Starting a Home Catering Business – Important Things to Help You Start Your Business

Starting a home catering business may not be too difficult, as this business venture is more of your being adept in capturing the taste of many and learning the art of food preparation. But of course, like any other business ventures where you put your hard earned money on it in the hope of making it grow, it is indeed important and just wise to be prepared right from the very start.

You just can’t dive into a business venture without any preparations. Even if you are skilled and knowledgeable in cooking and food preparation, you also have to learn the basics of running a business. Here are a few things that you have to consider in starting a home catering business.

1. Your business plan. For sure, you already have some main ideas running in your mind when you are thinking of starting a home catering business, but you have to put then into writing in the form of a business plan. A business plan contains your business name, your short and long tern goals as well as the activities that you will need to carry out to start your business running. It will also include the investment you need, the manpower, as well as your marketing initiatives. This will serve as your guide and reference to make your business succeed.

2. Look for ways to fund your business. If you have savings enough to fund the entire investment cost, then you might not have problems with this one, but if you are looking additional sources of funds, you can find small business loans that can help you finance your business. Whatever you plan for your business, it is important to think about the profitability and feasibility of your plans.

3. Check how much initial cost you need in setting up a business. Costs in starting a home catering business will include the cost for the equipment, salaries for your first few employees or chef, cost of your industrialized kitchen to start with.

4. Check out for certain rules and regulations in your local health department that applies to your business. You may need to secure permits and check out on the laws that govern your business. This will help save you from any troubles later on. You can even hire an attorney to take care of the legal matters of your business as well.

5. Create a marketing strategy for your business. Aside from learning the skills of capturing the taste of your customers without having to spend lavishly on your ingredients, it is also important that you think about how you can reach out to your target market. Also, you have to think of a way to maintain good business relations with them. Keep in mind that one good way to promote and market a catering business is through the word of mouth, and thus you have to make sure you made a good impression in every client that you have served.

In starting a home catering business, you have to be ready and prepared for the risks. All business ventures have risks and you have to make sure that you start your business well-prepared so you will also increase your chances of making a profitable business.

Home Catering Business – What You Need To Know To Start One

If you are looking at a home catering business as a good opportunity to start making money at home, it is important that you learn a few tips and get a good guide in putting up one. In any business venture that you would want to start, it is indeed wise to know everything about it before even starting to put in your investments.

Indeed, a home catering business is a profitable business that you can put up and when it comes to opportunities in making money, this business can be your ticket towards making good money at home. If you are particularly interested in starting a home catering business, here are a few tips that you might find useful.

– You have to learn how to capture the taste of your clients and you have to be skilled and knowledgeable in food preparation as well. These probably are the two main things that you need to focus on before even starting your catering business. It might not be easy to please hundreds of people in one setting but then again, you have to target to get the taste of most of your clients and guests. This way, you can always have good opportunities to have repeat customers, build a name for your business and make more profit.

– Consider the initial cost of putting up a business. This is another consideration that you have to prepare for as well. If you are thinking about how much would it cost you to set up a home catering business, the main things that you have to invest in include the cost of your equipment, cost of registering your business and in making sure that your business is in compliance with health and safety laws.

– Finding where you can secure for a business loan. If your savings cannot pay all your initial costs, you can also find ways to secure a business loan. Start with just a small loan. It is not also wise to get all your investment cost from business loans. Of course, you have to choose a business loan as well that has terms that fit your business and easy for you to repay.

– Preparing your business plan. Before even trying to think about the costs and how you will market your business, you need to draft and create your business plan. Your business plan will outline the goals and objectives of your business as well as the activities and the plan on how you will carry out your business especially in the first few years of operation. Having a business plan will guide you on how you can carry out your business well and how you can manage when difficulties arise in your business operations.

Top 5 Internet Business Myths Debunked!

Many people have false expectations when they jump on the bandwagon to start their internet home business. When they are not able to attain those results, they throw in the towel, which is the main reason why 95% of internet home business owners never make it big. How can you improve the odds of your home business success? These debunked internet myths will help you set your feet on the right track:

Myth 1: Internet Business Is A Get Rich Quick Scheme

This is the undisputed no.1 myth associated with internet business. With the plethora of online advertisements promising fast bucks like “Earn $10K within your first month” and “Make $1K a day”, it is no wonder why internet home business has earned such reputation. Now, would you expect anyone to advertise in this manner: “This is a rough business, you have little chance to make it, but buy my product anyway for $47.00 even though the odds are against you?”

