kitchen shooting
To begin with, Anna and Maria created an account with beautiful pictures desserts on Instagram. The plan was to make an attractive website, film a basic pastry course with a professional teacher, and sell it as online lessons. Anna used to work at the City business school — online courses were just being launched there, and the girl decided that she could repeat this format in the culinary niche. “We analyzed what our competitors are doing and realized that in Moscow full-time schools, education is expensive, and there was no online at all. We decided that we could launch, ”recalls Anna.
The first videos for the Bakerschool project were filmed at Anna Kovalchuk's house and agreed to barter with kitchen equipment supplier KitchenAid. “We wrote to them about the school, told them the whole plan, they said that their technique would be constantly visible on the video. They agreed,” says Kovel. So the girls got a professional mixer, blender, etc. - they saved about 100 thousand rubles.
Anna had to urgently repair her own kitchen. This and the selection of equipment took all summer, which is why the start of filming had to be postponed until September. Meanwhile, the girls ordered a website for 300 thousand rubles, developed the design, compiled the course program, and were looking for teachers.
Filming began in the fall of 2015. Without taking into account the cost of repairing the kitchen, entrepreneurs needed about 1.2 million rubles. - for design, website creation, payment for the film crew and teacher, purchase of ingredients and kitchen utensils for shooting. The project investor was a friend of the families of both girls, entrepreneur Yevgeny Vardanyants (now he owns 50% of Bakerskul LLC, Kovel and Kovalchuk own 25% each).
The main difficulty was to find a professional confectioner. We needed not just a pro, but a person who could tell and teach others. “We found a super-cool girl, her Instagram at that time already had 50 thousand subscribers, and she successfully taught face-to-face master classes in one of the culinary studios in Moscow. But in the process of filming, it turned out that conducting “live” master classes and working on camera are far from the same thing. We filmed half a day and realized that it didn’t suit us,” Kovel recalls.
I had to urgently look for a replacement. A friend advised me to turn to the confectioner Maria Reshetnikova, a teacher in the first education. “Masha studied with Ivan Shishkin, the founder of the Delicatessen and Yunost cafes, which are popular among Muscovites. And even through the video she knew how to convey love for her work. As a result, we shot the first basic course - ten lessons of 1.5 hours each - with her, ”says Kovel.
It took the whole autumn to assemble and “pack” the material. As a result, the school was launched in December 2015 - the user could buy access to the entire cycle of video lessons on the Internet for 12 thousand rubles. or one lesson for 1.5 thousand rubles. The texts of the recipes and a description of the cooking process were attached to the video, in the comments to the lesson, you could ask your questions to Maria.
Instagram brought the first sales, at that time more than 12 thousand followers had already signed up for the Bakerschool account. Before the school was launched, fashionable urban and culinary publications wrote about it (Maria Reshetnikova's acquaintances helped). Sales fluctuated at the level of 150-200 thousand rubles. per month.
“For the first six months, we had problems with the site — there were a lot of technical problems, there weren’t many previously planned sections, tests, and a good chat,” recalls Maria Kovel. “We realized that with the money we invested, it was impossible to make such a cool site that we originally wanted.”
As a result, the entrepreneurs worked “near zero” – they gave 15% to a confectioner-teacher, paid a freelance developer who helped solve problems with the site, a lot of money was spent on the production of photo and video content for promotion in social networks. The production of one video course now costs 150-300 thousand rubles. At the same time, they did not spend money on office rent - they worked either from home or from a cafe. Kovel was in charge of marketing, and Kovalchuk was in charge of operational management.
Credit on Instagram
In June, it became clear that the current model of the school was not working, everything needed to be urgently redone - both the approach to learning and the sales system. “In fact, from the very start, we were more engaged in PR than building sales. It's time to correct mistakes, ”recalls Kovel.
We started by “moving” to a new site, laying out “landing” pages with our own hands, buying an account on an online learning platform, and hiring a sales manager. Previously, you could only buy a course, but now you can leave an application and make a decision after talking with the manager. This increased the conversion by several times. Girls began to experiment with marketing tools and set up contextual advertising.
