Take A Look At Other Competitors:
Look at the competition in or around the area you wish to serve.
Compare each of their prices, marketing strategies, menus, etc., to your own. Determine their strengths and their weak points, and learn from them.
Doing so will help you strategize your business plan better and determine how to stand up against the competition who are already established and doing well.
Mark Your Legal Presence And Be Sure Of The Paperwork:
When starting a food business, especially that which entails seafood, there are a lot of regulatory issues that may arise and need to be taken care of! So get yourself a lawyer and enroll yourself as a corporation and generate an Employer Identification Number from the state.
Learn about the taxes, legislations, and clearances required to do the set business, in the particular state. Once that is clear, you will have to seek permission from your city’s zonal commission, to start your seafood business in that specific area.
Getting a food service license is also a must: for that, you and your employees may have to attend a few workshops run by the government, to learn the basics of food safety and handling.
Choose What You Want To Sell:
Next, you need to decide what to put on the product list! Since there are thousands of varieties of seafood, you need to finalize what types of seafood you are going to sell. Do you want to focus on just one type of seafood, E.g., catfish? Or do you want to go all out and have a variety on your product list?
This depends on the locality and audience you are targeting. What are their preferences? If you think the audience loves a little bit of everything, then a variety on your menu will allure more customers. But if you know that your customers prefer only one or two types of fish, then you should invest only in these.
Determine How To Source Your Supply
When penning down your seafood business plan, make sure to determine where you are going to obtain your catch.
- Will you breed your own?
- Will you hire vendors?
- Or will you buy them from fishers?
Either way, make sure you have more than 1 finalized vendor, so in case one fails to provide the other can fill in.
Make sure all your selected vendors have valid food and safety license and are following the protocol of running a seafood business. When purchasing through another breeder, make sure to check the harvest thoroughly, and their living conditions before you strike a deal because even one lousy piece can put your whole business’s reputation at stake.
This is especially important if you have a lot of competition to deal with already.
In case you are purchasing from fishermen directly, look for signs that indicate the catch is fresh. Even if there is only one sign that suggests the fish may be stale, ditch it!
Red flags that indicate the catch may be stale:
- Loose, wrinkled or cracked skin that appears dull and not shiny and tight.
- The fish has a strong fishy odour.
- The eyes are not clear but cloudy or not bulged out.
- The gills of the fish appear dry and brittle instead of being shiny and slightly red or pink.
- Any other bruises, discolourations or stains also indicate that the fresh is stale and not fit to be sold to your customers.
You may also be interested in How to start a Seafood Restaurant
Create A System For Packaging And Storage
In the seafood business, there is nothing more important than packaging and storage.
Since seafood is one of the quickest perishing items on earth, extra care should be taken when it comes to storing and packing so that when it reaches its customer, it’s as fresh as new!
To keep your products fresh and far from rotting, a temperature-controlled environment is vital. Heavy-duty refrigeration is also essential for keeping your catch at the right temperature to avoid rotting and spoilage.
The packaging should be sealable and unbreakable, so that moisture, bacteria, or insects are unable to attack the produce.
There are plenty of new processes and packaging now available in the market, that help keep the fish fresh, and safe from any damage.
You may also be interested in How to Start a Seafood Restaurant
Focus On Timely, Cost-effective Shipping
One thing that makes a business stand out is its timeliness, with delivery orders, especially when the product is seafood, something so vulnerable to bad weather and handling.
It is necessary to make sure that deliveries during hot summer days should be made quickly to avoid any spoilage on the way.
While during winters, express delivery can be switched with standard delivery, given that the seafood remains good in cold weather.
Create a formula that results in timed deliveries without costing an arm and a leg. Also keep the option for home delivery, open.
Related Posts: The Health Benefits of Catfish that you need to know and Is Catfish Good Fish to Eat?
Target Your Audience
Once you have everything sorted regarding where to get the catch from, how to store it and ship it, start looking for your targeted audience.
Knowing who your audience is precisely, their taste, their desired requirements, it will be easier for you to market your product to them.
Knowing your audience will also make adding new products to your menu easy and more realistic.
Go Online
In today’s era, where all businesses have gone online, companies that have stayed aloof, are losing the potential opportunity for growth.
According to Statista, In 2019, an estimated 1.92 billion people purchased goods or services online. During the same year, e-retail sales surpassed 3.5 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide, and according to the latest calculations, e-commerce growth will accelerate even further in the future..
Online shopping is convenient, as it requires no going out and can be done conveniently and saves time.
So start to build your website or get the help of other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, to mark your presence online! Or go even further and register yourself on Amazon and eBay for a better response.