Start to Make Millions: Small Chops Business

What You Need To Start Small Chop Business in Nigeria

You’ll need basic cooking tools used for cooking at large quantities. Basically almost all the kitchen utensils in your kitchen you use for cooking but in bigger sizes.

• Big frying pans
• Bowls
• Trays
• Egg mixer
• Steel dish
• Sieve
• Turning stick (omorogun)
• Greater
• Tongs
• Flat wooden spatula
• Measuring cups
• Strainer
• Knives

And so on.

The list all depends on you. You can remove from it to reduce the cost spent on capital and you can add to it just do what is comfortable for you.

As for my opinion on getting a shop, I don’t think you need that on starting out the business.

From what I’ve seen from the people already in the business operating your catering business from home right from your kitchen or compound (if it is neat) is always the best.

Location is not the most important thing. It is how well you can deliver and how fast.

Instead of looking for funds to get a shop rather create social media campaigns to advertise and make beautiful complimentary cards for the small chops business you can give to customers especially people who don’t know what you do.

I’ll talk about this later in the article.

How Lucrative is Small Chops Business?

Seriously, this is always the question on every Nigerians’ mind when it comes to starting businesses in Nigeria. And this is a good question because we all know the major reason for starting a business is to make profits.

Massive profits!

If a business is not making money no matter the energy put into it, it is regarded as a total waste of time.

So the Question on whether small chops is business in Nigeria is lucrative or not is obvious from the early explanations I’ve given so far. Yes, small chops business is a lucrative business because you are supplying to groups of people at once (weddings, birthday, concerts and so on).

The higher the number of guests required for you to prepare for the higher the profits you make.

Let’s say you have a contract to make small chops for 1000 guests and you charge max N400 per plate you will be making N400,000. This might not necessarily be a huge profit because you have not deducted your expenses but still it is a big profit.

Also, the demand for small chops for 1000 guest will help you buy your ingredients at wholesale and when you buy in wholesale you make more profit because the ingredients are cheaper, unlike buying from the usual retailers.

So you see here the more guests you have to make for the more profits for you in every way and more gain for the buyer because you can be able to give discounts (as much as you feel you need to).

Also, you can still make good money from small chops business even if you are making for 20 people or less as you’re just starting out. All you have to do is still buy your ingredients in bulk, make your small chops very delicious and give good prices to your customers that they will always have to come back.

List of Nigerian Favorite Small Chops You Should Know

• Samosa
• Spring rolls
• Mini puff puff
• Mini sausage rolls
• Asun (smokes peppered spicy goat meat)
• Nigerian mini doughnuts
• Gizdodo/Dodo gizzards (plantain and gizzards)
• Meat stuffed yam/potato balls
• Banana puff puff
• Nigerian battered plantain

And more.

How to Start Small Chops Business in Nigeria

1. Learn

Small chops business in Nigeria is one of the businesses you can’t start without prior expertise according to what I’ve heard from those already in the business.

Every boss in the business today started as a servant.

Asides from the fact that you can learn how to make some of the snacks by watching videos on YouTube, you still need to learn how to make the difficult ones like spring rolls and gizdodo from someone who makes it well (a professional).

Taste is another factor and it’s one of the things you can never learn through YouTube because it’s a marketing secret. So you need to learn how to make the snacks from professionals, how to package them and serve them.

All these play a vital role in the success of the business.

2. Buy Your Cooking Equipment

After learning how to make snacks for the small chops business, the next stage is to buy your cooking equipment to start.

It’s not necessary you buy the expensive ones now. You can buy the cheap equipment first then as time goes by you can buy the expensive ones.

I would have asked you to rent the equipment if you know you cannot afford new equipment but this will slow your business in the sense that the equipment might not be available for rent anytime you need them and besides renting is more expensive in the long run so the best thing here is to buy your own.

3. Advertise

I talked a bit about advertisement in the introduction but I feel I still need to give you more ideas on how to go about it.

There are 2 major forms of advertisements. We have; online advertisement and offline advertisement and both are important as regards this business. For the online you’ll need to create a page for your small chops business on Instagram.

Adverts of food and clothing tend to turn followers into customers on Instagram faster than facebook and twitter combined. You can start small by just posting pictures of your freshly made snacks and has time goes buy you can do paid adverts to increase your followership, reach and brand influence.

Also, reach out to food bloggers and try to form a bond (good relationship) with them. You never know as time goes by they may send customers to you.

For the offline adverts, you need to make attractive complimentary cards you can give to people and customers. You can start with just making 1000 copies then as time goes by, if there’s the need to make more you can.

4. Get Your First Customer

In starting any business in Nigeria getting your first customer is always the most difficult tasks but there is a way you can do this with ease and these is by making samples of your small chops and supply them to those you know are likely to patronize you.

Give these samples of small chops to influential people in different fields so these people will influence their subordinates to patronize you.

Also, make sure the sample is the best in terms of taste and looks (looking tantalizing).

And after getting your first customer you might need to consider giving huge discounts to make it easy for them to patronize you easily.

Remember the woman customer I talked about at the early of this article? She gave discounts to us because it was our first time doing business with us.

5. Supply Your First Order

When you finally win and get your first order do not take it for granted even if the guests you are making for are small it is still a big deal because if done well those small guests can refer you to big guests.

Make sure you put in every detail when you’re supplying this order and make sure everything is perfect. Deliver on time and also be ready to part with your complimentary cards at the venue (as many as possible).

The technique I’ve seen used times without number by many small chop company is glueing their complimentary cards to each plate of small chops delivered.

So that all guests can get their cards in case they liked what they ate and want delivery in future. You can apply this too to reach more customers.

Small chops business in Nigeria is a business that needs patience and time. If you’re really passionate about it go into it and you’ll see with time you’ll thank God you did. It’s not a business only for women, men too do it.