What's a Good Business for Trinidad?

Question

I am going back to Trinidad in about 3 months and I am looking to start a business there, To all my Trini Posse friends, what do you think will do well in Trinidad at this time.

I am thinking as usual , frozen foods selling to consumers directly.

Cooking classes, catering, personal chef services.

But I am open to a lot of more ideas about what will work in Trinidad and what may not bring in a profit.

I have some money to start up a business venture, not a lot , around $150.000 USD.

give me some ideas..

Answer 1

This idea is also off the wall.

What about a meal service.?

Providing nutritious breakfasts, lunches and dinners for those who don't have the time or energy after sitting in hours of traffic to cook. Set up a standard monthly contract and have foods delivered daily from your kitchen.

You might want to look at West Trinidad to establish such an enterprise.

Alternatively, Companies in Trinidad are now learning how effective it is to provide meals to their staff. You can consider approaching a company to provide nutritious & delicious, home cooked food for their staff as well as catering for in house meetings etc.

Answer 2

chef, i agree wit julien about the location. once yuh could get ah good clean place you set. people buyin food like fus time. even in Bago now , people who always used to cook paying through dey nose to buy restaurant food every lunch time.

Answer 3

Hi chic - welcome back, its been a while!

I always had an idea to sell dried foods - like dehydrated local foods - fruits and some veggies and provisions.  It would be a healthy snacking alternative as well.  

(not fried like Cassava chips, which contains oil, but probably you boil it and then dry it I am not sure how, but it will fit it nicely with health consious persons)

A Catering company will be feasible (most companies cater food for their functions - especially around festive occasions - where I work, every department who throws a meeting, orders lunches (Buffet Style) or snack plates!  

Good Luck

Answer 4

let me tell u, u see anything wit food in trinidad does do good.

the catering/food business booming right now, cause ppl have so much less time on thier hands now.

u can start off with getting an ideal spot.

an i dont mean a big restaurant.

an enclosure just convenient to u & your customers.

start with probably lunch or dinner, bar b que, soups, chinese style food, indian food, bite size pastries etc..

choose a different style of food for the days of the week, your customers will eventually get accustomed & with great tasting food & trinis, surely more & more ppl will come to you..

advertise, flyers, internet, bout your catering services as well.

all in all, food is a very profitable business here, there is never an empty food stall.

once your variety is good, and good food, things will be really good.

eventually u can expand an then restuarants etc can come into play..

good luck Chef D..

Answer 5

This is a bit off the wall... but I'll run it past you anyway.  Now, keep in mind I live on my boat in Antigua for 7 months each year and this is something I have thought about doing... but it's more work than I want to do... so I'll give you the idea.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKES... before you go "yecht"... just think about the Caribbean 'thing' of eating sweets and sweet foods and some of the almost sickning sweet drinks and deserts you see in the Caribbean.  

Some years ago, when I was still living in Bruxelles, I read a newspaper story about a woman... an American, in fact... who came to Belgium and loved it and wanted to stay... so she got the necessary paperwork done and opened a small bakery... and only made one product... CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES... and directly from the recipe that Hershey's has put on their packages of chocolate chip morsals since they first started selling them

I hope it works for you... I think you can open a small stand to do this for a whole lot less than $150,000 and it's a limited menu with fantastic appeal.

If it works send me an e-mail... maybe I can bring the boat over to Trinidad and work for you... he,he,he....

Answer 6

Chef  the hardest thing will be location location. Once you have good food and good location you set.

I always think a rest. should have a rolling menu, you know one that you go in not knowing what's cooking today.

Whatever you do always have a suprise on the menu.

Hurry up nah !

Answer 7

as they said, location is everything.  

but what about some sort of 'foreign' food.  i mean we can get local dishes almost anywhere, and we can get american fast food everywhere else, but what about something exotic....i mean like benehiana (sp), and tamnak thai, jawhara and d other one in Price plaza. who does japanese, thai, arabian and mongolian meal...well i think the one inPrice plaza does mongolian foods lol.

Trini's are being very adventurous and on top of that you can do cooking classes.

if you decide to go into catering send me your contact info cause i does organise real meetings and thing.

Answer 8

being half guyanese (and scotish) i do enjoy jerk pork and rice and beans (i think kidney) if you have a good jerk recipe and some rice and beans you could start up a store the jerk pork and rice could be your bread and butter and you could have stuff like plantain chips, soup ,coconut water, rum cake, i dont know if its trinidadian but salara, and maybe fresh fruits like mango, sugar cane ,and some vegtables and  i think that would be a good business in trinidad

Answer 9

One thing I dont' see much in Trinidad is American Food.   Fried Chicken/ Hamburgers/HotDogs/Potato Salad etc... I would guess that would do well.  You could make hamburgers and hotdogs with ground turkey (if available) as well as beef. That would get the Indians' attention.

Another idea is to be an importer of foods that are normally found in TnT.  Like the aforementioned ground turkey.