I need help with tweaking a way to make some extra money

[seashoreCM]

An ordinary umbrella insurance policy is not good enough. You need business insurance.

 

[SeansMom]

i know that this would not appeal to everyone but i was talking to one of my friends that has her own business. She often works late and dinner is always a problem for her. I LOVE to cook and I am a great cook. So what I thought about is a small dinner deliver service.

What I have come up with is offering to a few friends that on 3 days a week I would offer a casserole or a one dish dinner. I will make it in my kitchen and have it ready for them. I can cook it for them to just warm up or deliver it ready to pop in the oven.

i will post the menu a week ahead of time and the can reserve theirs up to the night before. I am only going to make this for 4 right now so the earlier they sign up the better chance they are going to get in.

I use only the best products, fresh herbs, top meats. /the meals will easily feed a family of four.

How this came to my mind was we were talking about on those nights when you work late or the kids have activities it's difficult to make dinner. It happens to me on Monday nights so I make extra meals and freeze them. My friend said she wished she could do that but she never finds the time. Eating out is expensive and it takes time that we don't always have. She said some nights all she wants to do is go home. Pizza gets old and we are both agains fast food so it gets rough.

I was using bagged meals, they felt healthier and my family liked them but they were expensive, the portions were small and I kind of felt guilty for not really cooking. So I started to make my own frozen meals, I portion them for a single serving and freeze them.

That is the history of how I came up with it/

I am going to charge 25.00 per meal and will do things like Shepard's pie, baked spaghetti, roasted chicken potatoes and veggies, gourmet mac and cheese (it's to die for I use 9 different cheeses) etc.

I am keeping it small and it's going to be either people I know or word of mouth.

for busy Moms and professionals or just people that hate to cook. How does it sound?

thanks so much for your input I am a little nervous but with a Disney trip coming up I want to make some extra money.

Can I sign up? Sounds yummy!

 

[pampam]

I think keeping it small, and to friends you know could be the key. Perhaps you could suggest to these friends, that you could cook them a meal, a couple of times a week, and they could "donate or contribute" something for it, oh, lets say something like $25 a meal. If you happen to be going by, you could drop it off, or they could pick it up on their way home.

Once you go commercial, then you have the additional problems mentioned above. You might even be required by law to pay business tax or have the zoning of your home changed. But by keeping it very small and intimate, you could avoid these worries.

 

[Tink6666]

Like others mentioned, check in to local regulations. My sister in law wanted to do something with food (selling homemade caramels). She had everything in line and attended the food safety course to get certified and then found out that in Illinois you cannot use your home kitchen to prepare food for sale. You have to use a "dedicated" kitchen - so she'd either have to somehow make another kitchen in her condo or rent space in a commercial kitchen (I guess there are shared kitchens like this where you can rent time each week). It was too cost-prohibitive, so she scrapped the idea.

MN has similar regulations, I have had a few clients (I am a CPA) who have also wanted to get into catering and needed to find a commercial kitchen.

Good luck in your decisions, but please talk to your accountant or CPA so they can help you start off on the right foot...it could save you $$$ in the long run.

 

[Tink6666]

I think keeping it small, and to friends you know could be the key. Perhaps you could suggest to these friends, that you could cook them a meal, a couple of times a week, and they could "donate or contribute" something for it, oh, lets say something like $25 a meal. If you happen to be going by, you could drop it off, or they could pick it up on their way home.

Once you go commercial, then you have the additional problems mentioned above. You might even be required by law to pay business tax or have the zoning of your home changed. But by keeping it very small and intimate, you could avoid these worries.

Not quite correct here, you can't solicit donations or contributions without being a charitable organization. Also once you begin being paid for a service you are in business and if you are audited it could cost you much more money!

 

[Jill in Chicago]

My husband has looked into this here in IL. He found that he cannot cook for others in our home, but he CAN cook for others in their own home. So you would go to their house and prepare the meals.

Another thought is to include a once a year "pantry" cost. This would cover spices you buy in bulk (garlic, salt, pepper....) so you would not have to work in those costs for every meal.

My husband wants to do a freezer dinner service. He would cook, in their homes, and make a certain number of meals. (The number would be whatever the client wants.) Then one meal would stay unfrozen, for dinner that night, and the rest of the meals would go into the freezer for the client to use another night.