And most importantly, now the courses were streaming and started on certain dates. It disciplines the students. The first group of 30 people launched on May 25, 2016. In order to answer the numerous questions of the students, the company formed a department of curators - according to the competition, they recruited professional confectioners for daily support. The school has three curators from Kazan and Stavropol, who from 9:00 to 22:00 "sit" in the chats of the Bakerschool school "VKontakte" and in instant messengers, promptly answering students' questions.
The basic course works like this: one week is allocated for one lesson, during which the student studies educational materials, recipes. Then he prepares the product for offset and posts it on Instagram with a certain hashtag by Friday-Saturday (both as a whole product and in a section - then the confectioner's mistakes are visible). After that, you need to pass another online test, and on Sunday go through a webinar with a teacher, a debriefing, and a discussion of errors. “The teacher pre-checks homework on Instagram and puts a “pass”, and sometimes doesn’t, asks to bake again,” Maria explains. It turned out that many students want a certificate, even if there is no question of any state model, and strict teachers discipline them.
From communication with students, it turned out that many of them take courses not for fun, but to earn money - after the courses they start selling desserts through Instagram or open their own establishments. One Russian girl opened a restaurant in Jamaica and even got into the local press - desserts on the island are not very good.
The approach worked: in the summer of 2016, Bakerschool sales increased to 700 thousand rubles. per month, and in January 2017, revenue exceeded one million rubles. Operating profit - about 200 thousand rubles. per month. Turnover per last year amounted to a total of about 7 million rubles, all operating profit was spent on filming new courses with new teachers.
Three courses from three teachers are now available at Bakerschool: a basic confectionery course (12,000 rubles), a business course “How to open a confectionery” (in two versions: for 13,000 rubles and 18,000 rubles) and a course on desserts for raw foodists Raw and Vegan (8 thousand rubles). Now the girls are shooting a few more courses - on gingerbread, chocolate and mousse cakes.
In total, 2,000 people bought courses during the existence of the school. According to Kovel, today the website traffic reaches 1,500 people per day, the main source of attracting customers is contextual advertising, in second place - word of mouth and Instagram. “The purchase of one client, who then pays for the course, costs us about 1.5 thousand rubles. It's expensive, ”Maria admits. But the school does not spend money on rent - a key cost item in the business of offline culinary schools.
Online or offline?
In what direction to develop further? Bakerschool competitors balance between online and offline. For example, the culinary school Chefshows by Novikov started in the winter of 2016 as an online project. “We contacted the chefs and invited them to record video lessons. It was a popular format for professional content, which is especially suitable for confectioners, since all the details are very important for desserts,” says Yulia Mitrovic, founder of the Chefshows by Novikov project. However, then Arkady Novikov joined the project, and the school began to conduct face-to-face courses. This allows you to attract a new audience and sell your services more expensively. “Our goal is to give people the opportunity to either learn how to cook from scratch or improve their skills with professional chefs,” says Mitrovic.
“An absolute plus of online schools for founders is the absence of daily operating costs for a large number participants, as students study at home, in their own kitchens, - says Maxim Katsev, CEO culinary studio Clever. - And most importantly, it is much easier for online schools to grow and scale, it is enough to correctly distribute advertising budget. While an offline school needs to open new sites for development. It is always difficult and expensive.”
On the other hand, an offline school can attract a completely different audience - these are people who not only want to learn how to cook, but come to courses for fun. “The purpose of an online lesson is to gain knowledge. A culinary master class is a different format, during which participants not only learn something, but also communicate live with the chef and with each other. This is a special atmosphere, dinner at the same table,” says Maxim.
The Moscow culinary school Culinaryon, founded by former Indesit top managers Alex Blanc, Giulio D "Erme and their partner Vera Sadovina, entered the Singapore market in November 2015. In Russia, according to Giulio D" Erme, corporate parties and parties in the culinary format The master class accounts for 85% of the school's revenue, but it turned out that in Singapore it is not customary to arrange large-scale private parties for friends. Usually the festivities are held in the family circle.
But other opportunities suddenly opened up: it turned out that the government of the city-state annually gives out $ 500 to the inhabitants of the country for education. You can spend them at least on photography courses, at least on master classes in playing the piano. As it turned out, many people are interested in learning how to cook. “We are now the #1 culinary school in Singapore for government classes,” says Giulio. The company plans to expand its activities around the world, next in line are Bucharest, Hong Kong, Australia, Thailand and Vietnam. Last year, Culinaryon hosted 3,000 events attended by almost 40,000 people.
