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Many people believe that one of the most reliable types of business is food related. After all, humanity will never stop eating, and therefore supplying stores or restaurants with food is a great way to develop your business. In this article we will talk about ways to make money from this type of food such as meat.

Ways to make money selling meat

So, a meat business is a type of income that can be obtained in three ways:

Market sales of meat products

First way. Simplest. You cooperate with suppliers of meat and offal, or with wholesale organizations. What is the simplicity? Yes, the fact is that you simply place an order for the goods, and they bring you ready-made meat, cut into pieces. You write names on price tags, depending on the type of animal, and sell ready-made goods.

The advantages of this meat business option are, firstly, that you do not take on extra obligations and unnecessary paperwork. All necessary documents, such as a veterinary certificate, are provided to you by the supplier. Plus, most suppliers accept returns if you did not manage to sell the goods, and subsequently use them for the production of semi-finished products or freeze them. The big disadvantage of this method is very low markups and profit only from high turnover. You will have to sell meat in very large quantities to make a good income.

This type of income is suitable for the owners of a small outlet in the market, where people can buy fresh meat in large quantities and at a reasonable price.

Butcher shop

Second way. In order to get higher profits, you can find meat suppliers who can give you the goods in meat carcasses. You cut up the carcasses yourself, package them for freezing or sell them chilled. Frozen meat is taken much worse, so it is best to sell it chilled first, and then turn it into minced meat, and freeze the bones immediately. If the minced meat has not yet been sold, then it can be frozen, but at a slight discount.

Also, you can expand the assortment and sell offal - sausages, sausages, smoked meats, as well as frozen meatballs and cutlets. In this case, this type of business can already be considered a separate butcher shop.

As you can see, there are many nuances to this option, but the markup is still higher than in the first one. And if the location of your store is quite good, the competition is not so strong and there are many regular customers, then you have nothing to fear.

Farming

And finally, the third way. You must be the owner of a small farm, i.e. you must raise livestock yourself. And also, they must independently engage in slaughtering livestock and cutting meat. Or hire a specially trained person for this.

And if we are talking about a more global business, which involves the production of semi-finished products and the delivery of meat and meat products to retail outlets, then you will need to take responsibility for maintaining all the necessary personnel. This type of business can be equated to both retail and wholesale trade. The main disadvantage is that for such production you will need quite a lot of start-up capital.

Remember also that in this case you will need to create your own small factory.

Choosing equipment

Equipment for selling meat must be selected very carefully, taking into account the technical and external characteristics. It is best to buy universal refrigerated display cases, i.e. those that can work at both positive and sub-zero temperatures. You will also need a chest freezer, scales and shelving for related products.

The location of the meat outlet depends on the type of meat product and the method of sale, and therefore it can be in markets, fairs, in a rented area in a grocery store, in a separate pavilion, and even in a small shopping center. But in any case, the place must be accessible and promising.

The salesperson who will work in your meat department must be honest, responsible and proactive. It's no secret that sellers love to weigh, and this is especially true for sellers of meat products. Their dowry may be higher than their salary. Therefore, in order not to lose regular customers, be sure to install check scales in your store, and if you do not rent the entire store, but only a small department, discuss this issue with the store administration.

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The meat business is one of the most profitable, but making a profit today is not an easy task. The competition here is also great. Not only making money selling meat wholesale, but simply surviving can be difficult. The meat market has undergone major changes in the last 3 years. Meat producers are trying to adapt to other parameters. Sanctions, import substitution, changes in the composition of importers and an unstable economy have caused a number of problems in business. Survival in these conditions requires new solutions from market participants.

Always be aware of the market situation

The meat industry, despite the difficulties, maintains relative stability, growth and investment attractiveness. Recent trends have caused difficulties in the meat sector:

· decrease in the solvency of the population;

· market saturation;

· changes in wholesale and retail prices;

· demand for “new meat”;

· problems with sales.

