Sharing Business Ideas; What Style of Food Should You Sell Today?
Thailand is one of the countries with the most food in the world. We’re also known for our street food which has created a name for us and attracted foreign tourists who gather to taste delicious inexpensive food. What’s more, selling food has become a beacon of hope for people during the pandemic and economic recession because this occupation generates daily cash flow, leading many people to get on the food selling path, whether in the form of standalone restaurants or street food.
Recently, the Director-General of the Department of Business Development revealed that in September of this year, more business groups have registered as restaurants than usual. In fact, it’s one of the top three newly registered business groups.
Number 1: Construction contractors.
Number 2: Real estate.
Number 3: Restaurants.
This just reaffirms that investing in food selling businesses is interesting and if you want to take a look at the street food market to see what kinds of interesting foods or beverages there are for people who are considering entering this line of work, we have a few types to recommend. Let’s take a look.
Phat Kaphrao, a Popular Single Dish That Even Big Brands Can’t Resist
Going back about ten years, if anyone said they wanted to open a restaurant that sells only phat kaphrao in the entire restaurant, they’d probably meet with only warnings and people saying that they wouldn’t survive. However, these days, even regular, familiar dishes like phat kaphrao have become standalone restaurants that generate profit like you wouldn’t believe. Even big brands have to start getting serious about promoting phat kaphrao as a signature dish.
This dish is appealing. Although it’s seen as just a simple dish, the simpleness is what makes this dish sell because people are familiar with it. Not only do you order it when you can’t think of anything else, just smelling it makes you hungry. From a business perspective, a single dish like phat kaphrao is easy to manage and it’s not hard to break even and if you create your own sauce base, you’d hardly meet with any difficulties. It can be used to create a serious restaurant or even a franchise.
If you’re looking to start your food selling business by selling phat kaphrao right now, we’d recommend you create an outstanding selling point such as using a special ingredient for added value to the dish.
Rice with Fried Pork, a Regular Dish with an Extraordinary Ability to Generate Profit
Another recommended restaurant style for you if you can’t think of anything else is rice with fried pork because it’s a simple but profitable dish. Also, it’s easy to manage. Just one person can do it. You don’t need a lot of ingredients, so the investment is low. There are also lots of instructions and recipes for you to study as well as lots of readymade helpers, such as tempura flour and marinade powders, and you can add toppings, such as Chinese sausage, etc., to increase sales.
Otherwise, you could turn it into a Japanese-style rice and curry. There are instant curry powders for you to improve your recipes and add tastiness in your own style. You can sell it with the fried pork and double the price.
Light snacks that generate high income.
After the heavy meals, let’s take a look at some snacks. You’ve probably seen in the news that Thai Airways’ pathongko is selling out the wazoo, right? Believe it or not, our country has, so many brands of pathongko franchises and each brand has branches nationwide. That means that the pathongko market is quite extraordinary. When you think about it, pathongko itself requires little investment and is profitable. However, the problem is how to make it so it caters to people’s tastebuds. Since pathongko is sold everywhere, if you can make it stand out like what Thai Airways did, you can present it easily. You can sell it with pandan custard or soymilk. It’s another option worth considering.
MHA wants to give out a free recipe and instructions on how to make delicious pathongko from Chef Oh of the Thai Chefs Association. You can click to view the recipe as well as the instruction VDO here. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3137068936374545
Who said grilled dishes are on their way out? Mala is still lively.
Although they’ve held their place for a long time, it looks like grilled dishes are still going strong, especially mala dishes because it’s still a different kind of robust flavor that people can use to compare, for example, some restaurants’ meat isn’t tender and the numbness and spiciness aren’t satisfactory. This creates an opportunity for new owners to present the deliciousness of their meat and the spiciness and numbness of their mala. The pros of this dish are the same as the other dishes we’ve recommended: Although it looks like you need a lot of ingredients, with good cost control profit is easy.
Has the pearl tea market really come to an end?
This time, the pearl tea’s return to the market is strong and has been going on so long that some people are wondering if it’s near its end and if they should invest in a shop. After talking with some people in the business, the answer is: It’s still going strong, but if you’re new at it, you should study the source, such as Taiwan, to see where the current trend is headed so you can go with it before opening because the current market is starting to be more competitive about prices. If you jump right in without a selling point, it might be hard to survive because you can’t fight the costs. However, if you have a selling point, investing in this market is worth considering.
Whatever you’re selling, we’d like to leave you with the following 3 points:
- Be clear about the concept you’re selling: For example, you want your customers to remember what you’re selling. What makes you stand out? What can they not miss? Has this ever happened: You try to think of some restaurants’ names but you don’t remember what special items they have to offer? That’s not being clear about the concept the restaurant wants to sell. Also, you want customers to think of your restaurant as having an outstanding point.
- Invest frugally: Currently, there’s are popular terms used in business “low investment” or frugal investment and a short payback period. That’s because in the past two years, we’ve found one thing to be true: The trend for restaurant/beverage and snack businesses is that they come and go very quickly. Therefore, there may be some risks if you choose to do business the old way, which is putting in a large amount of money, especially after Covid-19, without even knowing who your real customers are since there are other factors involved.
What we’d like to recommend is if you’re looking to start a restaurant business, look at some low investment business models. Cut out whatever’s unnecessary so you can shorten the payback period.
- Offer food that can be delivered because consumer behavior is (rapidly) changing. What stimulated this was the two- to three-month long work-from-home period when people couldn’t dine at restaurants. It made people more open to buying food to eat at home. In addition, each delivery platform has greatly improved, making people significantly more open-minded about and familiar with ordering food through delivery services.
So, if you want your restaurant to keep going, you need more sales channels other than your storefront. This means delivery. Presently, there are so many helpers for you to choose at your convenience. But, don’t forget that if you join a delivery network, you’ll need to pay the maintenance fee, leaving you with very little profit. What you should do is control your costs to be consistent with your expenses.
MHA is giving out low-cost, profitable recipes to create jobs. You can find new weekly recipe updates from us through the Makro Horeca Academy Facebook page and MakroHoReCaAcademy on Youtube.
Recipes to make you rich:
