The humble pretzel. Soft, fluffy and chewy — America’s most beloved snack is experiencing a huge comeback this year. With sourdough making it to the list of top food trends this year, the soft pretzel, traditionally made from sourdough itself, is again catching the attention of foodies everywhere. If you’re passionate about food and are looking for a business to invest in this year, a soft pretzel business may just be the perfect fit for you.
While not necessarily on top of every enterprising person’s mind, soft pretzels do make a sound business idea. The overhead cost is cheap, plus, as a breakfast food, pretzels are pretty much in demand. Many pretzel businesses have, in fact, sprouted across America for this reason, and those located in high-traffic areas especially do well. Some new franchises, for instance, have sales to investment ratio of 2 to 1 and have raked in sales of at least $1 million. A considerable number of these pretzel businesses are franchises and benefit from seasoned investors and business mentors.
Here are more reasons showing that pretzels should be your next business venture:
1. Soft pretzels are easy to make.
Whether you’re developing your own recipes or not, pretzels are ridiculously easy to make. There are hundreds of recipes available online that you can perfect and tweak to your liking, or you can simply adopt grandma’s recipe. Most importantly, you don’t have to think long and hard on which area to specialize in. You can choose traditional soft pretzels as your forte, or experiment a bit with non-traditional and trendy options (or, you can offer both).
2. Your margins are incredibly low.
According to Franchise Pundit, a leading website on business franchising in the United States, running a soft pretzel shop will not cost you much, as compared to your typical all-day dessert cafe. The raw materials are cheap, and you can make pretzels using kitchen equipment you already own, such as your family’s bread machine or oven. If your soft pretzel shop is a franchise, you will also receive actionable plans and advice from your franchisor of how to further keep your costs down, specifically with your equipment choice and maintenance, human resources and marketing initiatives.
3. You can choose to start small.
If money is tight at the outset, you don’t have to have a physical soft pretzel shop at all to make it in this business. You can operate from your own kitchen, and just set up a website or social media page from where you can receive orders from your customers. To amplify your business reach and for your customers’ convenience, offer door-to-door delivery services such as Grab Food or UberEats. You can also opt to hire a freelance delivery person for breakfast home deliveries.
Entering the cakes and pastries business is a tricky thing. Without the business savvy of experienced entrepreneurs, it will definitely be challenging to break into the industry. However, by sticking to a simple, time-tested product, you are reducing your risks of failure. With a soft pretzel shop franchise, you are limiting your entrepreneurial risks, while putting out a beloved food product for your local community.