Meat producers also have a hard time:

· difficulties in finding regular suppliers of quality raw materials,

· overestimation of prices by resellers,

· rising prices for imported ingredients,

· problem with the sale of the product;

· Tough competition.

When working in this area, you should always keep your finger on the pulse, take into account all the difficulties that you may encounter, and think through ways to solve them.

What will be more profitable today in selling meat?

The import substitution policy and distortions in the import of certain types of meat have led to market saturation. Supply has exceeded demand, and imports are not decreasing. A possible solution for companies could be to export meat to other countries. This can bring good income, and the competition here among domestic enterprises is not so great.

It should also be taken into account that fierce competition and financial difficulties provoke the consolidation of assets and the consolidation of enterprises. Smaller companies cannot withstand the pressure and leave the market. It may be worth merging with a larger player on favorable terms.

Today, integrated production is not only fashionable but also profitable to reduce costs in the production chain. Enterprises that include all cycles from farm to fork reduce costs and increase profits significantly. Moreover, it becomes easier to control all cycles, the process becomes more transparent.

The most popular meats today are poultry and pork. By focusing on these types of meat, you can guarantee that there will definitely be buyers; all that remains is the attractive price. One should take into account the new trend of demand for “new meat”: these are various chilled semi-finished products. It might be worth considering developing the latest brands in this area.

Buying meat in bulk can be easier

To find a meat supplier, you can work with peasant farms and individual entrepreneurs. It’s easier to negotiate with them, but finding them can be difficult. They often post little information about themselves online or in print. Another problem may be resellers. Meat processing plants have to work with intermediaries, who inflate costs. Meat producers have to hand over raw materials to resellers for ridiculous money, since they themselves cannot market themselves. Today, problems with finding a supplier and implementation can be solved by modern technologies. There is no need to waste resources on participating in exhibitions, collecting information from various sources, or knocking on the doorsteps of chain stores. B 2B services for food businesses have moved everything online. Interactive platforms have been created where you can virtually participate in the exhibition, offer your product for export, contact a buyer of a retail chain, find a reliable supplier, study the assortment, demand, prices for any meat, documents and company recommendations. You can easily use, for example, an online wholesale trading platform such as market-fmcg.ru. By saving time and search costs, you can quickly find the offer you need and immediately contact us through direct contacts. And savings will only increase profits.

In any business you need to live today and now, use all available tools and technologies. And this will certainly bear fruit soon enough!

Good luck in business!

In Rus', until the 17th century, bulls and cows were concentrated on peasant farmsteads and not systematized. It was only under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich that the highest decree was issued on the acquisition of breeding animals abroad, and cattle breeding experienced its rebirth.

Beef classification

Based on morphological and organoleptic characteristics, beef is divided into:

• according to the age;
• by fatness;
• by gender.
• Depending on the age of the animals, meat is classified:
• from 14 days to 3 months - calves;
• from 3 months to 3 years – young animals;
• over 3 years – beef from adult animals.

Before you buy beef meat in bulk, you should understand for what purposes it will be used. One of the main indicators of meat quality is fatness, which is characterized by muscle development and the presence of fat:

• Category I beef includes carcasses with well-developed muscles and significant fat deposits in the tail, back and upper thighs.
• Category II includes carcasses with underdeveloped muscle tissue, the presence of depressions in the thigh area and a small amount of fat in the back of the carcass.

Therefore, if there is a need to buy beef in bulk, you should definitely ask the supplier for a veterinary certificate indicating the category of meat.

Types of thermal state of meat

Before sale, meat undergoes certain processing and is sold in the following thermal state:

You can buy meat in any thermal state, except for fresh, since unprocessed beef is allowed only for personal consumption on individual farms.

Meat storage

When giving the request: “I will buy beef meat wholesale, Moscow,” you should think about its further storage.

