How to start a tiffin service in Hyderabad

What it costs to start

Running costs each month

Licences and registrations

• FSSAI Basic Registration

  Owned by: Operations & Money

  Mandatory for any food business under ₹12 lakh annual turnover. Apply on foscos.fssai.gov.in with an ID, an address proof and a passport photo. ₹100 a year, usually granted in 7–15 days. Print the certificate and put the number on your menu card — corporate subscribers will ask.

• GHMC Trade Licence

  Owned by: Operations & Money

  Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation requires a trade licence for a food business operating from a premises. For a home kitchen serving under 100 dabbas, most crews register once they cross ~₹15,000 a month. Apply through the GHMC citizen portal for your circle.

• GST registration

  Owned by: Operations & Money

  Not required until turnover crosses ₹20 lakh a year (₹40 lakh for goods, but food service counts as supply of service). At 60 subscribers you are near ₹21 lakh a year — plan to register in month 8–10. Corporate clients often insist on it earlier so they can claim input credit.

• Udyam (MSME) registration

  Owned by: Operations & Money

  Free, takes ten minutes on udyamregistration.gov.in with an Aadhaar. Not legally required, but it is what a bank asks for when you later want a working-capital loan.

Who does what, and what they earn

Shares are of revenue after costs, agreed in writing before the work starts.

• Kitchen Lead

  Cooks the daily menu and owns whether 60 dabbas taste the same on day 40 as on day 1.

  42 hrs/week

  35%

• Route & Delivery Lead

  Owns the bike, the route order, and getting every dabba delivered hot before 1 pm.

  25 hrs/week

  25%

• Subscriptions & Growth

  Signs new subscribers, runs the WhatsApp group, and chases renewals before they lapse.

  20 hrs/week

  25%

• Operations & Money

  Buys provisions, logs every rupee in and out, and pays the crew on the 1st.

  12 hrs/week

  15%

The six-week plan

1. Week 1

   1. Pick who eats your dabba

      Do not say "everyone". Pick one of three: office workers in a tech corridor (₹110–140 a meal, want punctuality and variety), students and hostellers (₹70–95, want quantity and low price), or a diet and home-food segment (₹180–220, want low oil and a calorie count). The office band is the easiest to reach in Kondapur, Madhapur and Gachibowli because 40 subscribers can sit inside three buildings. Write your choice down — every later decision depends on it.

   2. Map a catchment you can serve hot

      Draw a 5 km ring around the kitchen and refuse to leave it. Density beats spread: 30 dabbas across two office towers is a 40-minute route, while 30 dabbas across Kukatpally is a two-hour route and cold food by the end. Walk the buildings before you sell. Ask security whether a rider can go up to the floor or must hand over at the desk — that single answer changes each stop from two minutes to ten.

   3. Agree the split before you cook anything

      The Kitchen Lead carries the most hours and the most risk, which is why the suggested split gives them 35%. Decide now, in writing, what happens if someone stops showing up in month three — a 14-day notice and a clean exit is the default. Teams that skip this conversation lose their cook in week seven and have no agreement to fall back on.

2. Week 2

   1. Design a menu that survives repetition

      Your subscriber eats your food 26 times a month. Build a 14-day rotating cycle — two rice items, a dal, a dry curry, two rotis, a pickle and a sweet twice a week. Fix the cycle and print it. The single most common reason subscribers cancel in month two is not price or timing; it is that the food became predictable in a way that felt careless.

   2. Price the month, not the meal

      Work out the landed cost of one plate honestly: ingredients, packaging, gas, and the fuel to deliver it — usually ₹75–90 all in for the office band. List at ₹2,900–3,400 a month for 26 meals, which is ₹112–130 a meal. That leaves a 30–40% contribution margin, which is what pays four people. If you cannot make that margin work, your catchment is too spread out or your menu is too rich.

   3. Know your break-even in subscribers

      Add your monthly costs, divide by contribution per subscriber. At ₹3,000 a month and ₹40 contribution a meal, you break even around 28–32 subscribers and start paying the crew properly at 55–60. Write that number on the wall. It converts a vague "are we doing okay" into a countable thing the whole crew can see.

