From structuring your business to creating your menu, we’ll walk you through how to start a Pizza business, confidently and minimize your road bumps!
Creating your style of pizza and selling it is no doubt a great business. Being a known food across the globe makes it a very profitable business to those who are willing to start it.
Though it may seem easy because of its high success rate, compared to other businesses, you will need a large sum of money just to get your pizzeria started. Not just that, it will also take time before your business rises because of the numerous competitors in the market these days.
So how do you start a pizza business?
Is a Pizza Business Profitable?
Pizza is unquestionably a great comfort food. This makes it one of the best money-making businesses. In America, about 94% of Americans eat pizza regularly and there are about 60,000 pizza businesses in the United States showing us that starting a pizzeria is big business, yet the competitions are very tough in the market.
When it comes to franchising, you will need to pay some royalties to the business you are franchising, but you can still earn a lot of profit from it. Based on Glassdoor, an average franchise owner of Dominoes can earn between $107,00 – $116,000 a year.
Here is a website that can help you choose which business franchise fits your style.
What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages of Starting a Pizzeria?
Launching your Pizza business is a great way to increase your knowledge in baking. Not just that, you get to learn how to market your products to have a substantial amount of sales. Here are some points that can encourage you to start your pizzeria.
The Advantages Are:
- A significant way to gain some skills in managing a business.
- Pizzas are high in demand wherever you go which means it is a great product in the market.
- Pizza sales don’t depend on certain seasons meaning your sales will not wave at any time of the season in the year.
- When your business has built its routine, you will be able to have control over your restaurant completely including the hours you work.
- With the technology, you can start your business without the need for a physical shop or mobile truck.
- Having the choice of franchising or building your pizza from scratch
Even though pizza businesses are very profitable, there are still some flaws and stumbling blocks that may stand in your way when just starting.
The Disadvantages Are:
- You will need to completely focus your time on managing your business at the start. It is known that it takes 2 years to fully build the foundation of your business. This can affect your quality time with your family.
- Competitions are on fire in the pizza industry. It may be harder for you to keep up with your competition.
- The cost when starting a pizzeria can be very expensive as you will be needing some special equipment.
- When you have a lack of experience when it comes to managing, it can ruin your business.
- You will need time to invest in a good team to operate your business.
How Much Money Will You Need To Start A Pizza Business?
Starting a pizza business is no joke when spending an explosive amount of money. You have to make sure to have more than the right amount just to make sure that you will not be lacking any money throughout the launching of your business.
Start-up cost for a pizzeria is around $175,000 to $750,000. For that high amount of money, you will be spending it on licenses, pizza ovens, and other equipment and supplies.
Here is a list that you will most likely spend your money on just to open your food business.
Renting or buying a space for your shop
You will probably need to sign a commercial lease indicating that you will occupy the space for at least 7 years, but if you are planning to start your business at home then you can skip this part.
Getting your Licenses and Permits in Order
Required to start a pizza business. You can even serve time in jail when your licenses and permits are not complete since it will be considered illegal.
Paying for Insurances
You must apply for insurance for your business so that when something happens, you can recover your business assets easily.
The hiring of Managers and Staffs
Invest in experienced staff, so that they can manage your business even while you are not present.
Marketing
You will probably need to spend money heavily on this part during the birth of your business.
Equipment and Supplies
You will be needing commercial ovens and mixers for your business which can be costly.
What Equipment and Supplies Do You Need to Start a Pizzeria?
As stated earlier, you will need pizza ovens and commercial mixers to make it easier for you when taking orders for your customers. This can be overwhelming as it is very expensive, but this is still a good investment as these things can last long.
Here is a list of the equipment and supplies you will be needing in opening a pizza shop.
1. Pizza Ovens
Pizza ovens can heat up to higher temperatures compared to a normal oven, this is why they are recommended in every pizza business. There are a lot of types of pizza ovens to choose from. There is a brick pizza oven, conveyor pizza oven, convection pizza oven, and countertop pizza oven. Although these types may vary with the design and concept of your shop.
Recommended Pizza Products:
- Outdoor Full Stainless Steel Mobile Wood Burning Pizza Oven
- 12 inch pizza oven black powder coating pizza oven
2. Commercial Dough Mixers
You will need mixers that are tough, that can mix many pounds of pizza dough. You must invest in an expensive high-quality dough mixer to ease your problems when already operating.
Planetary mixers can help you a lot when your business booms up and needs a stronger mixer to accommodate heavier dough.