The basic rules are:

• chilled half-carcasses must be suspended in refrigerators at a distance of at least 5 cm from each other;
• frozen products can be stored in stacks on pallets;
• during long-term storage of frozen products, the temperature of the refrigerator compartment should not be higher than -180C;

If you want to purchase beef in a chilled or cooled state, remember that it must be in the positive chamber at a temperature of 0 to 40C.

Meat marking

Pre-sale preparation includes a mandatory veterinary examination, the results of which are reflected in the form of carcass branding. A product released for use for food purposes without restrictions is accompanied by an oval stamp measuring 40x60. When purchasing, such a mark certifies that the meat does not require additional examination. A rectangular stamp indicates that the animals underwent pre-mortem inspection and were kept in farms that are not susceptible to quarantine diseases. That is, this meat is safe for use. However, if you decide to purchase beef for subsequent retail sale, you should undergo an additional veterinary and sanitary examination.

Our company sells high-quality meat throughout Russia and works on an ongoing basis with leading domestic farms. All products are certified. We are responsible for the quality of all products. MTK is a reliable partner for those who count on long-term cooperation on the most favorable terms.

Any business should start by studying the demand for the products that you plan to offer to customers. Find out what prices and operating features of your competitors are, think over a strategy, unique offers and write a real business plan taking into account possible risks.

Select direction:

• What types of meat?
• Only fresh or cooking.
• Additional services.

Find a reliable supplier. A lot depends on this.

Main risks

High competition in this type of business is one of the main risks. Consider a pricing strategy that will allow you to achieve a decent return on investment and attract customers.

For the meat trade, there is a noticeable presence of seasonality. In the summer, especially on hot days, millet fall cannot be avoided. Also, meat consumption is reduced during fasting. You should prepare for these periods. Buy smaller volumes of meat, change the assortment, reduce cutting, offer discounts, cooperate more actively with cafes and restaurants.

Fresh meat has a very short shelf life. It is strictly forbidden to sell an expired product. Try to establish additional production of semi-finished products from meat that you do not have time to sell.

“Step-by-step instructions on how to open a business selling meat”

Location

The standard option is a location in or near a farmer's market. This is where the greatest concentration of potential customers who come to purchase products is. Look for an area where there are few butcher shops or where there is no meat pavilion at the market.

Residential areas are also suitable if there are no competitors nearby or the range of stores differs from the one you plan to offer. Look for places with a large flow of people, near bus or metro stops. The premises must comply with sanitary standards; when working with food, the rules are especially strict.

You can start by organizing a retail space in a grocery store. The minimum area for such a retail outlet is 6 m². When concluding a joint business agreement with the store administration, it becomes possible to save money on the purchase of equipment, but you are required to provide the administration with financial statements.

Rent of retail space depending on the circumstances

Before buying or renting a premises, find out the sanitary requirements:

• Check the proposed property for compliance with regulations.
• Find out how much the redevelopment will cost. There is a high probability that you will have to completely change the sewerage and electrical wiring.

As practice shows, Russian residents are not particularly sensitive to the chic design of meat shops. Expensive design is not necessary. What is really important for the country's residents is the price of meat.

When choosing premises for a butcher shop, do not pursue prestige. Pay attention to sanitary aspects. Check drains and sewers. Stagnation of blood in the pipes will create an unbearable odor that will scare off buyers.

Equipment

Minimum set of equipment:

1. Refrigerators
2. Freezer Counter ($2,000)
3. Cash register (about $90)
4. Quality scales ($50)
5. Electric Meat Grinder ($450)
6. Cutting table, chopping block, axes and knives made of high quality steel

In general, you can expect to pay around $3,000. If your meat supplier doesn't deliver, add about $300 in shipping costs.

Try to organize the space so that there is a sink near the counter. If at the first stage there are not enough funds, you can refuse cutting equipment and tools and agree on cutting with the supplier. You can also save money by purchasing used equipment.

Spare no expense on a bright and beautiful sign. If positioned correctly, it will become not only a decoration, but also an effective advertisement.

