One of the reasons people don’t start their own home-based business is the misconception that every business requires a substantial amount of start-up capital. Many stay-at-home moms struggle to make ends meet when they actually have one skill that they can turn into a money-making home based business - COOKING. Every Mom knows how to cook at least ONE dish that’s simply to-die-for, so here are five home based food business ideas that require zero to very little capital to start.

This is a daily catering service where you cook (one or two meals) daily for your customers. This is a much needed service for busy people who are too tired to cook when they get home but still want a wholesome home-cooked meal. Customers who need your services will pay you in advance for the month. That’s the beauty of this business. You realize your profit even before you do anything. What comes after that? Well, at first it will be like cooking for an extra couple of family members. These “family members" will pop by in the evenings and pick up their meal. Things start to get hectic when your customer base reaches twenty. Then, it’s like cooking for a small army everyday!

Everybody knows there’s nothing like home-baked apple pie, cookies and fruit cake. If you’re really good at baking, then you could spread the word that you bake anything to order. Your customers will need to order in advance (time frame would be up to you) so that you can prepare and time your baking to your customers’ agreed pick-up appointment.

Catering for small parties is a simple yet profitable money maker you can do part-time. You do need a more comprehensive menu for this, but you’ll find most people tend to stick to favorites like fried chicken, sandwiches, salads and the like. Catering for children’s parties is even easier – burgers, hot-dogs and fries will always be favorites but you’ll need to be flexible to meet your customer’s budget. To market your business, you could place your calling cards on the buffet tables for guests to pick up. Since most of your business will probably be during the weekends, you could get your family to pitch in and help out with the preparation. Most caterers request a fifty percent payment upon confirmation of order and the other fifty upon delivery of the food, so you don’t need to fork out any of your own funds to cover your costs.

This is a good money making idea for the expert baker who knows how to bake cakes of different shapes and designs – anything from racing cars to Pokemon to rockets. There are lots of books that teach you the basics of specialty baking. The best way to learn though, is by practice. For a start, you could always take on simple jobs from friends and family and once you feel confident, you could market your skills on a wider scale. Not everyone can be a specialty baker. There’s a fair amount of artistic ability involved but if you’ve got the flair and skills, there’s a money making niche waiting for you.

Everything that you can make at home, can be made to sell – jams, preserves, cookies, sauces, pasta, candy - the list goes on and on. What you want to do is find THE one recipe that you can cook really well and concentrate on it. Give free samples to your friends and family and let them know that you’re taking orders if they’d like to buy some. If you’re ready move on to a bigger scale, then you might want to consider supplying your home-made food to your local grocery stores or even setting up a stall at your local market place.

When we first started our home catering business we just used whatever we had in our kitchen with a healthy dose of ingenuity! We DID spend about fifty dollars on flyers but that was it. However, when your business starts to grow and your profits start to roll in, you WILL need to invest in equipment to increase efficiency and productivity. Before our home based catering business, we were a one-refrigerator family. Six months down the road, we were a 2 refrigerator, 3-freezer family – and we haven’t even begun to include fryers, ovens and stoves. And yes… we now buy stuff like sauces, eggs and flour by the crates!

The secret to finding success with these ideas is simple – persistence and quality. You need to keep working at it. Just as there are all sorts of people on this planet, there will always be different taste preferences. There will ALWAYS be people who like your cooking some who don’t. Be encouraged by the compliments, but don’t let the criticisms get to you. Keep at it long enough and your customer base WILL grow. Of course, being persistent means nothing if you don’t maintain a high standard of quality. Nothing will kill your reputation faster than inferior quality or dirty food. Everybody needs to eat and a home based food business will always make you a nice sum of money!

Don’t be afraid to give these ideas a try. You don’t need to know a thousand ways to make money with your cooking. You just need ONE good recipe… cheers!