Recommended Pizza Products:
3. Dough Trays
This is where your dough will rise. You will want to stock up on these things to be prepared beforehand in case of sudden huge buyouts of your pizza.
Recommended Pizza Products:
4. Commercial Refrigerators
You will need a refrigerator that can hold your dough, toppings, meat, etc. The refrigerator you will invest in must be easily accessible so that it could highly improve the flow of your business routine.
Recommended Pizza Products:
5. Refrigerated Topping Units
This equipment may come in handy since you will be placing toppings all the time when operating your business, that is why it is best to have this item in your hand as it will help preserve the freshness of your veggies, cheese, pepperoni, when refrigerated.
Recommended Pizza Products:
6. Pizza Prep Counters
This appliance is useful when assembling your pizza before it goes into the oven. These prep counters are refrigerated which makes it a great placement for your pizza toppings.
Recommended Pizza Products:
7. Pizza Cutters
Can be practical in cutting your pizza. It is recommended that you have these things in hand as they can be used in cutting dough too.
Recommended Pizza Products:
8. Pizza Peels
Well, using a glove can’t handle the heat in a pizza oven. That’s why you will be needing pizza peels in getting your pizza in and out of the oven. These appliances look like shovels, but with the pizza peels, they have a flat rectangle shape which makes it a lot easier in scooping the pizza out of the oven. These items come in aluminum or wood.
Recommended Pizza Products:
9. Pizza Pans or Pizza Baking Stones
Pizza pans come in a flat circle or rectangle shape. You can buy either wood, aluminum, or ceramic. It also has the choice of with holes or no holes. The function of the holes in the pizza pan is not to collect the oil, from the pizza, in the pan making it not that much greasy. Although buying this kind of pan has its limitations as you will not be able to use it with other baked goods compared to a pizza pan with no holes.
Both pans work well with pizzas. You just have to find the one that works best for you.
Recommended Pizza Products:
10. Kitchen Scale
You will be needing this greatly to accurately measure the dough sizes that you will be using for your business.
Recommended Pizza Products:
11. Dough Scrapers
There are two types of dough scrapers. One is the flexible type while the other is hard with a wooden handle. It is required that you have these two items to help you get the sticky dough out of the bowl, scraping your work surface area so that all of your dough is in the same motion. It can also help you cut and divide the dough.
Recommended Pizza Products:
12. Squeeze Bottles
This will be used for storing the sauces so that it will be easier to place in the pizza when assembling it.
Recommended Pizza Products:
13. Condiments
It is best to have seasonings served with your pizza. Most pizza restaurants would offer chili flakes, hot sauce, and pepper to go with their pizza. You can even think outside of the box by creating a special sauce for the pizza you will be serving to stand out from your competitions.
Recommended Pizza Products:
14. Eating Utensils
As some would like to hold their pizza while eating it, others would like to use forks and knives to eat theirs as not to get their hands dirty., so you must serve a plate, spoon, fork, and knife along with the pizza.
Recommended Pizza Products:
15. Kitchen Utensils
And of course just stock some ladles, knives, serving spoons that you will be using in cooking and baking your food products.
Recommended Pizza Products:
16. Pizza Boxes
If you will be offering delivery services in your pizza shop, then most likely you will be needing pizza boxes. These boxes come in handy as it keeps the heat of the pizza inside the box, ensuring that your pizza is still warm when it is delivered to your customer’s location.
Recommended Pizza Products:
17. Napkins and Toothpicks
Keep in mind to always have these supplies available in your restaurant as it is very demanding.
Recommended Pizza Products:
Types Of Pizza Businesses You Can Start
There are a lot of ways you can start your pizza business. You can either start small and grow your business gradually or you can start big like a restaurant. Here are some ways you can open your pizzeria.
1. Online Pizza Business
You can start your business in the comfort of your home. Just make sure that you are up to the health standards set by your state. Establishing your business on the internet is very affordable since you will only need to spend minimal fees to advertise your business and you can get most of your customers from there.
2. Take-out Pizza Business
Take-out pizza shops are usually small structures with the intent of only handing out pizzas to the customers outside your shop. With this kind of setup, few employees are needed for you to operate your pizzeria making this a great choice when you want to start small.
3. Restaurant
If you have a lot of sales coming from your online food business, then maybe you can upgrade your shop by building a restaurant for your pizza business. Although you can start a restaurant if you are not that comfortable with using the internet as your platform for business. A restaurant can be a beneficial business because buyers can eat and dine in your restaurant which is a way to introduce your theme and style to them. Your restaurant can be easily located since you are in a fixed location.
