Four COOKING CLASSES

[GordonJ]

From the 52 Ideas report:
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FOUR. Cooking school. Singles, seniors and newlyweds.

Guess what? NO, not chicken butt (what are you 9?)... people are going to eat in 2017. I 110% guaran damn tee it. Eat, eat and eat again.
And along with all this eating comes some cooking. If you know how, there is a lot of opportunity here. I've selected the three hottest areas where you might want to consider starting a cooking school. And a HINT:

There are many churches with small kitchens which go unused most of the week, arrange to give their members deep discounts or make it a class relevant and you can find these at bargain prices. LISTEN UP if you have some invest money stashed away. START a commercial kitchen which can be leased by the hour. You can find these for lease by the square foot, or a monthly lease.

If you keep a eye on restaurants for sale, you could easily convert this to a school. Before I get into the three areas of specialty I selected, here is a TIP.

Ask yourself this question: Could I start a regional cooking school, and offer area restaurants my students as employees? See, there is a possibility you could help find work for people, and by setting up a short term cooking school, a FAST TRACK school of about 8 weeks basic, with another 8 weeks advanced.

They come out of your school ready, tested and with a working knowledge of the food industry. There are all kinds of expensive schools, like the CIA. Or 2 and four year degrees in Hospitality/Cuisine schools. But what about an affordable short term intensive, hands on school which takes people, say on welfare for example, and gives them a skill...and when tied into a region's restaurant association, who gets employees, it is a WIN WIN for all.

OK. Singles. MORE young 20-30 somethings than ever, and few have had any of the old ways HOME EC classes which used to be a staple for high school girls in eons past. And the guys are even worse, they burn things in microwaves.

One way to generate customers is to have cooking class mixers. Get 10 men and 10 women and they do like 4 or five dishes with a partner, switched every 10 minutes or so.

I have taught my kids to use Sunday afternoons, if they aren't busy, to do two hours of prep work and get meals ready for the week. By putting this time to use, they can save a lot of time though the week and have good meals ready to be quickly assembled. They have taught some of their friends this, in fact one has her girlfriends over for a Sunday afternoon of cooking and wine tasting (I wonder how much really gets cooked?).

You run an ad on Craigslist, you could do home parties, specialize in cookies, cakes, soups, sauces, gravies, desserts.

I've worked with a lot of caterers, could easily teach classes in cooking for groups, from 10 to 100.

Besides SINGLES there are many seniors who could use some help, especially widowers, or those moving in with sons and daughters. And the newlyweds may need some help, many don't even know what a kitchen utensil is.

Now, this can tie in with speaking, workshops, classes, etc. I've taken classes in cake decorating, hot cross buns, one in Bar B Q. And, there is always a cookbook. In fact I'll save this for later. So, get cooking for a feast of fantastic fungaloas.
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Resources, including some good articles.

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/start...siness-38.html Good article at Chron (good articles in general)

A good first hand account... his pitch is, sell YOURself, not bad advice
https://www.quora.com/I-am-looking-t...ple-to-sign-up

Another real life experience:

http://www.brit.co/how-to-quit-your-...ooking-school/

http://wwwkingdonchrisobinna.blogspo...g-classes.html

When the "Sarge" was alive, he had a part time catering business I'd help with. The Sarge was a cook for General Patton during WW II and later ran the Goodyear Executives commissary.

Preparing meals for 100 people is a bit different (well, a LOT different) than a meal for 10. On the submarine, we routinely made meals for 100, so there is another work background I've called upon.

And since Dien wrote about SURVIVALISTs, may be an opportunity there too, I ate my share of rabbit and squirrel in the day, didn't care for skinnning and cleaning, and I'd probably want to fry them in a cast iron skillet over an open fire, so pack lots of lard in your survival kit.

Can you cook? Bake? Fry? Sautee? Broil? Boil? ... well can you BUBBA?

Gordon

PS. Food trucks will be covered when we get there. OR, you can still get all 52 ideas for only 10 bux via PayPal to [email protected] and you get the pdf report by return mail, there is NO download, so don't be filing a complaint an hour later with PayPal, it will be sent as soon as I learn about your payment.