The idea of owning a pizza place is a very appealing one, and luckily you can start with little capital. The key is starting small and being creative with the equipment you already have. Whether you start from home or rent out a shop space, if you have a great pizza menu, you’ll have customers coming back for more.
There’s real money to be made in a pizza business; luckily, you don’t need a lot of money to start. In this article, we will tell you through how you can start your pizza shop with no money and price your pizzas.
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What Is The First Step To Starting My Pizza Shop?
The first step for opening any business is usually writing a business plan. For proposed pizza shops, the largest part of the business plan involves crafting the perfect pizza menu. The menu is what will attract customers and keep them coming back for more. You don’t have to make use of the most expensive options; be sure to use quality ingredients to create a mind-blowing pizza.
Thankfully you can be creative with your pizza recipes; as long as it tastes great, people will buy. Once you have gotten the perfect pizza menu and recipes, it’s time to move on to the other aspects of your business plan.
After The Business Plan What Next?
The First step should be to connect with a vendor that provides Pizza Point of Sale System. This system will help you run the business using one central system. Once you have tackled your pizza shop’s menu, you can settle down to face the other aspects. These aspects include formulating a budget, business name, marketing, sales plan, and ideas for your business space. If you decide to run your pizza business from a shop outlet, you must carefully choose a strategic location.
You can settle for a location with little or no already existing pizza shops. Just make sure the location offers your shop visibility and is easily accessible. Another thing to bear in mind while selecting your location is parking space for your customers and adequate security.
Register Your Pizza Shop
Once you’ve done the business plan for your pizza shop, the next step is to register your business. You’ll need to apply to get an employer identification number (EIN). Luckily, you can get this number almost immediately. Apply for the employer identification number online via the IRS website. Your Employer Identification Number will be used for banking, tax, and credit purposes.
By now, you must have come up with a name and logo for your pizza shop. This name and logo should be easy to remember and unique. You can check to confirm your selected name is available on your state’s online database. If it is available, you can register your pizza shop under that name. The registration differs with states, so ensure you follow the guidelines for your state.
Once you have registered your pizza shop, you will need to open up a business bank account. This helps you monitor your finances and build your business’s credit score.
Obtain The Licenses Or Permits You Will Require To Run Your Pizza Shop
Like all food businesses, you will need additional permits and licenses to carry your business out legally. The required business licenses and permits vary across states; most require you have a food service license, food handler’s permit, and a building health permit. Ensure you understand all of the licenses and permits you’ll for your pizza shop before you declare your shop open.
Draft A Financial Plan
A workable financial plan is important if you want to start your pizza shop. The equipment you will need, don’t come cheap. However, you don’t need to buy high-end products at the start of your business. Start with the ones you have. You can make your dough by hand and roll them out with a cheap rolling pin. You can purchase neat equipment from people or restaurants willing to sell.
For starters, you could purchase a single-deck oven, an air conditioner, a rolling pin, a pizza counter, and a refrigerator to store your ingredients. With time, you can purchase other equipment you will need like the dough mixer, butcher block, etc.
Alternatively, you can secure a loan to finance your purchases. Anyone willing to give you a loan will have to be sure your business is viable; you need a sound business plan to get these loans. A sound business plan will help you in wooing investors or securing a bank loan.
Advertise Your Pizza Shop
Once you have settled the financial nitty grits, it’s time to launch and advertise your pizza shop. Advertising helps increase foot traffic to your shop. It creates awareness about your pizza shop and what you have to offer to each potential customer. Aloha POS does a great job managing your advertising campaign.
You choose from the various advertising options available to you. You can advertise on social media platforms at little cost. Create a page for your business; be sure to spice up your page with pretty pictures of your pizza. Include the price of each pizza and your contact information on your page.
Creating a website for your pizza shop is another great marketing strategy. Include information about your working hours, price of a pizza, delivery time, contact information, and so much more.
It would help if you leveraged on word of mouth advertisement. Encourage people who have enjoyed your pizzas to leave reviews for you on your platforms and tell others to have a slice also. Offer discounts for a group buy and large offers, promos, and free deliveries. A combination of some or all of this is sure to increase foot traffic to your pizza shop.
How Can I Price My Pizza To Ensure I Make Profits?
Pricing is an essential part of your pizza business. You will need to price your pizzas just right; not too expensive and not too cheap either. So how can you achieve this? We have put these strategies to help you with pricing your pizzas.
- The first strategy to pricing your pizzas right will be offering different versions at different prices. This gives your customers a range of options to choose from. Your pizzas can be priced according to their size and contents. For example, the “best” should have a little something extra that makes it stand out from the “better” pizza.
- Don’t fall into the pit of perpetual discount offers. While offering discounts can help bring more custom your way, perpetual discount offers will leave you bankrupt in no time. Be strategic with your offers.
- Do a price survey of your competitors. Your price should be around their price except for your pizza special. Ensure you come up with a convincing value statement. The value statement will help you convince people to buy your pizzas even at a higher price.
Conclusion
You can start a good pizza shop with little capital. The key is having a great pizza menu and using the equipment you already have. Once you have set up your pizza shop, you must advertise and price your pizzas correctly. Now you have read this article, go ahead and open that pizza shop.
If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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