4. Mobile Pizza Van
If you want to start your pizza business by using a mobile pizza van, then you will need some time to earn for it since these mobile vans are expensive, yet it already has a built-in oven inside the van which makes it a lot easier for you to roam around your state while selling your product.
5. Pizza Franchise
One way to skip the hardships of a starting business is to just franchise a pizza business with a known name and a good reputation. That way you can have more substantial sales compared to just launching your business.
All of these ways of starting a pizzeria are very profitable somehow. You will just need to find the one that works well with your schedule, wants, and the things that are wanted by the market. If you want to play it safe, then franchising is the perfect choice as franchise businesses have a higher success rate compared to starting a business on your own.
How Do I Start My Pizza Business?
1. Create a Business Plan
Creating a business plan is something every business owner must make before they launch their business. A business plan may vary depending on how complicated the start-up of your business is. It is important to keep everything detailed, yet simple to read and understand by your partners and you, yourself.
Here is a detailed outline to help you create your business plan for your pizza business.
1. Decide on what your Business Type is
Will you be managing the business alone or will you do it with someone or will you do it with a group of people? Write down the people, including you, who will be owning the business.
2. Design a Logo that will describe your business
The Logo can be a picture of someone, just make sure to ask their permission if you will use their picture as a logo, or something that you want to portray in your business. Be creative with it as this is one way you can attract people to your food products.
3. Make a Breakdown of all your expenses
Think of all the things you will be spending to launch the business. Then separate them into columns so that each money you spent will be accounted for.
4. Equipment Breakdown
The same with your expenses, write down all of the equipment you are planning to purchase. Make sure to also include repair fees for each piece of equipment you buy in case it malfunctions.
5. Create Your Menu and Plan the Services you will offer
Make a list of all the kinds of food and drinks you are planning to serve. Then plan the services you will offer. Will you be offering delivery services? Do you offer catering services?
6. Find a Great Location
Now if you are planning to construct or rent a place for your pizza shop, You will have to allot some time in scouting some places that will be beneficial for your business. You should include in your notes when buying or renting a space is the foot traffic of the road, the competitions nearby, and your source of electricity, water, etc should be perfectly good and beneficial for your business.
7. Find a suitable agency to apply for a loan for your business
Before you apply for a loan, make sure to calculate all of the money that you will be spending so that you can know how much money will have to be loaned after you deduct the money you currently have for the startup of your business. Look for an agency that offers great offers. Make sure that you can pay the exact amount that you have agreed upon each month so that the interest will not affect you or your business.
8. Make a list of all your competitors
It is important to know who you are up against. Get to know their business by tasting their products and getting an idea of the services they offer so that you can either do something better than them to rise above in the market.
Although do not expect to completely gain your stand in the market as you are still starting and it may take a while for the buyers to approve of your product in the market.
9. Management and Staff
Hire trained and qualified employees for your business so that it may flourish quickly. Plot all of the qualifications you are looking for and the time your business will be operating. Also, include in your list their salaries so that you can allow a certain amount of money in that part.
10. Miscellaneous Expense
And of course, do not forget about allocating some money for your miscellaneous expenses in case something happens to your business so that you will not have to loan money to restore your business.
11. Mission and Vision
Lastly, think about what your goal is for the business. What is the reason you want to start your business? It is important to have a mission for your business so that your business will continue growing as it grows closer to the goal you are trying to achieve.
2. Create a Marketing Plan
Advertising is very crucial especially if your business is just starting, that is why you have to create a marketing plan to catch the attention of the people and with some hopes, check out your product.
Here is a list that can help you in marketing your business.
1. Marketing Goal
Your marketing goal will consist of the profit you earn from your business now and what is the amount you are trying to reach by some time. It can be at the end of the month, year, or even longer. The point is that you have a goal you are trying to reach and what will you do to reach that goal.
2. Market Only a Certain Group of People
Focus on marketing a certain group of people. It could be the elderly, parents, college students, etc. If you even want to be more detailed, like entertaining people who love a certain design, then go ahead! It is important to focus on a certain group of people because your restaurant’s theme and design will follow after that decision of yours.
3. Discover the actions needed for your business to stand out
There are a lot of pizza businesses operating lately which makes it harder for you to stand out in the food industry. So what are the things you can do to rise above your competition?
1. Offer great Selling services
You can offer delivery services for your pizza business or you offer catering to events. These are just some offers that are needed if you can, for your business to be competitive.