The founders of Bakerschool also expect to start conducting offline master classes in 2017 - this is one of the most frequent requests from clients and additional opportunity earn.
We would like to thank SCHMIDT for their help with the survey.
Everyone can find a recipe on the World Wide Web, watch a video tutorial and follow the recommendations exactly, but there is no guarantee that it will turn out to cook a really tasty and beautiful delicacy, because it is impossible to become a chef remotely. There are many people in almost every city. different ages and professions who want to learn how to cook professionally. If you are dreaming of opening a cooking class for beginners, be sure you will find people willing to come and learn.
Cooking is not just a cooking process, but also a useful hobby, a unique opportunity to chat with friends or like-minded people, an area that develops along with programming, so you may not have time to learn all its subtleties even in a lifetime.
It is kinesthetic sensations, interactivity and variety in cooking that attract many people. Cooking courses certainly meet all the expectations of such enthusiasts.
In the West, they became popular entertainment and a way to organize leisure in the middle of the 20th century. TV shows, live cooking classes from world-famous chefs, a series of recipe books to suit all tastes and budgets, cooking schools different countries- all this was familiar to Americans and Europeans long before something similar arose in the post-Soviet space.
pioneers
For the first time in Russia, culinary courses appeared in the 90s of the last century, when the famous English chef and restaurateur Jamie Oliver once again came to Moscow in order to popularize healthy lifestyle life and homemade food.
After that, he visited the capital more than once, organized master classes, gave interviews, presented his books with recipes, and even opened a restaurant. His original idea was picked up by Russian entrepreneurs and chefs, thanks to which in large and small cities of the country you can easily find cooking courses and learn how to cook.
Demand creates supply
First of all, you should decide on the profile of culinary courses, because this is what the target audience will depend on, the specifics of which directly affect your income and risks. Naturally, in big cities, the demand for this type of education and leisure is greater, where you can think about unique and extraordinary courses that none of the competitors have yet offered to anyone.
In small towns, it is unlikely that the idea of opening courses in Brazilian or Indian cuisine will pay off, at the level of small settlements creativity in this regard is reduced to a minimum. In megacities, such exotics will be perceived with enthusiasm and interest.
Men and children are also involved
Cooking has long ceased to be a primordially female household chore. Now men are also showing great interest in cooking, who, as a rule, become the most famous chefs in the world. Some believe that even with fine work on confectionery they do better.
Cooking courses can just be designed for a specific group of people. For example, it is now fashionable to involve children in cooking, and to introduce older people to products and combinations of flavors that are unusual for them. The most popular modern trends are vegetarian dishes, cuisines of the world, food for weight loss and proper nutrition.
Legal nuances
Decor required documents and obtaining a license to open culinary courses is milestone which should not be postponed long box. If you want to sole legally own such a business, you first need to register an individual entrepreneurship.
If the idea of culinary courses belongs to more than one person, or you cannot do without the experience and support of partners, then the business is formalized as an LLC.
According to the documents, culinary courses will be listed as non-state educational institution. In this case, taxes are deducted according to a simplified system in the amount of 6% of profit.
You can obtain a license that officially allows you to conduct culinary courses at the Department of Education, where you need to come with the following documents:
- statement from the owner;
- statements about the founders, their documents and charter;
- certificate of registration in off-budget funds;
- a certified copy of the certificate of registration of the LLC;
- OKVED and certificate of tax registration;
- documents confirming the qualifications of teachers;
- Plan of the education;
- information about the room where the hens will be held;
- work permit from SES and fire protection;
- availability of the necessary literature corresponding to the training program.
Within a month, the request and the provided package of documents will be considered by the relevant commission. After this period, you will receive official permission or a refusal to conduct cooking courses. Documentation is necessary if you plan to provide paid permanent professional education to many people and give them authentic certificates.
If an individual entrepreneur draws up courses as a development center, then a license is not needed. This form of business corresponds to 2 types of OKVED code: 93.05 - personal services and 92.51 - institution club type. Taxation will be calculated according to the following scheme: 7% of net and 15% of total profit. This greatly reduces bookkeeping costs, but opening a bank account is mandatory. In addition, you need to conclude a contract for the removal of garbage.