3. Week 3

   1. Register the food business

      Apply for FSSAI Basic Registration on foscos.fssai.gov.in before you take a rupee from a stranger. You need an ID proof, an address proof for the kitchen, and a photo. It is ₹100 a year and takes 7–15 days. Start the GHMC trade licence application in the same week — it is slower, and you want it in hand before you approach corporate clients.

   2. Run a paid pilot week

      Ten subscribers, one week, full price, no discount. A free trial teaches you nothing because people forgive food they did not pay for. Cook, pack, deliver, and record three numbers every day: what time the last dabba landed, what came back uneaten, and what each person said when the rider handed it over. Fix the route before you add a single new subscriber.

4. Week 4

   1. Sign your first forty subscribers

      Sales happen at the building, not on Instagram. Stand at the lobby at 12:30 with twenty sample boxes and a QR code that opens a WhatsApp chat. One-week trial at full price, monthly plan pitched on day four. Expect to convert 30–40% of people who taste the food, and close to nothing from people who only see a poster.

   2. Put the whole operation on WhatsApp

      One group per building for the daily menu, one broadcast list for renewals. Post tomorrow's menu by 8 pm — it is free marketing and it cuts "what is today's food" messages to zero. Take a photo of the packed dabbas each morning. Subscribers forward those photos to colleagues, and that is where roughly a third of your growth comes from.

5. Week 5

   1. Hold the route as volume grows

      Between 40 and 70 dabbas the route becomes the bottleneck, not the kitchen. Batch by building, not by subscriber. Fix a cut-off — anything not packed by 11:15 travels on the second run. If the last delivery drifts past 1:15 pm more than twice in a week, you need a second rider before you need more subscribers.

   2. Watch churn like it is the only number

      A tiffin service does not die from bad food; it dies from quiet non-renewal. At 10% monthly churn you replace 6 of 60 and grow. At 25% you replace 15 and stand still while working harder. Call every subscriber who does not renew and ask one question: what would have made you stay? Log the answers. The pattern shows up within a month.

6. Week 6

   1. Land one corporate account

      A 15–25 dabba standing order from one office is worth more than 25 individuals: one invoice, one drop point, one renewal conversation. Approach the admin or facilities manager, not employees. They will ask for your FSSAI number and a GST invoice — which is exactly why you registered in week three.

   2. Pay the crew and close the month honestly

      Log every rupee in and out, then run the split from the signed agreement — not from memory, and not from whoever argued hardest. Pay on a fixed date. The crews that survive past month six are the ones where everybody could see the same number on the same day, including the months when that number was disappointing.

Questions people ask

How much does it cost to start a tiffin service in Hyderabad?

Around ₹85,000–90,000 for a four-person crew cooking from a home kitchen: roughly ₹24,000 for vessels and a commercial burner, ₹21,000 for 70 insulated dabba sets, ₹4,500 for delivery bags, ₹100 for FSSAI registration, and about ₹34,000 as a first-month provisions float. The float is the part people forget — you buy a month of ingredients before you collect a month of subscription.

Do I need an FSSAI licence for a home tiffin service?

Yes. Any food business needs at least FSSAI Basic Registration, which costs ₹100 a year for turnover under ₹12 lakh and is granted in about 7–15 days through foscos.fssai.gov.in. Office and corporate subscribers routinely ask for the number before they sign up, so it is worth having before you start selling.

How many subscribers do I need to break even?

Around 28–32 subscribers at ₹3,000 a month covers ingredients, packaging, gas and fuel. A crew of four starts earning meaningfully at 55–60 subscribers, which is roughly ₹1,80,000 in monthly revenue and about ₹16,500 each after costs.

How far can I deliver and still keep the food hot?

Keep every subscriber inside a 5 km ring of the kitchen, and prefer density over distance. Thirty dabbas inside two office towers is a 40-minute route; thirty dabbas spread across a suburb is two hours and cold food at the end. If your last delivery regularly lands after 1:15 pm, add a rider before you add subscribers.

What do people actually split in a tiffin crew?

Revenue after costs, in fixed percentages agreed in writing before the first meal is cooked. A common shape is 35% to the Kitchen Lead, 25% each to the rider and the person selling subscriptions, and 15% to whoever buys provisions and keeps the books. Fixing this early is what stops the argument in month three.