While it is not impossible to achieve phenomenal success in internet business, those who make it big in a short duration are an exception to the norm. They have all paid the price investing in time, experience, building customers’ trust and contacts, and who would have known the all the hard work and toil they have put in? Success looks glamorous, but they come with a price tag.

Myth 2: Internet Business Is Easier Than Offline Business

In any business, you cannot run away from the aspects of setting up the business and marketing it. Internet home business is just a different way of doing things. Whereas in traditional offline business, you need to rent a space for your business and market it using pamphlets and media(television, radio, etc), in online business, you need a domain and hosting plan and market your business using online social media.In short, with internet home business, you harness technology to do the hard work for you.

Please bear in mind that internet business is not a 9-5 job. In 9-5 job, some people can get away without doing anything (and they still earn their salary!). However, in internet home business, you reap what you sow. When you sow seeds of diligence and perseverance, success will come knocking. If you have always yearn to be your own boss and earning your potential while being there for your family, look no further than internet home business!

Myth 3: Starting An Internet Busin

Six Reasons Why Business Plans Are Important in Real Estate Investing

6 Reasons Why Business Plans Are Important in Real Estate Investing

Let’s repeat some well-known business facts: a) 98% of all businesses in the USA are small businesses. b) 98% of all businesses fail in the first year, c) 100% of all failed businesses have well-understood reasons why they failed. With these three facts, we should be able to craft a business that has a more than average chance of success.

Why businesses fail.

All failed businesses share the same characteristic: they fail for one or more of the following reasons:

1) Undercapitalized. They don’t have the financial strength to survive the startup period.

2) Weak Management. The current owner/manager simply doesn’t have the skills to make the business flourish.

3) Wrong product. You can’t sell what the public doesn’t want to buy.

4) Wrong market. What you have may be attractive but the local market can’t afford to buy it.

5) No ‘exit’ strategy. With no thought of the future, the business will founder.

6) No “vision” as to what the business intends to accomplish.

Notice that nowhere once did I say the words “Real Estate”, even though that is the emphasis of this article. A “Real Estate” investment business is just the same as any other business, and can fail for all the same reasons that other businesses fail. The main difference is that when you invest in Real Estate, you tend to risk larger amounts of capital. Also, the Real Estate market contains many factors that you can never control, unlike most ‘normal’ businesses.

What’s the answer?

The most important answer is: a well-crafted business plan. Developing a meaningful business plan is more than just sitting down and describing your product in glowing marketing terms. The act of creating a business plan forces you to think about the various aspects of the business. It also places you in the position of your customer, your banker, your lawyer, your assistants, and yourself as owner/operator.

Retort Processing in Food Technology

Actually speaking, there is no specific technology for processing any specific product in any specific flexible containers. But there are good guidelines for processing the food in flexible containers.

Fo-value recommendations and technology guidelines from any technologists or institutes are to be understood as general guidelines at best and should always be applied in trial runs followed by microbiological analysis.

When ever the processor receives the processing technology from a technology transfer center or a food research institute, it should be noted that the mentioned technology was developed only for that particular product, which was processed in a particular type of retort (may be in a small pilot retort), with a particular recipe and formulation, with specific pH value and with specific precooking procedures and cooling method.

That specific process technology should be applicable only for that specific product which should be processed in similar conditions while it was developed by the concerned technologists.It is meaningless to apply the same process technology to other types of dissimilar products. The processor has to develop own specific technology for their specific product based on the type and characteristics of the products, type of packing material, type of retort, type of sterilization method etc. by following the international guidelines for the technology development.

Whenever the processor changes any of the following parameters, he has to re-standardize the existing technology to make it suitable for the new product.

* The container size and type (flat or stand up type pouches with different capacities)
* Orientation of pouches inside the retort (vertical or horizontal)
* Material and structure of pouches (aluminum foiled or microwavable)
* Type of packing material (cans, trays or pouches)
* Head Space and amount of vacuum present inside the pouches.
* Product Formulation
* Product quantity
* Recipe
* Retort (type, size, or processing method)
* Pre processing techniques
* Cooling method etc.