Personnel

To get started, a salesperson and an experienced butcher are enough. If you plan to work in two shifts, hire four people.

Pay special attention to your choice of butcher. Improper cutting of meat leads to very large financial losses.

If the meat is cut by a supplier, only two salespeople may be hired initially.

For a small butcher shop, it is not advisable to hire cleaners, security guards, and an accountant. And in the future, with expansion, it is more profitable to outsource related functions.

Documents and licenses

Having collected the standard package of documents for opening a food retail enterprise, you can register an LLC or individual entrepreneur. Working with a cash register requires registering it with the tax office.

If you plan to produce semi-finished products or other meat products and sell them at the place of production, you will need a sanitary and epidemiological certificate from Rospotrebnadzor. Scheduled inspections are carried out every 3 years or upon complaint.

Licenses are not required to trade food products. The only exception is the sale of alcoholic beverages.

Assortment and purchasing rules

When starting a business, do not chase large volumes and assortment. Unsold goods will cause significant losses. Limit yourself to 20-30 titles. Think about selling related products: fish, bread, sauces, groceries, juices, oils and other products. This will help you survive seasonal downturns in purchasing activity without much damage.

The main and most dangerous enemies of the meat business are unscrupulous suppliers and stale meat. Regardless of the circumstances, always control purchases and check quality. Check certificates, the presence of a mark, learn to determine the quality of meat by other parameters. It is necessary to purchase fresh meat at least once a week.

Marketing

For a grocery store, the most effective advertising methods are the old and well-known methods:

1. Posting notices near entrances works better than mailing. Do not stop at general information, indicate prices and directions in advertisements
2. Organize promotions and actively inform potential customers about discounts.
3. Stretching over the road in the immediate vicinity of the store, a sign, signs, pillars are the main ways to attract customers.

Do not limit yourself to the standard assortment and offer exclusive meat products: turkey, rabbit meat, lamb. Regularly conduct customer surveys and consult with them on how to improve your service. Be sure to take into account the wishes of customers, especially if they express themselves in a dissatisfied tone in line.

Organize reward programs for regular customers. Offer savings cards, exchange bonuses for discounts or the opportunity to receive goods for free. This system works especially effectively in grocery stores.

Summary

Despite its apparent simplicity, the meat business is distinguished by the presence of an incredible number of professional secrets. Achieving success and expanding the chain of stores is possible only with the comprehension of all the intricacies. You will not be able to effectively manage this business if you do not thoroughly know the rules of carcass cutting, the entire processing chain, and methods for increasing profitability.

Don’t give up on innovative technologies and automation - they will help you avoid theft, identify unscrupulous employees and reward the best workers.

Competition in this area is very high, but high-quality stores with exemplary service are still few and far between. Try to provide customers with ideal service, offer new types of meat and products, create production based on unique recipes - and your business from a small butcher shop will grow into a real empire with branches in every city in the country.

Franchises

On the franchise market we found a butcher shop franchise - " "

Business in Russia. Guides to starting a business in the regions.
700,000 entrepreneurs in the country trust us

* The calculations use average data for Russia

600,000 ₽

Minimum starting capital

8 %

Profitability

22 months

Payback period

74,500 ₽

Profit per month

Having your own meat store is an attractive, exciting, but very complex business that requires the constant participation of the entrepreneur in all processes. Where to start opening a butcher shop and what are the most basic steps to take?

Many aspiring entrepreneurs are thinking about opening a butcher shop. There are several reasons for the external attractiveness of this business. The first lies in the product itself. Meat is a consumer product. Meat is always in demand by buyers; it has been and will be bought even in a crisis. The meat trade is, as a rule, a very lively and lively business, there is a large flow of buyers, it is a kind of drive. Moreover, the seller has the opportunity to increase his profit by producing and selling semi-finished products, sausages, dumplings, etc. Even if a large retail chain appears in the neighborhood - “the death grim” for any grocery store, a butcher shop can not only stay afloat, but also thrive due to the ability to vary the assortment and offer customers fresh and unique products that cannot be found in the supermarket.

