There are many people out there who don’t like laundry or have no time at all, and starting a home based laundry service can turn out to be a huge profit making business. One of the best things about a home based laundry service is that one doesn’t require a lot of startup capital, and your job as a business owner is clearly cut. Essentially, you’ll be picking up clothes and washing them at home before dropping them off. You don’t even need a lot of prior preparations as most of laundry services require things that you already have. However, just like any other business, success is about being organized, and there are a number of things that you’ve got to put into consideration.

Work Location

Before you start, you’ll need to decide where you want to work from. You may want to design a special laundry area in your home, work from your clients’ homes or even collect and cart your stuff to the nearest location offering self-service laundry facilities. All of these options have pros and cons and you’ve got to decide which works best for you. Working from home for instance, gives you freedom to designate specific areas for different purposes such as drying during inclement weathers, a place for dirty laundry or for hanging stuff that can’t go into a dryer and so on. On the other hand, working from your client’s home could cut a lot of cost as there are a number of things you wouldn’t have to buy. If you plan to use commercial self-service facilities, you’ll need to have several options to avoid unnecessary delays, just in case some are overbooked.

Obtain Equipment and Licenses

Once you’ve decided where you want to work from, you should go ahead and acquire the necessary equipment and supplies such as irons, detergents, laundry bags and so on. You’ll also need to check with your state authorities to establish what licenses and registration or taxation plans you need to comply with.

Define Your Services

You’ll have to decide what services you want to offer your clients. These may range from washing and drying, ironing, pick up and drop off services, as well as folding and so on. You’ll also need to come up with prices of each service you offer. When deciding your price, remember to factor in your costs such as commuting, supplies and any other overhead outlays.

Advertise your Services

You’ll have to devise ways of taking your services to where consumers are. There are many marketing tools out there that you can use. You may want to start by marketing your services to your family and friends, neighbors and acquaintances. The other option would be promising to give free gifts such as laundry bags to a few of your prospects. Consider putting your contact details and other info such as your web address inside the laundry bags or baskets.

Decide on Payment Method

You’ll have to choose how you want your clients to pay you. Do you for instance want to be paid before or after performing the services? Would you want them to pay by check, cash or PayPal and so on? Choose methods that suit you best before getting into business.

While starting any home-based business may not be as easy as many people have thought, if well planned, it can make you huge profits and could just be what you’ve been waiting for to exit the rat race. If you like baking and everyone likes raving over your baked goods, starting your own home based bakery could get you to financial freedom. There’s nothing as pleasant as earning a living from what you like doing. However, to be successful in a home-based bakery business, there are a number of things that you’ll need to do.

Legal Requirement of a bakery business

When it comes to baking industry, whether home-based or otherwise, hygiene is the most essential obligation. Before anything else, it’s important that you check with your area’s health department, to find out whether home bakery businesses are allowed and what legal obligations you need to comply with. These may include permits, licenses, insurance and so on. Some states prohibit home-based bakeries altogether.

Bakery Business plan

Like all other businessess, a home based bakery business will require a a business plan. A business plan doesn’t have to be as detailed as those plans taught as business school, it can be as simple as list of expenses. On a piece of paper, draw to columns. on one side head it expenses and the opposite side head it projected income. Sum up all your expenses and the total should be written down at the top of projected income. The projected income should give you a target of monthly sales you need to make to break even.

Kitchen Modification

Before being handed the baking permit, the health and food inspector will have to come to your home personally to inspect your kitchen. Apart from cleanliness, sanitation and the way you store your food, it’s important to modify your kitchen area, creating a commercial area from where you’ll be distributing your baked goods.

Make a list of Goods you want to bake

You’ll need to identify the goods you want to be baking and selling to your consumers. There are so many types of events where you can sell your goods, including parties, birthdays, showers etc. Be as creative as you can. To be competitive in the market, you may want to offer new products or bake goods that are not commonly sold. The list of the items you want to bake and sell may also be a good description for pricing and marketing purposes.

Baking Equipments

You will have to buy bakery containers, which you can easily find at local stores. Alternatively, you can search online for food containers.

Website

Create a website dedicated to your home-based baking services. This will be useful for advertising your products and services, such as what you specialize in and how people can order for your baked goods. You may want to create an online store for ordering purposes. Alternatively, you can provide your consumers with a special phone number which they can use to place orders.

Marketing Bakery Products

Once you’re satisfied with all fundamental requirements such as paperwork, equipment and that everything is in place, you need to plan on how to get your products out to your consumers. To broaden your market, you can begin by utilizing locally available opportunities such as flea markets and farmers’ markets, where you can set up booths or promotional tables and give out freebies to your prospects. Make use of such forums and opportunities to distribute your marketing tools such as business cards and full info about your location and all your products. You may also want to give out order sheets to your prospective customers with ordering details and so on.

Lastly, consider marketing your products to the local restaurants and eateries. It may be involving in the initial moments but soon customers will be looking for you to place orders.