided with ingredients lists and instructions, all you really need is a niche idea and a stable internet connection.
If you’re planning a physical meal prep business, costs can vary between 20,000 to $50,000 to cover ongoing costs such as ingredients, staffing, packaging, shipping, and marketing. You’ll need to carefully work out your budget before getting started.
Can I start a meal prep business from home?
If you’re wondering whether or not you can start a meal prep business from home, the simple answer is yes, it is possible, however there are several things you’ll need to consider first.
To start your business from home, you’ll need to research local regulations to obtain necessary permits or licenses. Most home businesses need to comply with health and safety standards.
One of the most common licenses businesses will need to obtain is the Food Establishment License. This ensures that your kitchen meets sanitation and safety standards in accordance with food production.
What is the profit margin for meal prep kits?
Typically, meal kits have a profit margin of approximately 10% to 20%. However, this figure can vary greatly depending on a few different factors, including the businesses size, its geographic location, and customer retention rates.
Which company has the biggest meal prep service in the world?
Hello Fresh are regarded as the largest meal prep business in the world. They hold a significant market share in the meal kit delivery industry and have a huge customer base across many countries.
First founded in Berlin back in 2011 by Dominik Richter, Thomas Griesel, and Jessica Nilsson. It’s considered one of the first ever meal-kit companies. It’s founders initially delivered meals to customers by hand, before quickly scaling and expanding to the Netherlands, UK, US, and Australia that same year.
How much should you charge for meal plans?
Most meal kits will cost anywhere between $7-$10 per serving, however, there’s no fixed price for meal plans, as each kit will be different and exhibit factors impacting cost.
