After seeing highway-side dhabas, many people want to start their dhaba. But starting is food business like a dhaba or restaurant is very challenging. Proper guidance is needed to start a dhaba. When starting a dhaba, many questions are comes, like how much investment is required to start a dhaba? and Which licenses are required to start a dhaba? and How much profit margin in the dhaba business? marketing strategies for high dhaba? and many others. Today I am gonna solve these questions, and I will give you a complete guide on how to start a dhaba in India.
So if you want to start a dhaba, read this article completely.
How to Start a Dhaba-
Requirements Dhaba-
- Land- To start a dhaba needs land. Always we don’t have money to buy land, that’s why you can rent land and of course, the land should be contracted for 10 years.
- Cottage or Ground floor building- On that empty land should build something cottage or ground floor, and there have to create a kitchen, bathrooms, store room, and a dining place to serve the food. Also, Keep space in front for parking.
- Utilities- Utilities like chairs, tables, lights, fans, plats, cylinders & ovens, kitchen utensils, spoons, bowls with good water and electric supply, and decoration materials.
Dhaba Decoration-
For decorating a dhaba should be needed to see a creative mind in the decoration field, and you can see others places dhabas copy them and add something new and creative themes.
Also, you can see Pinterest pictures or hire an interior decorator, because traditional dhaba is gone, and people want to visit something new and beautiful places. So use something colourful walls and lights. Make your dhaba clean and beautiful.
How Many Employees Required for Dhaba-
Maintaining a dhaba or restaurant needs the same kind of employees, approx 9 to 10 people. 3-4 persons for kitchen or cook, 3-4 for serving food, 2-3 for cleaning floor & plats, tables chairs, etc. It especially depends on your dhaba size, how big you want to make the dhaba, or how your sales.
Investment To Start a Dhaba-
Starting a dhaba need a decent amount of money, and needs some backup because sometimes businesses are in losses. That’s why every businessman should have a good amount of cash. In the dhaba business, you should always have two months of expenses in cash.
Also, the monthly rent for empty land is approx 20000-25000, especially it depends on your plot size and location, and for rental land have to pay 3 months advance rent, which totals cost 60 thousand. To make a ground floor building or cottage it cost a minimum of 4-5 lakhs rupees. Also For electric & water connections 1 lakh above. And utilities like chairs, tables, lights, fans, plats, slender & ovens, kitchen utensils, spoons, bowls, etc will probably cost 1.5-2 lakhs. For decorations, it will cost around 50-60 thousand rupees. All 9 to 10 employees’ monthly salary cost will be 1.2 to 1.5 lakhs, and raw martial like oil, dal, rice, flour, etc will cost around 50 thousand. For other expenses 1 lakh. For a small dhaba, start-up investment will be 14-15 lakhs around.
Budgeting for Dhaba-
Without budgeting is tough to make a profit in the dhaba business. To understand the budget, first of all, you need to understand your monthly expenses and sales.
For Example-
Licenses to Start a Dhaba-
Licenses are a must for every business, especially in the food business. To start a dhaba business many types of licenses are required.
- FSSAI (Food Safety and strand authority of India)- fssai is the food license needed to start dhabas & restaurants.
- GST Registration- To make bills and pay and collect taxes is necessary to register in GST.
- Shop and Establishment Registration- It’s also compulsory for dhaba businesses.
- Liquor- If you sell liquor on your dhaba, you will need a liquor license.
- Health & Trade License
- Eating House License
- NOC
- Lift Clearness
- Environmental Clearness
- Trademark Registrations
- Business Registrations
Food Design for Dhaba-
Food design and food quality are the most important things in every food service business like dhaba & restaurant. Food quality you can increase by helping cook and good sufficient raw materials. But food design is tough to under in your initial days. First of all, you need to understand which foods are in high demand in your area. To know which are high-demand food items, you can analyze your nearest competitors, and Zomato gives you consultations service for your dhaba business because Zomato has big data about the nearest home delivery customers.
Try to prepare that kind of food, which can be prepared in many different ways with the same raw material.
Marketing Ideas for Highway Dhabas-
Highways cars & trucks run very fast, that’s why your dhaba needs to create attention,15 km before Dhaba. Put up billboards every 1 km. And create attention, To create attention you need small codes like “Food likes wow ‘n’ Experience likes Awesome” to enjoy these experiences come in your XYZ dhaba, “To make your journey more beautiful” experience our xyz dhaba, “If you don’t compromise health with test” come to our xyz dhaba, etc.
Also, you can use Google Business, and create highlights on the dhaba front. And after making a good amount of money, you can organize small events and programs, which makes your dhaba unique, and it is an awesome marketing strategy for a dhaba.
Also, you can use, guerrilla marketing strategies
Tips for Increasing Sales on Dhaba-
Dhaba is it long-term business, and your food quality, behavior, price, and ambiance create repeatable customers.
In my personal experience, dhabas with outdoor seating have more sales than dhabas that don’t have outdoor seating.
Give a good parking place, it is easy to park for vehicle owners, it creates more sales on your dhaba.
Need to target youth, and make it attractive to youth.
Thank you 😊