2. Present High-quality pictures
If you are selling on the internet, then you will need pictures that will make your potential customer’s mouth water. Do not be limited with the options used by your competitors. Be creative with it. If you can present a video, the better it will be.
3. Be Creative
Creativity can be applied by using your imaginations. Creativity cannot be applied through drawing and arts. You can also apply it by thinking of combo package deals that your customers will be delighted in ordering.
4. Advertise Your Business
There are a lot of stylish ways you can showcase your business in the market. Here are some ways you can advertise your pizza business.
1. Offer Your Pizzas By Slice
Many people just want to try it out and check first if they want it before they buy the whole thing. By offering pizza slices, you have a chance to sell and earn profit from those kinds of people.
2. Flyers
Handing out flyers to people passing by is also a great way to inform the market that you are now operating. Although it may seem useless because most of the people are on the internet, don’t worry because at least you can still maximize your advertising when you get to reach out to the people who don’t have or are not active on social media.
3. Offer Group Combos or Packages
Offer different kinds of group combos that will be able to entertain at least 10 people. When families come to a restaurant, group packages can make their job a lot easier as they will not have the hassle of ordering one by one.
4. Create a Website
Since the majority of us are on social media. Then why not create a website to be more visible in the market? That way it will be easier for your business to have customers.
Although there are some minimal fees needed to advertise your website on the internet as competition is fierce on the internet.
5. Create a Facebook Page
On Facebook, you can create a business page that can boost the sales of your pizzeria. Although you will also need money to advertise your business on Facebook from time to time to gain likes and followers as the visibility of your page will depend on that and the activity of your page.
6. Coupons
You can advertise your business through enticing coupon offers. Make sure that it is for a limited time only to pressure people into checking your business.
Coupons also have been proven effective in increasing your sales in your business.
5. Change Your Logo From time to time
Occasionally, change your logo’s appearance but without changing it completely. It can be a color change, design change, or something else. Your goal is to put a bombshell in your customer’s eyes and this can help increase your sales for a short amount of time.
6. Allot a Fixed Budget For Advertising
Set a fixed amount of money for advertising and make sure to account for it to prevent yourself from spending more than you are intended to spend. It is still best to be profiting from your business rather than losing profit.
That is why make sure to always weigh the differences before you make a decision.
What are the Requirements Needed for you to get your Pizza Business Started?
To start a pizza business, you will be needing the permits and insurance required by your state. You will also need a specific kitchen layout to not affect the flow of your business. You must follow all the requirements needed by your state or country as you can get arrested if there are things you did not comply with.
Here are the things you will be needing to process to jumpstart your pizza business.
1. Building Permit
The building permit will declare that the structural modifications, plumbing, and electrical of your shop are safe and secure. The Department of Building and Safety will release this to you if you have your business plan verified and inspected after the pizza shop structure has been constructed. The reviewing of plans can range from online applications and physical examinations. You can get your direct approval if it is a simple structure, but it will take time for huge building structures.
2. Kitchen Layout
The kitchen layout is foremost the important thing that needs to be perfect. Make sure that the kitchen layout complies with the requirements of your state and you, yourself, are comfortable with that kind of layout. The pizza oven and the topping station should be in a place that will be by each other, so that the staff will not bump into each other, causing chaos, when the kitchen gets very busy.
3. Business Structure
You will need to choose wisely on what kind of business structure will be for your business as it is a requirement and the structure you will choose will greatly affect your following decisions. Be sure to review each business structure before you submit it to the department.
These are the four types of business structures.
1. Sole Proprietorship
This type of business structure is great for business owners that are willing to go solo. It is easy to get your approval from the department and you solely have complete control over the business. It also has cheaper fees compared to the other business structures.
The downside of a sole proprietorship is that all of the pressure will be your burden and when you have a substantial amount of debt, it will be shockingly hard to pay for it as you don’t have a partner to help you with.
A lot of business owners have registered for a sole proprietorship, unfortunately, a lot of those businesses fail because of a lack of experience. This is why you need to be prepared for all sorts of things when choosing this structure.
2. Partnership
The partnership works great for businesses with numerous owners. What’s great about his business structure is that all of your skills and talents will be shown and shared throughout the operations of your business. When the business has a substantial amount of debts, you will not be burdened that much as you have your co-owners to back up you.
The problems you may encounter with partnerships structure are frequent disagreements as everyone has their view on the business which makes it harder for you and your co-owners to decide for the business. Compared to sole proprietorship, the partnership is slightly harder and more expensive as there will be more requirements and signatures needed to get approval by the department. When the business gains profit, each of you will divide it, coming to the solution that you will make less money compared to when you, alone, own the business.