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Secondly, you can enter the meat trade with small investments (from 600 thousand rubles for a small point). It does not require large areas and expensive equipment, as, for example, in a restaurant or canteen. Even in case of failure, a ready-made business and its products can be easily sold, avoiding serious financial losses. The entrepreneur does not require any strict formalities - you can sell meat without a license and the need to obtain product certificates.

Where to start opening a meat business? After analyzing the advice of practical entrepreneurs, you can derive a whole chain of actions that should lead to success in this type of business. Please note that the division into steps should not be taken as a strictly regulated guide to action, since many stages must be carried out in parallel.

Step 1. Do I want to open a butcher shop?

Before you start opening a business selling meat, firstly, you need to think about whether you really need it. Experienced entrepreneurs who have made a name for themselves in this industry emphasize that people who come into the meat business are divided into accidental ones, that is, those who, having looked through all possible ways of earning money, by chance settled on selling meat, and those who for some reason for some reason I felt this activity was my own, I had some personal incentive to do it. For example, a person was not satisfied with the quality of meat sold in city markets, or he felt a desire to develop in an industry familiar to him (for example, raising pigs or calves and then selling them profitably). Well, or I was looking for a new outlet for my talent as a butcher cook or barbecue cook, when my heart is drawn to all things meat...

The point is that if in the first case there is a high probability of becoming emotionally burned out from doing something that is not your own, then in the second case the chances of success are noticeably higher, since a person initially has immunity to failures, losses and other adversities. But the main difference between “non-random” and “random” people in the meat trade is not even this. The main thing is knowledge, or at least a clear understanding of the specifics of working with meat on the one hand, and ignorance of these features on others. And the difference between the first and second will begin to appear from the very first minutes of work, as soon as a “random” person discovers that the pieces of beef that he stacked not in a row, but on top of each other, for some reason turned green. Or when he suddenly realizes that he has absolutely no idea what to do with meat that has not been sold for several days. And one hundred and one more nuances. Simply put, a successful meat selling business (like any other business in general) begins with a love for meat, a clearly understood and partly hard-won task, goal, mission. If in your case it all started with something else, then you should ask yourself this question directly again: “Do I want to open a butcher shop?

Step 2: Analyze your local market

If the answer to this question is yes, then the first thing you should do is conduct a local market analysis. First, you need to find out what kind of meat people want to see and at what price, who sells this meat, who brings it and who buys it. There is no need to waste time spent collecting information - in practice, it pays off many times over due to errors prevented. You should have a complete picture in your head about current competitors, prices, possible obstacles and ways to respond to certain events. The key task at this stage is to mentally fit yourself and your future store into the existing picture. Moreover, after analyzing the situation, sometimes you have to abandon the initial ideas that seemed brilliant. For example, when it suddenly turns out that rabbit meat, horse meat or lamb in a particular region is not needed by anyone for nothing - simply because it has happened historically and the tastes of the population are different.

Step 3. Determine the assortment, calculate the markup and profit

After you analyze the market, you will have a more or less clear picture of what you want to trade and what kind of turnover we are talking about. The strategic issue is finding a supplier. You will need to find affordable meat that is of excellent quality. The catch is that no one will ever say that their meat is of poor quality - everyone always sells only “good” and “best”. Much at this stage will depend on how you have analyzed the market. You need to get out of your comfort zone: communicate with buyers, sellers, suppliers, farmers and draw conclusions. At the same time, as a rule, you cannot find a wide range of prices within one city or region. The difference will be no more than 10%. In a word, digging on the surface, the advantages and disadvantages of this or that proposal are almost impossible to discern. There is no universal remedy in this matter - you need to search and negotiate yourself, travel, look, call, and so on.