I guess this article will give you a clear idea about Retort Processing in Food Technology. If you are interested to know more about this,

Kids and Technology – Is This Tandem Beneficial?

Today, technology has played a very big role in everyone’s life. With online banking, transactions have never been this easy and convenient. With eShopping, purchasing goods has never been this far-reaching.

All these technological advancements, however, have placed a strong hold to children too. Today, you could hardly see a kid without a PSP, a Nintendo DS or a video system at home. Talk about simple stuff, nearly every kid has a television or a computer in his room.

Truth be told, kids’ access to technology is both beneficial and dangerous. Let’s see why.

On a Positive Note

Today, more than ever, kids have unlimited access to the internet. They can play with their video gaming consoles everyday. And of course, they can watch television all day long. As a result, children are exposed to a lot of visual and auditory stimulation.

This is a good thing, because at age 0-6, a kid’s brain is still developing. So they need as much stimulation as possible to become smarter and better individuals.

By being exposed to the latest in technology, kids are taught – at an early age – about the vastness and the usefulness of the internet and other video games. Learning becomes multi-faceted as kids today no longer solely depend on one instructional medium: books.

On a Negative Light

Child psychologists and medical practitioners, however, are unanimous in identifying the negative effects of too much exposure to technology. They contend that too much visual and auditory stimulation produces “addiction-like” effects. Because kids are used to too much stimulation, they’d grow restless, anxious and even aggressive when they do not have this level of “input.” This explains why they get irritable when they are just told to stay put and not play with their PSP’s.

Second, too much exposure to technology could interfere with quality time with their families. Instead of spending their time playing or going to the park with their parents and siblings, kids would prefer to stay at home and be in the company of the computer or their home gaming sets.

Psychologists also believe that during their development years, kids should spend more time in active play, physical undertaking and even reading. With the presence of laptops and gaming consoles, however, these activities are set along the sidelines.

As a result, their social skills maybe affected. Because kids now find more meaning in playing alone, they would find it hard to appreciate the company of others. Everyone knows that social skills are very important for one’s success, as such, this has to be developed as early as 2 years of age.

The advent of technology brings with it a multitude of advantages. With technology, people are experiencing a better quality of life. But as with anything else, too much of something is bad. Therefore, it is your challenge to know when something is too much, or too little. It is up to you to balance the exposure of your child to visual and auditory stimulation. As a parent, it is your call to know when exposing your child to technology would do him more good than bad. That’s the only way for you – and your child – to take full advantage of what technology brings.

Technology and Elderly – Embracing Technology to Improve Your Life

Technology is normally associated with the young and the trendy. Cell phone and computer companies market the gaming and music abilities of their phones and computers. The phones come in fashionable colors with hip ringtones and flashy features.

Older people are seldom interested in all this, but the basics of technology, without all the extras, can come in very handy for older people. The elderly of today didn’t grow up in a time where technology was as essential as it is today. They are scared to experiment and use technological devices such as computers and cell phones. That said, there are many elderly people who are quite competent in using their cell phones and computers but they are in the minority.

Technology can add to the comfort of the elderly and it can allow them to stay independent for much longer. The explosion in the technological device market has been phenomenal. If you can think of something to make your life easier and more comfortable, you are almost certain to find it.

While many of these devices might be unaffordable to a lot of elderly people, a basic computer and cell phone is within reach of many elderly people’s budget.

A cell phone is a wonderful device that allows older people to stay in contact. There are cell phones on the market with bigger buttons and screens that make it easier to use. Sending text messages is a daily occurrence in almost everybody’s life. Staying in contact with loved ones and family or friends is very important in older people’s lives. Receiving a message from a loved one can brighten up a lonely person’s day.

The advantages of computer technology to the elderly are more important than what most people realize. What is there that you can’t do over the internet? Elderly people can be in control of their own finances by using the internet banking services. For someone who finds it difficult to walk or stand in queues, internet banking is a wonderful tool. The elderly person won’t have to rely on others to get to the bank and they won’t have to go through all the distress of actually visiting the bank. It won’t only have an impact on the elderly person’s life, but also on those responsible for driving them around and assisting them in these tasks. Many online shops provide an online grocery ordering and delivery facility as well.

