How to run a successful home food business

Georgina has been running a home food business with her husband John for nearly a decade now and says that the key to success is to ensure that consistency is met time and time again. — Filepic

CAN you make a living out of a home food business? Oh yes, you can. Of course those who started much earlier have the distinct advantage of having learnt their lessons and built their customer base over the years, which means their market share inevitably increased during the pandemic.

Georgina Fernandez for instance, has been running a home food business called Five & Two Foods with her husband John Peter for nearly a decade now. The business specialises in a wide assortment of home-cooked meals like palak paneer, Chettinad pepper chicken and lamb kheema, among others.

According to Georgina, the pandemic has been a tremendous boon for her business, and she now rakes in sales of RM8,000 to RM12,000 and doubles this amount during festive periods.

Some newbies to the scene aren’t doing too badly either. Chuah Jay Mee, who started her popular home business Herba & Rempah last year says sales are generally between RM6,000 to RM8,000 a month while Daniel Khaw who runs Daniel’s Kitchen specialising in his family’s Penang recipes, says he can bring in RM4,000 a month and isn’t earning more only because he simply doesn’t have the capacity to cater to demand.

Most operators agree that there are a number of things that can help a business flourish, especially for those looking to do this for the long haul.

Photography and social media play a key role

“Taking nice photos is really important. If it doesn’t look nice, no one will be interested in trying it. Also writing nice captions, posting regularly on social media and doing a bit of public relations – these are all important in the business,” says Chuah who takes gorgeous pictures of her own dishes.

Chuah says taking good food pictures is crucial to getting customers' attention as most people are not interested in trying the food if the pictures are unattractive. — CHUAH JAY MEE

“I have seen many new businesses that haven’t lasted and you can see that part of the reason is that they just aren’t savvy on social media,” she adds.

Angeline Khaw, who helps her husband Daniel run their home business says picking up photography skills is very important and most operators have to figure out how to make their food look as attractive as possible, even if they are learning on the go.

“I have always been interested in photography, but learning how to make the food look attractive has been something new for me,” she says.

Angeline also says that when posting online, especially on Facebook food groups, timing is very important.

“If I were to post in the afternoon or morning, that would garner less traffic because people have gone back to work, so the timing of posting your ad is also crucial,” she says.

Offer food that has long-term potential

Georgina says one of the advantages of being in the business for so long is that she has learnt many lessons along the way. At the beginning of her advent in the business nearly 10 years ago, she and her husband John made and sold bacon jam, which captured the zeitgeist of the moment, but quickly became irrelevant after a few years, which is why they switched trajectory and started focusing on homemade meals instead.

“We were able to make a good living out of it and then slowly, the fad took a dip, no one wanted to spend RM24 on bacon jam, it was not a necessity and we had to re-direct our business in another direction.

“So if you look at customers, would they buy something like salted egg croissants or waffles on a regular basis? Probably not.

“That’s why I think for some of these new home food business operators, the business itself might be a flash in the pan, because honestly how many muruku or cookie makers do you need in the market? I am happy for them that they are able to make a living out of this, but it’s not something that will last, I think.

“People want food for their lunch or dinner, so good quality home-cooked food has longer staying power,” she says.

Dev Nicklaus Justin, who runs newbie home business N3 Indigenous Flavours, agrees with Georgina’s assessment and says while the home food marketplace is very crowded now, success really does depend on what you have to offer.

“It is crowded but it all comes down to what you are selling, I think the home-based baking scene is massively overcrowded, but specialised food like Sarawakian food is not, because it is not easy to get it in the Klang Valley and there are a lot of east Malaysians looking for it,” he says.

Be consistent

If your food is good, the key to maintaining popularity and success is to be consistent and produce the same quality every single time.

“I would put long-term success down to consistency, because you know, when you go to a mamak and you eat Maggi goreng one day and really like it and go back and find the cook has changed and the Maggi goreng has changed, you’re going to get really cheesed off.

“So I find that consistency is key in keeping a business like this going. Yes, there are other things like service, pricing and quality but consistency is the most important and is what people come back for,” says Georgina.

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