At this stage, you also need to draw up a rough financial plan, which you should focus on in the future. There is one difficulty here - compared to other types of business, the pricing system in meat sales is quite complex. It depends not only on purchase prices, the purchasing power of customers, the entrepreneur’s fixed expenses, competitors’ prices and other traditional factors, but also on the characteristics of cutting and drying the supplied products. Once in a store, one carcass can be sold into dozens of positions, and each one must be assigned its own adequate, but at the same time profitable price. The way of calculations here is complex, scrupulous and lengthy, and you have to do them constantly, since you may need to change the cut, the supplier may suddenly raise prices, and the client may order a non-standard piece. At the same time, with a thoughtless approach, there is a real risk of not only losing some amount of profit, but also losing it altogether. Therefore, it is best to use automated electronic services for meat stores to select prices, which allow you to quickly make calculations using ready-made algorithms. It would also be wise to make such calculations at the very beginning, choosing the most acceptable wholesale price, and only then look for a supplier based on it.

The markup on meat in general on the market is quite low because buyers are very cost sensitive. The reaction to any price increase is extremely painful - they simply stop buying meat, switching to cheaper products. Therefore, markups in meat stores almost never exceed 20-30%, and the entrepreneur’s profit consists mainly of the number of sales. Of course, the markup varies depending on the type of meat. For example, for pork it can be 40%, and for semi-finished products it can reach 60-100%, but on average it is the same 20-30%. Much in the matter of pricing will depend on the region - in those regions of Russia that do not have large enterprises or farms nearby, meat prices are much higher. When making calculations, also do not forget to take into account product damage - at the very beginning, losses are unlikely to be avoided.

Step 4. Find a suitable premises for the purpose

The step on which 90% of the success of a meat store depends is the correct location and premises. It is extremely important that the butcher shop is located in a walk-through location - profits in this type of business come mainly from sales volumes, and not from markups. When choosing a location, experienced entrepreneurs recommend spending a day or two and personally counting the pedestrian traffic. The minimum traffic volume for a working day is about 2000 people. Of the resulting number, about 2-3% may become store buyers. This data can be used when planning revenue and net profit.

As a rule, meat shops do not require a large area: even 90 and 100 square meters. meters is a lot, the rent will be too large and unaffordable. For starters, 10-25 square meters may be enough. meters, the optimal area is about 30-40 square meters. The cost of renting such premises may, depending on various factors, vary from 15 to 120 thousand rubles. In Table 1 we presented the average rental cost according to the Avito website for Russian cities with different numbers of residents. Data is current as of September 2017.

Table 1. Average rent for retail premises 25-60 sq. m. meters in Russian cities*

*according to the Avito website as of September 2017

Looking ahead, we will say that expensive renovations are not required for meat stores: the specifics of the business are such that customers, in principle, do not care about the design of the premises. There are no interior requirements like those of kitchen showrooms or catering establishments. The main criteria are store visibility and traffic. Of course, sewerage and toilet, water supply and washing are necessary. There are some other points to consider as well. For example, the room would benefit from wide doorways for unloading incoming products.

Step 5: Settle Legal Issues

Since the process of finding a suitable premises can take more than one month, from the point of view of economy it will be more profitable to register a business after there is a preliminary agreement with the supplier and a location has been selected. However, in order to conclude a lease agreement, it is already necessary to have at least an individual entrepreneur. For a small butcher shop, an individual entrepreneur is quite enough, and as a form of taxation, the so-called simplified taxation (6% of income) or UTII, the amount of tax in which is constant and tied to the area, is suitable. An individual entrepreneur is registered within three days, the state duty is 800 rubles.

The premises for selling meat, like the meat itself, must meet certain standards. An entrepreneur does not need to obtain any licenses, but some issues need to be resolved. Issues with fire safety and SES most often bypass tenants. The owners of the premises, as a rule, already have the appropriate permits. After opening a store within a month, it is necessary to notify Rospotrebnadzor about the start of trading activities. But the main thing you will need is certificates for meat and veterinary form for meat No. 4. The supplier must provide them, so the problem is solved by selecting a good supplier. You should also not forget about the consumer corner with a book of complaints and suggestions, and that employees must have health records.