This is one of those businesses that people often say, "That would be great," but when it comes to paying for the actual service they will start to compare it to, "but I could pick up a roasted chicken for $xxx," or "I could pick up McDonald's for $xxxx," so I would secure at least one firm client before you jump in.

 

[pampam]

Not quite correct here, you can't solicit donations or contributions without being a charitable organization. Also once you begin being paid for a service you are in business and if you are audited it could cost you much more money!

I guess you didn't quite grasp what I mean. If you keep it small, and between friends, it's just friends helping one another out.

I regularly take friends in my car to outings. Quite often I will find some money left in the car, or perhaps they will say, "please take this to help with the gas." I am not providing a taxi service. They know it, but it helps them get out too. I was thinking something along those lines.

 

[crashbb]

I guess you didn't quite grasp what I mean. If you keep it small, and between friends, it's just friends helping one another out.

I regularly take friends in my car to outings. Quite often I will find some money left in the car, or perhaps they will say, "please take this to help with the gas." I am not providing a taxi service. They know it, but it helps them get out too. I was thinking something along those lines.

Basically you are suggesting the OP just lie (or, lie by omission).

 

[pampam]

Basically you are suggesting the OP just lie (or, lie by omission).

Have you never helped a friend out?

Has a friend never helped you out?

Life is not a business. I did not nor never would suggest lying or any form of deceit. I wasn't thinking she wanted a full time business, just a way to get some extra disney dollars. She mentioned it would be between friends, so I was thinking is was a more intimate group. I do appologize, however, for phrasing in a way that could be misconstrued.

 

[crashbb]

Have you never helped a friend out?

Has a friend never helped you out?

Life is not a business. I did not nor never would suggest lying or any form of deceit. I wasn't thinking she wanted a full time business, just a way to get some extra disney dollars. She mentioned it would be between friends, so I was thinking is was a more intimate group. I do appologize, however, for phrasing in a way that could be misconstrued.

Helping a friend out is different from "a way to make some extra money". If I'm making meal to help a friend out, I do it for me or, at most, enough to cover the costs. Yes, it would be lying if the OP consistently got enough money to more than cover her expenses. However you want to phrase it. It doesn't matter that it is not a full time business.

OP - if you do decide to choose this PP's advice, hopefully you'll get proper advice from an accountant first to see if it legally does bypass the rules.

 

[Alesia]

I regularly take friends in my car to outings. Quite often I will find some money left in the car, or perhaps they will say, "please take this to help with the gas." I am not providing a taxi service. They know it, but it helps them get out too. I was thinking something along those lines.

Have you never helped a friend out?

Has a friend never helped you out?

Life is not a business. I did not nor never would suggest lying or any form of deceit. I wasn't thinking she wanted a full time business, just a way to get some extra disney dollars. She mentioned it would be between friends, so I was thinking is was a more intimate group. I do appologize, however, for phrasing in a way that could be misconstrued.

But there's one major difference: You would still be willing to help your friend out by giving her a ride even if she didn't offer to pay you. I'm guessing that the OP wouldn't be too thrilled with cooking a $25 meal for her friend and then not getting paid for it.

When you enter into this sort of thing with friends and you don't have clearly defined (written) rules and expectations, you will eventually have problems. Just because you're dealing with friends doesn't mean that things can't go wrong. What happens when the OP cooks a meal for somebody and they get sick the next day and insist that it's food poisoning? What about when She cooks the meal, delivers it, and her friend says that she just can't afford it this time?

I know it seems like I'm being negative, but these are things that do happen all the time. Starting a business - even a very small one - is something to think about very seriously. There are a lot of things that will go wrong in the process and you absolutely have to be prepared for them.

 

[tlbwriter]

Not quite correct here, you can't solicit donations or contributions without being a charitable organization.

If that's true, it means all those kids who ask for sponsors for mission trips are breaking the law. It means kids' teams who ask for contributions from local businesses are breaking the law.

 

[Alesia]

Not quite correct here, you can't solicit donations or contributions without being a charitable organization.

That isn't correct. Anyone can ask for money, but donations are not tax-deductible unless the receiving organization is a 501(c)3.

If someone has a party at their house, they can absolutely ask for donations toward the cost of food, but the donation will not be deductible.