Dessert delivery service business idea for University

Hi

I'm in college accommodation at University. There are about 10 blocks around me. I got an idea for a business idea for a bit of extra cash and wanted your opinion on if it's a good idea or not.

Some of the guys in my flat sometimes want a nice dessert after a meal - especially on Sunday. So we thought we could bake desserts on Friday evening like brownies, cookies and cakes and stock ice cream in the freezer. Then we would have posters up telling people about the service with a price and phone number. People from our accommodation area only could phone and order a cake/dessert and we would run it across (max 1 minute) and deliver it and they'd then pay.

My questions are:
1) Do you think this is a good idea?
2) How much would you charge for the service? We were thinking something like £1.75 or £2 with ice-cream. Less than a cup of coffee and it's be a generous sized slice.

Sam

James Craner said:

The best advice is to go and speak to your potential customers, you already mentioned that some of the guys in the flat like a nice desert, so speak to them and also knock on a few doors and ask people if they would be interested, try and find out what they would like. Based on this feedback come up with an initial menu and then work out how much you will need to charge to make a profit, assume that you will not sell everything and factor that into the price. Then do some more market research (go knock on some more doors, perhaps with some samples) and find out if enough people are willing to pay the price that you propose. Based on that you will have a basic idea if the idea will work or not.

You will probably find that you will need to pivot your plan, after you start and make changes to the menu and or the price, based on feedback.

Good luck with your idea.

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Thanks for the reply - sounds like good advice.

chown33 said:

If you're making & selling food, your venture may fall under public health jurisdiction, and you may be required to have a health certification, health inspections of workers and premises, etc.

Just sayin'.

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Very good points - thanks.