Case Study: Home-based cooks

Taking the headache out of a home-based business

Automating admin allows home-based cook Amber more time to get creative in the kitchen.

Snapshot

Who: Cooked For You By Amber
Food business segment: Home Meal Business
Location: Melbourne, VIC

Amber’s successful home-based ready-made meals business, Cooked For You by Amber, transitioned to Cookaborough and realised the benefits immediately. Amber now enjoys new efficiencies in her business and more headspace for creative thinking.

Situation

Amber had run a successful home cooked meals business for 4 years, building a loyal local customer base who loved her approach to healthy weekly family meals. Despite the inbuilt efficiencies of the batch model (receiving weekly orders then cooking in bulk to fulfill them) she found that the busier she got, the more moving parts there were that took Amber away from the kitchen, and put her in front of the computer.

Solution

After discovering Cookaborough, Amber seamlessly transitioned her successful but operationally challenging home cooked meals business to our platform in just one week. She was thus able to make the efficient weekly batch model run like clockwork: giving her back invaluable time, making her customers happy, not losing any personal touch she had built over the years, and allowing her greater flexibility and visibility on her business.

Business Highlights

Less Time on Admin

Saving at least a day per week on admin, Amber has more time to spend in the kitchen, creatively devising new menus for customers.

Easier for Amber and her Customers

Not only did Cookaborough make Amber’s business more efficient, but the ordering platform and functionality was easier for her customers to navigate too.

Her Business, Simplified

Amber didn’t have to change the way she did business. She just needed to plug in her recipes and customer database - and let Cookaborough take care of the rest.

Business Growth

Before, Amber was so busy with admin she had to limit customer orders. Now, with all the complicated moving parts taken care of by Cookaborough, Amber is able to get more food to more people, dialing it up or down depending on other priorities in her life.

"Cookaborough feels like it was made just for me. All of the features I needed to help me are in one place. It has freed up time for me to spend on doing what I love which is being in the kitchen and cooking."

— Amber, Cooked For You By Amber

Key Features

A few features were of particularly high value to Cooked For You by Amber for keeping her loyal customers connected and streamlining her days.

Customer Management

The ability to invite people to connect through a simple sign-up process allowed an easy transition for customers to the new system. It was also imperative that Amber’s customers could continue to message her personally through the platform. She didn’t want to compromise the personal customer care she had invested in over the preceding years.

Shopping List Report

Stock requirements automatically calculated when orders are made was a big plus for Amber. This live shopping list was also a big help when Amber was getting a head start on ordering food.

Instant Payments

The integration of a payment system has meant that Amber receives instant payments without the hassle of reconciling which customers have paid and having to chase up customers who haven’t. For customers it’s now a much easier and professional system

Food Labels

Food labels are automatically generated when a recipe is entered or altered in the platform. Ingredient lists are compiled, allergens identified, Amber’s logo included, leaving room to add preparation or storage notes, nutrition panels, batch numbers and other details.

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