Food business in Nigeria - 5 Ultimate Breakdown

Nearly 75% of average Nigerians undergo a shopping journey called Food business.

Yeah. The survival has been tight so far for Nigerians.

In fact, there's no one who's ready to spend all day in the kitchen after a working arrival.

Still, not everyone can afford a housemaid to do the cooking chore before anyone's arrival.

Now, this makes it why the food business is what's next to stumble upon.

The delivery rate is high, the Return on Investment looks promising.

Pretty much every demographic need a fast-food delivery as not everyone could afford the restaurant price lists for each day.

The hustle is real there's a limit in what you spend and invest your money into.

The restaurant isn't the thing for many Nigerians as you know things done there is based on a fixed price.

You can't price food in a restaurant food venture rather you'll have to go with what price they ever demand from you.

But in a case where you don't have to get your panties wet.

This way, many Nigerians have realized why it's best to invest in a road-side food business over a restaurant because of the demand chain.

Believe me, a roadside food business works best as you know for a restaurant business there's a schedule.

I mean you would have to segment your open and close hours.

Probably from 8 am - 6 pm.

But that isn't the case for a roadside and food delivery business.

They have differences and the differences work so much that a roadside and food delivery business has gained an uppercut over a restaurant business.

Let's reason together this way.

And let's leverage Google Trends.

As per Google trends, the keyword food is pretty much high and the search intent behind it increases almost every day.

That shows how consumers really are surfing for the keyword food.

In a nutshell, a food business.

But what if I told you that human consumption for food recipes increases nearly 35% in the time zone 8 am - 10 am in Nigeria.

In other words, roughly 55% of the human consumption time rate for food recipes emanate at the time 7 pm - 11 pm.

That's when the graph rate run so high.

Every human needs survival and strength to tackle the next day challenge.

This is why starting a food business especially a roadside food business and food delivery business can skyrocket you into money gem overnight.

And here's why.

In a food business, what sells is time.

Any other things don't really count in the initial stage.

But your time cautiousness matters.

Have you ever think of it this way?

Do you know that Nigerians have the special hours they consume food into their belly?

And the special hour's favorable stay in the morning time and the evening time.

This is the reason why you ought to think about meeting every individual touchpoint and resonate with their needs.

For every worker, they always have something to buy for home.

Nigerians now are lazy when it comes to cooking even ladies aren't left out.

So if you can churn out a better time zone strategy I believe you'll have less struggle not making sales.

Time really is important for your target audience in order to grow your food business big in Nigeria.

Today, I've got you 5 actionable tips to start a food business either a canteen, roadside, and food delivery business in Nigeria.

How to start a food business either roadside, food delivery, and canteen in Nigeria:

1. Create your food business goal based on consumer needs
2. Location matter to sales
3. Build on customer enablement
4. Build on a target audience
5. Grow a unique mission statement

1. Create your food business goal based on consumer needs

As we know that what affects a restaurant business is the time zone but still that isn't the case for a roadside or canteen food business.

The tricky thing is that a restaurant business can be more favorable in the day time.

And here's why.

We know how challenges really are faced by people doing a restaurant business.

Yet, they still have an upper edge to sell more in the day time.

If I say what impacts the differences between a roadside and a restaurant business for sales gem is the shop outlet.

I mean I lied.

But it's count.

Yet, that isn't a big difference.

But what makes the difference is what needs you're solving.

In a scenario like this, you cash out your food business in a win and win strategy.

What does that mean to you?

Take, for instance, whenever you're starting out a canteen business, the joint sounds similar to the one of mama put business but the shop settings still make a big difference.

On the other hand, your goal is to serve people what really they're in need of.

Of course, you know about such legacy before now but you ain't focusing more on it because you're really blind of the opportunities it brings overtime.

For example, if I'm opportune to start any of the food business whether raw food business or fast-food business in whatever case here's what I'll do before any other things.

I'm so sure I won't stay determined to what I ever wanted to gain but for one I'll rather echo a voice to prospects for immediate response.

In this scenario, I'll scale out a business plan, invest more in social listening, and study how often residents in that area buy food outside.

This will make me understand their shopping behavior and how they're likely to respond to my food business.

Like I always say, a food business is just about gambling, you start it as a game but you need a game plan to succeed in it.

If your initial game plan fails it's hard tracking your success back. When your customer experience strategy looks poor in whatever way most people are likely to bounce back and become detractors.

That's why a food business is more than just being a cook but it's all about the content game.

You have to trick everyone to buy only from you, that's the content game I'm talking about here.

So, tell me, what's your food business strategy teaching out?

For whatever reason, whether you're educated or not, in this case, you should have a food business strategy in place.

A food business strategy is your long-term goal and the workflow over time that's eventually what you would be prompt to go back to if any of your strategies isn't working just yet.