Important! It is only possible to test such a business idea on a preferential basis. patent system taxation. It does not require accounting, but it will not work to make significant profits within its framework.
Room selection
An ideal place for conducting cooking classes would be an institution already equipped for cooking, for example, a cafe or restaurant. Most often, it is the owners of institutions who develop such business ideas. If you are not one, you can agree with the owner of the institution on cooperation, but in this case you will have to adapt to the schedule and workload of the restaurant or cafe.
You can also rent an abandoned buffet or dining room, but this is a more costly option in terms of finances, since most likely the premises will still have to be renovated. A powerful electrical network, ventilation and sewerage - this is what must be in the place chosen for the courses.
Important! It is best to be located in the city center, where, as a rule, a lot of people live and where it is convenient to get from other areas. Rent in the metropolis and small town significantly different in cost. Therefore, opening courses, for example, in a residential area of Moscow, may turn out to be more profitable than in its center.
Crockery and appliances
A professional kitchen requires a large investment in equipment for storing, cutting and preparing food. The minimum set of furniture for cooking classes includes tables and chairs, racks and shelves for a variety of ingredients. From dishes and other devices it will be impossible to do without cutting boards, knives, bowls, pots, several types of pans, a whisk, forks and spoons, spatulas, baking sheets.
From clothes professional chef and his students need aprons, caps or other headgear, fireproof mittens or potholders. The most expensive will be the acquisition of equipment, the basis of which in the kitchen is a refrigerator, freezer, stove and hood. For in-depth training, one cannot do without an oven and microwave oven, mixer, blender, food processor, ice cream maker.
The types and complexity of the equipment you will need will directly depend on the chosen direction of the culinary courses. For example, it is not advisable for children to be trusted to work on dangerous electrical appliances and a gas stove.
Attention! If you expect to train people with high quality and issue certificates to them, purchase only professional furniture, utensils and appliances in specialized stores. Respected chefs-teachers will not agree to work with equipment for home use, which can also lower your credibility in the eyes of competitors and customers.
People are the key to success
It is difficult to find an interesting person who would be both a good teacher and an experienced cook. It depends on him whether people will come to you for courses, whether they will recommend them to their friends, whether they will be glad to come to other culinary training programs.
The chef-teacher must not only pay attention to each student, but also present a boring theory in such a way that the lesson seems like a fascinating performance that one would definitely like to see more. Not every certified culinary specialist knows how to present knowledge vividly, express his own thoughts, attract the attention of students and find an approach to them.
As a rule, in megacities, where there are many well-known chefs and qualified personnel, there are no problems with the selection of personnel. It is more difficult to do this in small towns. If you want to open a Mexican cuisine course, you may not find a specialist and abandon this idea. You may have to prepare cooks for teaching courses yourself.
Promotion is a delicate matter
IN modern world There are dozens of ways to promote your business. Which one to use is your choice. The fastest and most effective is now considered to be promotion through social media, because not even a single newspaper in the world can boast of such a number of views as posts on Instagram or Facebook.
No less effective is contextual advertising, which often attracts the attention of the user of search engines. For a detailed acquaintance of those wishing with culinary courses, you can create a website where you can permanently and in the future free of charge post any information. Large banners, leaflets and flyers are the easiest and cheapest way to promote.
A more expensive, but less troublesome option is to sign an agreement with an advertising agency that will develop and implement a scheme to promote your business.
Long way to a millionaire
It is difficult to say how soon the investments will pay off and multiply, without having accurate calculations and not having decided on all the components of the business idea. Profits are influenced by the specifics of the courses, the location, the professionalism of teachers, and marketing moves. After all the preparations, plan a clear lesson plan.
There should be no more than 10 people in the group so that the chef has time to pay attention to everyone and answer their questions. Make the class schedule as convenient as possible for the students. Lessons are held both in the morning and in the evening. The duration of one lesson for mastering new material and practice is on average 3 hours.
Such meetings can be 3-4 per week. You determine their cost yourself, taking into account the costs and solvency of students. VIP clients can be offered individual lessons, and for an additional fee, a cook-teacher can visit the house.
