Covid-19 period has brought the world economy to its knees. Singapore is not an exception. Many Singaporean are losing jobs, and retail business are taking a direct hit to their precious revenue. With the economy going downturn, Singaporeans are scrambling for quick jobs and Singapore government starts rolling out many financial aid schemes to help lessen the citizens’ monthly burden. This situation, in turn, promote the increase of budding home businesses in the country.

Out of all these small home businesses in Singapore, almost majority of them are selling home-cooked food and home-baked goods. This is because these might be the easiest to setup, as one only need to replicate their home-cooking / home-baking skills to a slightly larger scale and cater to their customers. If you’d like to start a home-cooked / home-baked business, this is a good choice to start with. However, there are still some major points that you need to keep in mind before you start with one.

Maintaining good hygiene is paramount

Before focusing on the taste of your food or cake, the first thing that you need to focus on is your kitchen hygiene. Do you know how to wash your hands properly? Do you know that mixing cutting board between raw food and cooked food is not allowed? How about the temperature to keep your cold food and hot food?

We strongly advise you to attend Basic Food and Hygiene Certification (BFHC) course by the National Environment Agency (NEA) before you start your business. It costs less than $30, takes less than a day, and valid for 5 years! Contact us if you need more information.

Do not be a nuisance to your neighbours

Starting your own business is an exciting process. Even your neighbour may come to support you! However, you should always be considerate to your neighbour, especially in toning the noise level down and always try to keep your smoke level to a minimum.

Hiring an assistant is not allowed

Order starts pouring in, your phone is buzzing, business is booming! You are starting to struggle to fulfil your orders and you even starts to reject some orders. You are thinking to start hiring an assistant to help you.

Unfortunately, based on the rules from HDB’s Small Scale Home-based Business Scheme, you are not allowed to hire an assistant to help you on your home business. You will need to move out to rent a retail space, or relocate your business to a central kitchen. Please keep in mind that failure to comply is a breach of law. Let us know if you need more information on this.

Do not block the common area corridor

As your business grow, more supply of raw materials is needed, and your house just don’t have enough space to store your raw materials. However, you are still not allowed to put your raw materials, especially if you are staying in a HDB flat, on the common corridor and block people’s pathway. All supply of raw materials have to be stored inside your house.

Do not put your brand sign on your front door / window

We understand that marketing is one of the most crucial aspect of a business, and home business is no exception. You want more people to notice your business and increase your traction. Sadly, home businesses are not allowed to put any marketing material on their front door. Their only means are online social media presence like Whatsapp group, Facebook, Instagram, Frea, etc. These channels can actually be enough to get you high number of traction, if done correctly.

Always ask for feedback from your customer

Last but definitely not least, always ask for valuable feedback from the customers. You may think that your homely creations are already perfect. However, customers may provide some feedback that you may have overlooked. Your customers are usually more honest than your friends and family in giving you feedback, as they do not know you personally, and thus have little bias in their feedback. So, listening to your customers’ feedback may just bring your home-business to another level.

Here are some 7 tips that you may find useful. Also, if you are serious in starting a home-cook and home-baking business, try our Frea app. It is a marketplace mobile application where you can start selling your home-cooked food and home-baked meals in less than 5 minutes! Start earning today!