Business Startup Ideas

Opening a Ravioli Business

Want to start a ravioli business? If so, planning and preparation are the keys to your success.

Thinking about opening a ravioli business? We tell you what you need to know to get started.

Ravioli Business

Why Ravioli?

In recent years, ravioli businesses have sprung up throughout the nation. To outsiders, ravioli might seem like an arbitrary business concept. But to entrepreneurs, ravioli is a product that is tailor-made for small business startups.

Ravioli businesses lavage two important consumer trends: (1) Demand for Italian cuisine and (2) The need for prepared foods. Instead of cooking from scratch after a long day at the office, consumers can swing by the ravioli store, pick up some ravioli and sauce, and enjoy a gourmet meal with minimal prep time.

Another benefit of ravioli is variety. By changing the pasta, stuffing or sauce, consumers can enjoy a different ravioli dish every time they purchase ingredients from your store. And since you can pre-make and store large quantities of ravioli, your business will be capable of generating a diverse product line without sacrificing operational efficiency.

First Year Survival Tips for Ravioli Entrepreneurs

In our experience, consumers don't automatically understand the concept of a store dedicated entirely to ravioli. So it's important for startups to educate consumers about the benefits of their products. Specifically, you'll want to highlight your store's variety and the easy preparation benefits of your products.

Print ads offer limited space for educating consumers. At a minimum, your marketing strategy will want to supplement traditional marketing tactics with robust online marketing tactics, including the use of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Social media marketing has been proven to be a successful promotional device for restaurants and has the potential to deliver similar results to ravioli entrepreneurs.

Ravioli Retail Sales Tricks

Like any other retail business, ravioli sellers have the opportunity to employ tried and true business strategies to increase sales size and quantity. For example, cheese ravioli will be one of your store's most economical product offerings. To upsell consumers, consider offering free samples of cheese and lobster filled ravioli. By drawing customers' attention to premium products, you can significantly improve your daily profits.

You can also employ cross-selling techniques by offering customers a one-stop dinner solution. Ravioli is your main product. But by giving customers choices in sauces (e.g. marinara, diavolo, Florentine, etc.), breads and other products, you can effectively increase the size of each sale by 100% or more.

Creating Business Plans for a Ravioli Business

Does your ravioli business have a business plan? If not, your company is lacking a critical business tool. With the right ingredients, a business plan can help your startup secure financing, attract investors and execute a strategy for growth.

A professional business plan writer can be a big help in creating a first-rate plan.

Professional business plans can often be more effective than plans that are created in-house. But no matter how skilled they are, business plan writers can't be effective without the direct input of the business owner.

So even though a business plan writer might be the right move for your ravioli business, you can't completely outsource business planning. Instead, you'll need to remain proactively involved throughout the writing process.

Assess the Competition

Prior to opening a ravioli business in your town, it's essential to see how you will fit in the competitive landscape. We've provided the link below to help you find competitors in your area. Simply enter your city, state and zip code to get a list of ravioli businesses in your town.

It's important to be aware of what the competition is doing. Take the time to visit the competition to properly assess their strengths and weaknesses.

A Good Source of Advice

As part of your due diligence on opening a ravioli business, it's a wise move to speak with somebody who is already in the business. It's very unlikely that the local competition will talk to you. It'd be crazy for them to teach you the business.

Thankfully, an owner of a a ravioli business in a location that is not competitive to you can be a great learning resource for you, once they realize that you are not going to directly compete with them in their community. In that case, the business owner may be more than happy to discuss the industry with you. In my experience, you may have to call ten business owners in order to find one who is willing to share his wisdom with you.

Where would you find somebody who runs a ravioli business in another city who you can speak with?

It's easy. Here's a link you can use to find a mentor outside of your area.

Is It Easier to Buy an Existing Ravioli Business?

Tough decisions are what business ownership is all about. And one of the first decisions you'll have to make is whether to start a business from scratch or buy an existing ravioli business.

In general, purchased ravioli businesses fare better than startups, at least during the initial few years. When you buy an established ravioli business, you gain access to a functional business operation with a customer base and a steady revenue stream.

Entrepreneurs who are committed to a highly unique value proposition may need to pursue a startup approach. But whenever possible, we recommend carefully surveying the business-for-sale marketplace before committing to a startup approach.

Is Franchising the Right Option?

Your chances of achieving the entrepreneurial goal of being a successful business owner immediately improve if you opt for franchising and leverage their successful brand and track record.

Before you consider starting a ravioli business, you may want to assess whether franchise opportunities in your space might simplify your entering the business.

The link below gives you access to our franchise directory so you can see if there's a franchise opportunity for you. You might even find something that points you in a completely different direction.

Related Articles on Starting a Company

These additional resources regarding getting started as an entrepreneur may be of interest to you.

How to Find Start-Up Capital

LLC Advantages

Free Business Plan Templates

Share this article


Additional Resources for Entrepreneurs

Lists of Venture Capital and Private Equity Firms

Franchise Opportunities

Contributors

Business Glossary