This way, you create another business plan in order to meet consumer's needs.

And what's the food business strategy I'm talking about.

Humans are different in nature, that's when the adages one-man food is another man's poison comes in for every individual.

Before that time you're ready to go live and start a food business in Nigeria.

First, take your time to study out the consumer needs, what actually do they prefer to eat, is it swallow?

What if they don't like that?

Read here: How To Start A Business That Drives Online Sales In Nigeria 

What other things might interest them?

For one, the demographics and classes of residents will tell, if they're working class I mean bricklayer workers they'll mostly prefer bread and beans or sometimes swallow.

But their most preferable meal is bread and beans.

So before starting out your roadside food business, it's best you study the kind of working-class individuals living in that area for better marketing insight.

If their needs are swallowed meal and you ain't too good in that it's best you seek for another means where your kind of people can be found and target.

Note that you can't force things to happen it can only happen naturally if you ain't too good in a specific meal it will show in the taste of the meal and you're already creating a legacy of poor customer experience.

And which is a bad fit for your food business.

2. The location matters to sales 

After which you have a food business strategy ready and fully to go live. 

Yet, another important thing to take note of is the location where you want prospects to found you and eat what you do.

What matters here doesn't only rely on the visibility of the joint or shop but the kind of exposure residents living there engage in.

For example, let's say you're thinking about starting a canteen business partitioned into traditional foods like Amala, Eba, Semo with a mixture of Ewedu, Egusi, Ogbono, and Okro.

It means you have got a meal recipe ready for your target audience but the audience staying in that location matters.

In this case, your aim now is to rent a shop in an open place where residents in that area mostly don't cook at home.

I mean a location where everyone is busy doing things differently because these kinds of individuals are likely to spend more money during the day and evening only if you've got a sweet meal that delights them even more.

The tricky thing is that if your canteen food business is all about swallow food I'll advise you not to target a location where young guys mostly reside.

Because they won't just convert for your offer. 

In the recent age, we are, it's hard for you to see a young guy within the age bracket 18-30 eating swallows unless they're from a local place.

Even Buka, canteen, roadside food sellers in universities hardly will you see students feeding their legs to any Amala joint nearby.

Mostly what they eat is rice, bread, and beans and that's all.

The bigger ones do head to the eatery for a better meal.

So if you're into swallow know that people that seek for that are grown men, not the young folds of nowadays.

And that should be your target audience.

But as for the roadside or fast food business, I don't expect you to prepare a swallow meal and expect people who're coming from work to covert for it.

What working-class people often buy by the roadside is either fried rice or jollof rice they don't convert for swallow.

Even you can't even think of selling swallow by the roadside because if people really want that they know where to get it.

And the most preferable location for a roadside food business is to get a junction where it's exposed and where conversion is high.

3. Build on customer enablement

It doesn't cost you anything to track down your buyer's journey because that will enable you to acquire them more.

And the most actionable tips that deliver and enable you to sell more is to apprehend and build your marketing tactics into the insight of what they eat most.

For example, if you're starting a food distribution or processing business if you venture it to stay localized then it means you have to gain insight into what their needs really are.

Your primary goal is your prospects and what you have to deliver for them.

If you're the type that venture into food item like garri processing it's best you understand what value that brings to the community.

On the other hand, if that it's a local meal like fufu or groundnut processing.

By now, you should understand why the localized community really has build interest in that.

You can't sell much of that in a well-exposed city that can just convert well overnight.

This kind of food business strategy works best in a localized farm or school environment for distribution.

Now, in a food business like this, it's hard using marketing automation to generate qualified leads for a purchase decision.

Not everyone can spend millions of Nairas to acquire prospects to buy more.

Yet, what still works best is your marketing initiatives and ideas.

And having a passion isn't enough to initiate proper planning.

Everything now has skyrocketed beyond that.

As you know everyone is doing the same thing as competition rises and consumers are forced to make choices.

This makes it really hard for people doing food businesses to survive in Africa countries like Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda.

That's why you need good planning to survive not a good meal or processing intent to survive.

Do you know that a food chef with the same delicacy or meal approximately loses one-third of its customers?

What if I tell you a food business that lacks customer intent loses 50% shares to its competitors?

And that's the reason why you have to delight your prospects and customers for food enablement.

This food enablement is what makes you sell more.

And here should be your food business plan for customer enablement.

• Use word of mouth marketing
• Do social listening to discover new benchmarks and opportunities.
• Discover new meal trends
• Always be innovative
• Be customer friendly
• Create a lasting relationship with your customers.
• Give them a reason to believe
• Show them why you're doing what you're doing.
• Create a task for your prospects to resonate with.