Walt Mossberg – Wall Street Journal Technology Writer

Walt Mossberg is a native of Warwick Rhode Island; he was born on March 27, 1947 and is easily one of the most influential technology reviewers in the world. He received his education at Brandeis College and earned a degree from the Columbia University of Journalism.

At the very young age of 23, he began writing for the Wall Street Journal, where he has remained. He spent the first 18 years of his long career covering national and international affairs. Around 1988 he turned his considerable talents toward the technology field and has influenced many pieces of technology that you probably use today, including the laptops, mobile phones and mp3 players.

In addition to his impressive journalism career Mossberg is also the co-creator of the prestigious annual conference “All Things Digital”, where he has shared the stage with noted technology greats such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

Over the years, Walt has received many awards and even an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Rhode Island. His awards include:

* 2001 – Honorary Doctorate
* 2001 National Headliner Award
* World Technology Award for Journalism and Media
* 2002 Business News Luminaries

Mossberg has written his Personal Technology every week since 1991; in addition, he edits The Mossberg Solution and writes Mossberg’s Mailbox where he answers reader’s technology questions.

You may be wondering how one person could have so much influence over the technology of the world. The answer may have a lot to do with the man’s integrity. People are tired of paid reviewers that only provide them the information that the manufacturer wants them to have; consumers have been burned repeatedly from buying into these types of product reviews.

Home Improvement – Preparing A House For Sale

Home improvement projects are not only great ways for the family to enjoy everyday in the most comfortable, functional, efficient and even luxurious way. These can also increase the saleability as well as profits that you get out of selling your home. If you are one among those homeowners who plan to let go of your New York property, then make the best out of this investment. So whether you are in Long Island, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, or Staten Island; take advantage of home improvements that pay back.

Though home improvements generally make your house more functional and appealing, not all will result to a return nor a power to attract that is universal. As you you will be spending a good amount of time, effort and money; it is crucial that you give enough thought on which projects best to undertake. The keywords would be clean and neutral to enhance the buyer’s thought of having the place as his or her own. To help you out prepare for a sale to engage multiple possible buyers, attract higher offers and sell in the shortest time possible.

Maximize Curb Appeal

When selling a house, first impressions do last. A dirty and unattractive yard has never been a good welcome especially to prospective buyers. If this is the first scene to greet them, chances of you enticing them to look further inside as well as closing the sale is definitely slim. Even if you have poured everything in beautifying the inside of your home, but has left the outside unattended, the negative impression will have a lingering effect on the person looking at the property and will eventually affect his/her decision. Other than tidying things up, here are other beneficial tasks to undertake:

replace damaged or missing shingles
clean and align gutters and downspouts properly
recaulk windows and doors
clean chimney
reseal driveway
consider planting annual blooms in pots, place especially near the entrance
Freshen Up Your Kitchen and Bathroom

Being the most used areas of the house, the kitchen and bathroom are considered the key selling points to any residential property. But when undertaking kitchen and bathroom remodeling, keep in mind that spending too much is a big no-no. It would be unwise to be replacing major fixtures and features such as appliances and other such items and doing so will not pay off. The essentials to focus on include

Watching Home Improvement TV Shows Before You Try it Yourself

Painting a wall or even tiling a bathroom floor may seem easy, but it is actually a lot more difficult than it looks. This is where home improvement TV shows can help out. They can teach you how to do it the right way, but more importantly they can show you the ways that other people made mistakes so that you can avoid making the same mistakes yourself.

Certain shows like Holmes Homes on HGTV can be incredibly beneficial for larger projects. Others like Divine Design can show you how to do small projects such as decorating and painting. If you are looking to do a specific project, the DIY network has some great shows that specialize in certain areas. The best part is that many cable companies are now offering these channels on demand so you can pick the show you want to watch based on the home improvement project you are looking to do.

As you are watching these shoes make sure to take notes. Take notes on the brands they use, the tools they use, and listen careful to what they tell you. Many times if you miss even a small portion of the TV show it can have devastating effects on your home improvement project.

TiVo or a DVR is your best friend when you are watching these shows. Being able to pause and rewind is essential to make sure that you pick up all the information you need. Also, channels like HGTV and DIY Network have websites that you can go to for more information about the projects they performed in the show. Make sure to use this research.

Although watch TV has often been just a form of entertainment, if you watch TV and learn how to complete a project it might just save you the cost of hiring a contractor.