[bockboy]

A couple months ago my father and I were sitting down after a large dinner talking business. The personal health industry came up after I mentioned that the company I work for (a large crown corporation) has a small business cater for all the meetings. The food they bring is made up of a healthy array of fruits/veggies, a platter of muffins/scones/pastries, and some coffee or tea. Generally the types of things people would eat for lunch or breakfast. However, even though the dinosaur that is my company may be left behind technologically, they appear to be very health conscious. I fear this is not the case with many other businesses downtown. As the conversation got heated we determined that a simple healthy catering company would be beneficial for an employees well being, thus diet is an integral part of an innovative workforce.

This idea never really surfaced again until recently. At one of my jiu-jitsu classes, my instructor Logan informed the class he was thinking about setting up a juice shop (much like Jugo Juice) upstairs from the Dojo. This piqued my interest as I thought about the start up costs and profit margins needed to support a juice shop on Main and Broadway. This made me think about what it would be like to sell juice and salads/wraps to companies during lunch. A small company could benefit from there employees not having to go out for lunch, therefore being able to work voluntarily over lunch. As well the overall health and, as studies between healthy eating and work have shown, the ethics of the employees would go up too.

So here is my plan for a company I still do not have a name for. On our company website we offer the ability to fill out a form with a small menu on it. This menu includes salads, wraps, healthy sandwiches, juices, and teas. All very healthy. The form then asks where the company is located, when it would like to have the food delivered by, whether it would like to have the food sent there on an ongoing basis, and how they will pay for the food. All of the food will be payed for by the company, and therefore it is the company's choice to have the employees subsidize it through their paychecks, or not, how they pay is up to them. The minimum amount of lunches ordered will be 10, or else it makes no sense in us spending gas on going out to drop off the food. The prices will be cheap due to us buying bulk groceries from someplace like Costco or a distributer. At 11:30 (if the company wanted it's food there by 12) we would drop off the food, made freshly that morning. The employees would be happy because they receive lunch delivered on their doorstep, the company would be happy because their employees are pleased and working hard, and we receive money for diverting people away from their stomachs that crave apple strudel. We might even offer discounts if the employer buys more than 50 lunches per day.

I do not know which organization (ie. BC Health Board) to talk to reference food preperation rules/bylaws. I would probably talk to a lawyer reference that. We could label the ingredients and preperation methods on the website.

We would need containers to hold the food, prefereably recyclables like the ones restaurants use as doggy bags.

We would use our own personal transportation to drop off the food.

The only problem with this plan is that I need a partner who is as motivated as I am and who has their mornings free. I have money for start up however I work in the mornings and need the safety of a 9-5 job due to the mortgaged property I just picked up.

To start we would probably need to go door-to-door until a word of mouth clientelle is built up. The only reason why I havn't started this yet is because I am scared of the restaurant industry and all the bad stories I have heard. We would need liability protection for food poisoning issues (knock on wood), but all that could be hopefully solved with a competent lawyer.

This would only take place for me in downtown Vancouver, BC. If anyone has experience with the catering business I would love to hear from you.

I realize there is alot of competition in catering and the food industry. This is not set in stone, it's just an idea. Constructive criticism needed.

Trevor

[hugh009]

I have a friend that delivers healthy food to people in Reno, NV with GREAT success! Google Rick Harness for his deal.

[kc1977]

I am from Ireland and that business model is huge over here with many sandwich companies setting up over the past few years catering for office and retail workers that do not have on site canteen facilities and some of them have won contracts to larger companies that do.I work for a large American based company here and they have an ouside company that offer subsidised meals as well as a salad bar and coffee bar stocking fresh sandwiches,fruit,yougurts and cearls.I wish you the best of luck in your venture!

[Aletheides]

And I thought this was going to be another Eliot Spitzer threat...

[CDRamming]

A family friend of ours does something similar to this. She used to be a chef in restaurants she and her husband owned, he passed away and she sold the restaurants. Now she bakes meals for business people who are too busy to cook for themselves. She takes orders at the begining of the week from her menu. She then spends the day cooking and prepares many meals for people in one particular high rise. After work they can pick up full hot meals. She does both individual plates and full dinners for famillies. The food is very good and more expensive that cooking yourself, but less than getting the same food at a restaurant. Make sure you have a menu and the cooking skills to make the food look and be appetizing. Also, make sure your market isnt saturated. I know that I can order lunch for >10 from about 20 different restaurants within 5 miles of me. Your niche may be health food, but many restaurants now offer healthy alternatives to the original dishes.