According to the experience of practitioners, many of the standards imposed on meat shops are not always feasible in reality. For example, it is not always possible to arrange two entrances to the premises or regularly obtain veterinary certificates for products from the supplier. Issues are usually resolved with a veterinary inspector who periodically visits the store. In general, to ensure the satisfaction of inspectors, the room must have good ventilation, proper finishes that can be washed, the cutting deck must be installed correctly, and staff must have uniforms and gloves. In practice, no one usually requires fanatical adherence to legal norms.

Step 6. Purchase equipment

As a minimum set, you will need equipment for cutting, storage and display. The first category will include a cutting table, cutting block, knives, axes, hooks, etc., about 15-20 thousand rubles will be spent on these purposes. Also, a butcher shop cannot do without a band saw - it will increase productivity, work with frozen products and increase the quality of cutting. A saw is the most expensive equipment among the minimum required. Prices can exceed 80-100 thousand rubles, which discourages many entrepreneurs from starting a business. Here you can consider the option of used or ordering equipment from China - costs can be reduced by 1.5-2 times. It is not recommended to completely abandon the band saw - otherwise there will be a great connection to the butcher’s skills, and many product items will simply need to be abandoned.

To store and display fresh meat you will need a closed refrigerated display case. The cost of one such 1.5-meter showcase starts from 30 thousand rubles. You also need at least one chest freezer; prices for them start from 15 thousand rubles. For recycling, you must definitely purchase a meat grinder for preparing semi-finished products, for example, minced meat, all kinds of rolls, cutlets, dumplings and other things. Usually, professional meat grinders are purchased for meat shops, costing from 20 thousand rubles, but if funds do not allow, then a couple of ordinary household ones may be enough for a small store to begin with. You should also consider the cost of lamps. It's no secret that the quality of lighting directly affects sales volume. The store will also need scales, trays, uniforms for employees and other small items.

Thus, the required minimum equipment for a butcher shop will require 200-250 thousand rubles. Entrepreneurs with experience in the meat business advise that when choosing and purchasing equipment, it is necessary not to attach excessive importance to it - the assortment should come first in importance. So consider your savings options. To begin with, it is quite reasonable to buy used equipment. If you're lucky, you can find good quality equipment with a good discount of up to 50-70%. Many shops, restaurants, cafes are either closing, moving, or replacing equipment with newer ones, etc., so there will always be ways to save money if you look hard enough.

Step 7. Select staff

The key employee of a butcher shop is, of course, the butcher. Moreover, this should not be just a butcher-seller, but a butcher-cutter with knowledge of “store-bought” cutting. Without knowing the principles of such cutting, you can lose up to 25 kg of meat from each carcass. Even if the supplier is cutting the meat, this skill is necessary, since in the butcher shop there is always something to trim, prepare, mince, and so on. Here, entrepreneurs usually choose one of two strategies - some spend time and money searching for an ideal specialist with experience, others teach young people the necessary skills on their own. It is clear that not everyone can afford the first option; moreover, dependence on the skills of a hewer creates some lack of freedom and fetters the hands of the entrepreneur. For the second option, and generally ideally, the entrepreneur himself knows the entire meat kitchen from the inside and has all the necessary skills.

If we talk about the role of the entrepreneur himself, then he, of course, can independently act as a hewer, a seller, or as their replacement, especially if we are talking about a small point and the very start of a business. However, in any case, it should not be indispensable. In an optimal situation, the entrepreneur plays the role of manager, only occasionally monitoring employees, and is involved in promotion and strategic planning. All other responsibilities not directly related to making a profit - accounting, security, etc. - are transferred to freelance specialists.