Important! If you clearly and competently plan the costs and attract as many people as possible, then ideally in 3-4 months the first stable income will appear. For a larger city, this amount is at least 100,000 rubles, for a small city - 40,000 rubles.
Prospects and pitfalls
It is quite difficult to guarantee the profitability of a certain business, because there are too many factors that affect it. Like any type of activity, the idea of opening a cooking class has its advantages and disadvantages.
The advantages include:
- demand for mastering the basics of professional cooking;
- interest potential clients to communicate with famous chefs;
- a wide range of specific courses;
- high profitability;
- quick payback;
- the opportunity to take a leading position in the educational business.
Among the disadvantages that can interfere with your plans and significantly affect the level of income and the success of the idea are:
- the presence of a large initial capital;
- absence qualified chefs who are talented teachers;
- the scale of the city in which the courses will be held.
Food is not only edible and inedible, it can be amazing. It’s good if grandmothers shared culinary secrets, but their abilities can also be far from perfect. Why don't you open a culinary school and teach people how to cook properly and tasty?
Cooking has become the new kind leisure, combining several useful moments - communication, learning and a delicious dinner.
Back in the late nineties, the idea of a culinary school was brought to Russia by the famous chef Jamie Oliver. Now it has become fashionable to cook under the guidance of professional culinary specialists, and this concept continues to develop. Imperceptibly and quite naturally, cooking moved from the category of household chores to a form of leisure.
Cooking any dish in the company of friends under the supervision of a chef becomes a rewarding pastime. Such master classes allow not only to learn how to cook, but also to have a pleasant conversation. This explains the popularity of master classes in large companies that use them as one of the types of corporate recreation.
But if we digress from the entertaining nature of cooking courses and go down to earth, we need to recognize a simple truth - we all eat daily. I would like the food to be tasty, healthy and varied. The monotonous menu ceases to please as quickly as the constant listening to the same, even the most pleasant, melody. Quite infrequently, such a sad constancy is caused by financial difficulties, much more often people simply do not know how to cook. A true culinary talent is as rare as a musical talent. But everyone can learn how to cook tasty and healthy food.
To everyone's joy, Lately, especially in big cities, the situation is changing dramatically, thanks to the emergence of schools of culinary excellence, in which experienced chefs teach those who wish this timeless art.
Many people have attended some kind of training course at least once in their lives. Cooking courses work the same way. Teachers represented by experienced chefs share their experience and share their knowledge.
Building a culinary business
It is important that a cook teaching at a culinary school not only knows his craft perfectly, but also knows how to find an approach to each student. Often, even the most experienced professional is not able to convey his knowledge, because he does not know how to formulate his thoughts in an easy-to-understand form. However, this is a problem for everyone educational institution. Thus, the selection of teaching staff can be considered the most difficult task in organizing a culinary school. If you managed to find a sociable and highly professional teacher, consider that half the work is done and you can move on to the next organizational stage.
It is necessary to draw up a schedule of classes and determine the cost of training. The schedule should be convenient for everyone, so consider both morning and evening classes.
Price can be set for full course or in one lesson - decide for yourself. The price level directly depends on the qualifications and requests of the chefs who agreed to teach.
Typically, courses provide one-time and full training programs. One-time lasts about three hours, full - up to five days. The average cost of a one-time lesson is from 2.5 to 3 thousand rubles. 4-5-day programs cost from 25 to 50 thousand rubles. We give these figures only so that you can navigate the prices, you can set your own tariffs based on your own circumstances. General recommendation one - do not try to save on paying for the work of chefs-teachers, the success of your business depends on them.
The next stage is the formation study groups for 8-10 people. The smaller the group, the more effective the training will be in it. It is advisable to organize individual training, possibly with home visits. The price of such services, of course, is higher.
Be sure to find a suitable room and purchase equipment. The classroom should be comfortable for classes, and the equipment should be modern. You will need:
- large tables;
- ovens;
- hobs;
- refrigerators and freezers for food storage;
- cutlery;
- dishes;
- kitchen utensils.
It is very important to find reliable suppliers of the highest quality products and organize advertising campaign. Entrust informing the public about the newly opened culinary school to a well-established one advertising agency, whose specialists will be able to create an attractive image for your institution. Now you just need to wait for visits and calls from people who are interested in your services. Good luck.
