How to start a meal prep business - Initial sales tips
What’s up guys? Hopefully many of you are coming here having just watched my last video (part one of this series) and are now ready to discuss initial sales: getting customers and making them happy. Did you hear that last part? Happiness and satisfaction are the key to having your meal prep business succeed. People who are proud of their decisions often talk, and so having a client who feels they made the right choice by signing up with your meal delivery company means you get some free advertising, as well as a returning customer.
Let’s get right into the meat of things. Who are you hiring to run your sales force? Oh wait, we’re starting this with 500 dollars...that means your sales force is you. Now, this is tricky. When you first start out, you won’t have the funds to hire a bunch of different representatives for each little task you have. You’re not at the stage where you can delegate yet. For now, you are the company’s sole hope. So let’s make sure you avoid the little (and, unfortunately, big) mistakes I made when I was first starting out.
The most important thing right now is your sales goal. What are you aiming for? If you don’t have a goal, make one. You can start pretty small; 10 people will be sufficient. That’s what my first goal was when I began my own meal delivery service, FitFoodFresh, which is now the highest rated meal delivery company in Florida.
Let’s say you don’t have a website yet (if you already do, more power to ya). How are you collecting orders? Email, text, even a handwritten letter will do, as long as you know you have at least 10 people ready to pay for your goods.
So you’re preparing to look at the creation of your product. Keep this part simple, at least in the beginning stages of your company. Have one set meal plan and leave it at that. This will make your headache way smaller, trust me. Now that you’ve decided what you’re selling, and have at least 10 people you’re selling it to, you’re ready to make some money.
The key to this is getting paid upfront. The food delivery business is kind of unique in that you are able to do this fairly easily. People expect to have to pay for their food before they can eat it. Making sure you have that money in your hand before production even begins is a wonderful thing, because that way you’re not touching that 500 dollars you started out with.
How can you steer clear of losing that 500 dollars completely? Well there are many mistakes I’m going to advise you not to make. Avoid relying solely on setting up your table in gyms. Although this is a good concept, in execution it can fall flat on its face. Unless you’re going into highbrow workout centers, chances are the people there don’t have the money or desire for you. Another pitfall to sidestep is thinking that a simple way to rake in the cash is advertising through Instagram models or athletes. The people who see those ads are so inundated with social media advertisements that they likely won’t even read your company’s name on the post. Lastly (for now), stay away from believing you have to spend all your time chasing money. Your cash flow will come. For now, prioritize forming permanent relationships that will garner you long-term customers.
Another thing you need to examine is your CPA; that stands for “cost per acquisition.” Knowing your CPA is crucial to actually making a profit. You need to make sure that your CPA is justified. If you are paying 100 dollars to acquire a customer, and you only make a one time sale, chances are you could end up in the negative for that transaction. However, if you pay 100 dollars to find 10 customers, and each of those customers makes a one time purchase, you’ll be in much better shape.
Since acronyms are so fun, let’s take a look at another one. What is the LTV, or lifetime value, of any given customer? This basically means asking, “how much money will I receive from a single customer over the life of their membership?” How do you figure out an LTV? Take your average profit per ticket and multiply it by the average lifespan of a customer in weeks, months, or whatever measurement you use for your order periods.
The main idea: as long as your CPA is a fraction of your LTV, you’ll be in the green.
If you only take away one idea from this whole post, it should be this: make some mistakes. Be comfortable to fail. Believe you have potential, because you do. And you will find that, when you push through those errors and get to the other side, it will all feel worth it. Rock on!