Business Idea: Start a Morning Catering Service

I've always had this dream of starting an old-style coffee house with shelf after shelf of freely browsable books and ... well, it's a big dream and too closely resembles what some of the corporate bookstores are doing now anyways. But the idea got me to thinking about other ways that coffee (yes, I'm addicted - I even grow my own Arabica coffee plants) could be the base behind a business. Preferrably something that isn't overdone.

Doing a free association exercise, I quickly paired coffee with that morning ritual so many of us go through the moment we hit our office: head to the coffee counter and fuel up. Sometimes we're lucky and the coffee's already made - if we get really lucky, someone will have been kind enough to bring in a few pastries. Always nice when we've made it through rush hour traffic only to remember the thing we neglected in morning preparations - breakfast.

Seemed logical that it all clicked for me then - a small business owner could provide these things in a very cost-effective way.

Setting Up The Catering Service

With this type of service, you would essentially be providing a daily "menu" that is delivered to the offices and other businesses that have ordered your help. Ideally, you would set up your delivery contract on a weekly or monthly basis, scheduling what days and times your deliveries of piping hot goodies would arrive.

So how would you go about setting this type of business up? Here's the steps:

1. Business License and Tax Info - Before you do anything else, save yourself a lot of hassle by securing your business name and setting up your tax license right away.