3. Limited Liability Corporation (LLC)
Limited Liability Corporation lets you have the advantage of having the benefits of a corporation as well as a partnership. This is why this type of business structure is popular and recommended for small-medium scale businesses. This type of business also protects you from personal liability when your business has debts or problems that may affect you.
4. Corporation
The corporation is ideal for large businesses as this is also the riskiest type of business structure. Corporations consist of many departments collaborating to achieve the goal of the company. As the ownership depends on the number of shareholders you carry, personal liability will be limited making it safer for you, and the owner always transfers making the business everlasting and not die down.
But it will be hard to register for this type of structure as there will be more requirements needed and there will be a lot of paperwork because of the countless taxes needed to be paid.
4. Permits and Insurances
You will need to get your business permit, health insurance, and other things in order. The requirements will depend on your state so you should schedule a meeting with the Department of Health or Secretary of State to get a list of all the things you will need to process for you to start your business.
How Do You Make a Pizza Business Successful?
Running your pizza business will need certain tactics for it to be prosperous. You will need to change your mindset on some things and you will need to persevere for it as it takes about 2 years or more for a business to be stable.
1. Go for High-Quality Ingredients
If you can have a source of high-quality ingredients locally, that would be great. Nowadays, people are now getting informed on what is healthy and what’s not, making them more assertive about what they eat. By serving pizza made with high-quality ingredients, you can increase the price of the pizza as well as your profit.
2. Think About Making Different Flavored Pizza
You can start with everyone’s favorites like pepperoni, Hawaiian, etc. Then you can experiment with different combinations creating a bold flavor that can interest your customers. Other pizza restaurants have gone on with fruit pizza as well as dessert pizza. So be creative in creating your new flavored pizza.
3. Offer “Dine-in” in Your Restaurant
Because of the pandemic, most people are required to stay at their homes and too much time spent at home can cause cabin fever, making people want to go out. This is why if you offer a dine-in experience in your restaurant, you can increase your sales. Just focus on the interior design to make it as comfortable for the customers dining in your restaurant.
4. Focus on Delivering Your Pizza Faster
When it comes to delivery, if you can have a faster delivery time compared to the other pizzerias, that would be impressive. As your goal is to give your pizza to the customer steaming hot, so focus and find a way to deliver your pizzas quickly.
5. Create an Online Ordering System for Your Pizzeria
Consider creating an online ordering system for your business as it would make it easier for the buyers. Since the internet is now commonly used as a platform for business, it can also benefit your business a lot.
6. Learn How to Read Financial Statements
As your business grows, you will be hiring more and more staff to operate your business and with that, you can’t completely check all sorts of operations, that is why you need to know how to interpret financial statements. If you can also learn how to account, the better it would be so that you can still keep an eye on most of the operations of your business.
Journey To Success: How Pizza Hut was Started
In 1958, Frank and Dan Carney, who were still in their college years, started their business. With $600 in their hand, which their mom let them borrow, they launched their first pizza business in Wichita, Kansas. The great thing was it was the only restaurant of its kind in their neighborhood. Not the two of them knew how to make pizza, they persevered and learned along the way.
Their store got a great reputation for the use of fresh toppings such as vegetables and meat. Also, their pizzas were fresh and were only baked when someone ordered. The dough was made every day to guarantee that the ones served were always fresh.
By December, their business had gained a lot of profit leading them to open another restaurant. In 1959. The business, Pizza Hut, had launched its franchise in Topeka, Kansas. Their pizza branch in Aggieville, Kansas offered delivery services which caught a lot of attention. Over ten years, over 300 pizzerias were opened by Pizza Hut.
By 1997, over 4000 outlets were created, leading them to achieve a noteworthy milestone. Around that year, the brothers were able to sell their business to PepsiCo. for about $300 million.
Nowadays, Pizza Hut has over “6000 stores in the United States” as well as 5,139 branches dispersed around 94 countries. It is still the biggest pizzeria in the world currently.
What’s unbelievable is that it was just started by two college students.
Conclusion
Starting your own pizza business will take a long time. Make sure to create a business plan as well as a marketing plan. Do not rush these things as this will be your guide throughout the launching of your business. Also, review each business structure as this will affect the decisions you have already planned.
Lastly, press on! Starting your pizza shop will be tough and will get tougher as the days pass by. It is said that it takes about 2 years for a business to be on its own feet which is why to keep persevering!
I hope this blog has helped you a lot in planning your pizza business start-up.
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