Very few people have real culinary talent. That is why not everyone can cook delicious and exotic dishes.
Mostly culinary knowledge is drawn from books or from the advice of parents. However, learning culinary wisdom from books is a difficult task, and often uninteresting. much more entertaining and effective learning can give a private culinary school led by a competent professional teacher.
A private culinary school can be either an independent type of business or additional view business (in case the school has a functioning cafe and restaurant). To promote a culinary school on the World Wide Web, it is imperative to order your own website, especially since the cost of creating a website will be fully justified by new students who learn about the school from the Internet.
Directions in training can be different:
- General program. Studying the basics of culinary art, getting acquainted with the peculiarities of the cuisines of different countries;
- A program aimed at improving the skills of specialists in the culinary business;
- Program for teaching children.
Classes usually last several hours and are held 2-3 times a week. For maximum positive effect There should be no more than 10 people in a group. After all, then the cook-teacher will have the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and pay attention to each student.
Undoubtedly, the success of a culinary school depends on the skill and experience of the teacher, quality equipment and facilities. By the way, organizing a good team of cooks-teachers is quite difficult. The room should be comfortable, spacious and comfortable, equipped with the necessary equipment.
The cost of classes is affected by the location of the school, the city. Before setting a fixed price for training, it is necessary to take into account all costs: for renting a room, purchasing food, paying wages etc.
After all the calculations and analysis carried out, you get a favorable cost-to-profit ratio, you can safely proceed to opening a culinary school.
A culinary school, like any type of business, will need advertising company. Placement of advertisements on the Internet, printed publications attract an interested audience. Additional sources income can be classes on weekends for children and their parents, as well as the preparation and delivery of food for corporate clients.
Culinary schools will be especially relevant in major cities with a large number of people who want to learn how to cook deliciously and professionally. Given all the nuances, the school of culinary arts can be a very profitable and quite interesting business.
If you absolutely decided to open something of your own in the gastronomic field, be prepared for a number of problems.
The first is the similarity with others and the absence of one's own distinguishing feature. If you have even the slightest flaws in terms of the uniqueness of the project, drop this business.
How it was for us: in 2012, my business partner Giulio D’erme and I decided to open culinary studio, the basis of the business model of which would be thematic master classes for everyone. The main idea was that in our studio it would be possible not only to learn how to cook, but also to have fun in a good company. Such a new, non-trivial form of leisure. It's not like a restaurant, but you can eat. There were no such studios in Moscow. I think we succeeded in firmly occupying a niche in the market, because we abandoned the academic approach in the idea of culinary master classes.
Remember: if you are thinking about a new project and have not found clone businesses in this area as a result of monitoring the market, this is the first step towards success.
Sell a house - build a business
The second problem is the modest budget. This is the problem with many projects. Even with very original idea hardly anything can be done without funds. Incidentally, my business partner and I had to sell our own homes to meet the startup costs. Of course, we had a place to live, but the risk of losing property was still present.
Therefore, my advice is: try to build a business with partners, especially if you alone do not have enough resources.
Do detailed plan expenses - how much will it take to rent, how much to repair and form style and for advertising. Write down each ruble, as well as possible options savings.
Cost Saving Options
We did the interior design of the studio ourselves, it turned out cheaper and faster. Look at the websites of expensive design studios, read on the Internet about current trends, bypass the addresses of all competitors, and then come up with something of your own.
We saved over $50,000 on interior design. For the overall budget - a solid increase. And the feeling of own contribution to your business is completely different. In addition to money, you need to invest effort, all of yourself.
How to save on advertising? designate target audience, look for opinion leaders, try to prove to them what you really stand for. Demonstrate all the advantages of the project, and if it is really interesting to the public, then they will find out about it. So, for six months we organized master classes for opinion leaders, gastronomic critics and journalists for free. As a result, the spending was not as big as if we began to advertise ourselves in some standard way. Of course, we calculated the possible costs in advance.
For the first year, the company's income amounted to 90 million rubles. In 2014, we earned 165 million rubles. In the crisis year of 2015, we earned more than planned, and the turnover grew to 215 million rubles. In addition, in 2015 we went international with the opening of our second studio in Singapore. And in 2016 we plan to earn 300 million rubles.