Ready ideas for your business

How much should store employees be paid? There is no clear answer here: there are too many variable factors that depend on the financial capabilities of the business, the experience and skills of the staff, work schedule, etc. At the same time, there are some guidelines that can be taken as a basis when estimating future expenditure items. Table 2 shows the average salary of butchers as of September 2017, derived from an analysis of advertisements on the Avito website.

Table 2. Average salary by profession butcher in Russian cities*

*based on data from the Avito website as of September 2017

An important point is the identity of the butcher shop seller. This person must not only be well versed in meat, people must like him. The flow of buyers in this business is large, so you need to be as patient, polite as possible, and be able to interest them and tell them about the meat.

Step 8. Take care of promoting your butcher shop

There are passive and active methods of promoting clients. Passive methods include such mandatory things as store signs, pillars and advertising signs. To the active - everything else. The meat trade is not a business that will tolerate a big advertising campaign. Here it is more important not to make a splash throughout the country or city, but to be known in your area. That is, the most effective are low-budget local advertising methods - posting advertisements, distributing leaflets and flyers, the least effective are expensive television advertising. It is best to focus on the distance in the immediate vicinity of the store, namely within a radius of 800 meters. It is best to post advertisements at entrances and in elevators, where they can be read several times. In general, the meat market is a fairly traditional market, so standing out among competitors through advertising is not as difficult as it might seem at first.

The Internet can also be used to sell meat, but it is better to focus on individual tasks of the store - for example, to find new customers and markets. It is most advisable to create your own website if the store already has some significant competitive advantage. For a small point that practically does not stand out in any way, a website can only do harm, deceiving the client’s expectations and distracting the entrepreneur from more important tasks. At the same time, even a small retail outlet must be present in 2Gis, Yandex.Maps and Google Maps. Social networks are almost irrelevant in this type of business and require extra effort to maintain activity in them. Of course, the biggest, underwater part of the iceberg is word of mouth. It is thanks to the recommendations of other people that the flow is ensured that no other type of advertising will provide the store. And word of mouth, as you know, is mainly based on product quality. Also, don’t forget to follow trends in the meat industry and business ideas from foreign meat stores; sometimes something worthwhile appears among a sea of ​​junk.

Step 9. Become “one of the guys” for the buyer

From the very first days, a meat store should strive to win over its customers and become profitable within the first month. If you couldn’t make a profit even in the second month of work, this is a reason to sound the alarm. This means that one of the previous steps was completed with errors: the wrong location was chosen, the wrong seller, the wrong assortment, pricing policy, and so on. It is extremely important that the buyer sees as much fresh, tasty meat on the counter from the very beginning and wants to come back. Trying to trade with half-empty storefronts is a recipe for early failure. Even with the most conservative estimates, to cover expenses per month, you will have to sell almost 3.5 tons of meat with a 30% markup. Since meat is a perishable product and lives for 1-2 days, purchases will have to be made constantly or every other day. Moreover, if you sell stale meat at least once, the bad reputation of the new store can spread instantly.

Ready ideas for your business

It should also be remembered that buyers appreciate consistency. It is important here to know and master the principles of cutting meat from the very beginning. Experiments with cutting, when a new piece appears on the counter every day, are completely useless. We need to try so that the buyer is confident that tomorrow and in a month he will be able to buy exactly the same meat and the same quality that he bought today. Of course, you can negotiate with the supplier so that he cuts the meat in his workshop himself, but practice shows that this option will not bring success.

We must not forget about the seasonality factor in the meat trade - we need to build a response strategy in advance. This factor is most noticeably felt in the summer, when there is a general drop in demand for meat products. During this period, store owners purchase smaller volumes of meat, reduce cutting, and redistribute their assortment. A profitable direction for this period is the sale of kebabs and barbecues, active cooperation with cafes and restaurants. Many butcher shop owners manage to not only mitigate the effects of the season, but also earn more during the off-season than during the season. The main thing is to feel the buyer’s needs and respond to them promptly.

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