However, creating a task force like a survey or hacking on customer's contact will provide that uniqueness for your food business.

You don't need anymore just to follow the trend but innovate the trend.

By now you have heard about the COVID-19 propaganda so tell me how's your food business performance?

Read here: Bakery Business - Why Your Lucrative Ideas mean sales in Nigeria 

That's the reason why you have to think of the threats and opportunities ahead.

For example, if you're the roadside food seller the COVID-19 really affected the way you sell.

But just for the purpose that you innovate the trend by leveraging your customer's contact.

This way, you won't feel much of the pandemic impact because here you'll stumble on a cold call to sell more.

As you shift your strategy to start a food delivery business from home before the pandemic stuff is resolved.

This shows you ain't losing out as your plan B really worked out well.

The same also goes to foodstuff business out there.

Because it's time you think you need to do more of delivery to make extra money.

And that's a marketing strategy for customer enablement in a food supply business model.

4. Build on a target audience

If you're thinking about how you can grow a food business then segmenting your target audience is the thing.

When you study how food beverages companies like Nestle milo, Cowbell, and many more organize their marketing plan to suit their business goals.

Then you should know how important it is why you have to segment your ideal audience.

In a marketing concept like this, your products determine who's a good fit for your business.

Let's say, you produce food items like Bournvita, Milo, sugar, cornflakes, peak milk, Ovaltine, oats, and many more which consumers take for breakfast and dinner in Nigeria.

Yet, that isn't enough for marketing as people don't buy good products anymore but they likely buy from a good brand.

So, tell me how do you want to build your target audience for a lasting relationship?

In the case of Nestle Milo, they produce and supply food beverages or products that satisfy human needs as they need it for survival.

On the other hand, they've grown their fan base and build their authority as that isn't the case for you.

Then, how do you want to survive and out-rank them?

First, create an ideal customer profile.

In this case, you ain't making your customers dictate for you but you have to nurture them to your business goal.

If your ideal customer profile is both male and female over the age of 18 years.

With an interest in food beverages or foodstuff business.

Then it means for every prospect's touchpoints it must align with the business core objective.

With the potential of gaining more marketing insight of who's a good fit or a bad fit for your food business.

But in a case, when you're trying to start out a food delivery business in Portharcourt, Lagos, and Abuja your ideal customer profile will speak about the data representation of prospects who have interest in your foodservice and more.

So it's so important you know who's going to become a good fit for your business and try as much to nurture them for a lasting relationship.

5. Grow a unique mission statement

In the food business industry, there's a color contrast and according to industry expert yellow is the best color contrast because it's emotion grabbing and convey feelings of happiness.

Well, that isn't where I'm taking you into.

But, here's the thing.

The word mama put business didn't just come overnight but it was conveyed to teach out something.

And that brings understanding to what they do and why they're doing it.

A mission statement isn't the same as a brand story they ain't similar. 

But having a mission statement can be so powerful.

This way, let's talk about one brand that always stands out in the world of pizza, I mean Domino.

Domino pizza merchant pinched out a short mission statement snippet that everyone could resonate with and that's:

• See more pizza, have more fun.

In the same scenario, a fashion brand called Nike did something similar like the one below:

• You have a body, you're an athlete.

These kinds of mission statements excite consumers to do more because of the way it forms a human connection and brings out emotions.

So, tell me, what's your food business mission statement teaching out?

In this case, it doesn't really matter whether you rent out a canopy for your food business or not but the human connection is needed.

Well, you can go about using a short mission statement snippet like this:

• We are here to make you smile always.
• Our food, your food.
• If you have teeth, you can eat.
• Our food makes your belly smiles always.

However, you can hack on anyone above I churn it out freely for everyone but let your point of view be clear if you're trying to churn out any yourself.

Read here: Catering Business - How To Start One Everyone Would Convert For in Nigeria 

And make it short it doesn't require too many sentences.

Now that you have proper knowledge of what it takes to start a food business of any category in Nigeria.

But it's time you know how much you need to start a food business in Nigeria.

Here are the tips of how much you need to start a food business in Nigeria:

1. Canteen business - 200,000 - 500,000
2. Roadside food business - 10,000 - 50,000
3. Food delivery business - 50,000 - 400,000 
4. Fast food business - 100,000 - 600,000
5. Restaurant business - 300,000 - 800,000
6. Food beverages business - 1,000,000 and above
7. Food processing and distribution - 20,000 - 100,000
8. Mama put business - 100,000 - 450,000
9. Eatery food business - 1,000,000 above
10. Catering business - 150,000 and above
11. Raw food business - 20,000 and above

Conclusion

So, over to you, how do you want to start a profitable and lucrative food business in Nigeria?

I'm Destined boy, a certified digital and inbound marketer.

Follow @Blogdestined