In the Future, Your Home Could Become Your Shop

N. Raghuraman Management Guru

Mexican eatery owner Reme Jimenez moved to Los Angeles two years ago after the passing of his father and two siblings. Mother needed support so Reme thought of starting a café with her. But rising expenses and the formality of countless dining permits made it impossible to start a business in America. He started selling snacks on the footpath, but that too was eventually banned by the local civic body. This is about 2024.

However, that same year a new regional law authorized home-based kitchens. There are some limitations to this initiative. The company cannot sell more than 30 plates daily. The annual income cannot exceed one lakh dollars, which is a decent living wage for a new tech worker there. The license price was set at $597, but it was waived for the first few hundreds to encourage people to buy into the concept.

Initially people were hesitant in starting a kitchen from home. But people like Reme seized the opportunity and soon 320 licenses were issued. Currently, the city administration has enough capital to support 470 more such businesses. Till June 30, no one will pay any fee to start food business from home. Licensure requires two food worker certifications, certain cleanliness tests and an evaluation.

But that falls far short of the stack of state and local-level permits required to open a dining establishment anywhere in the country. This is no longer the story of one person or a few hundred households. Home-based cooking may be a new trend in America, but it is popular in Mexico, India and many South Asian countries.

Since there are less employment opportunities there, they promote this idea. Many urban local governments around the world are developing similar strategies today. When new jobs cannot be created they promote self-employment, such as approving apps like Ola-Uber. In the catering business also, they are doing the same by taking on board those people who have some rooms, have the skill to cook good food and who can provide food to the people at discounted prices.

This serves two goals – providing better and cheaper food to hungry people in the community. At the same time, a part of the population remains busy and useful, due to which they do not come out in protest against the local administration.

It is not that people in other countries are not doing this. Many of our houses here also have kitchens without permits. The entire project is family managed. There is no traffic of food carts on the roads, nor is there filth in the area after eating. This business is not new for those of us who know and follow the method of ‘house at the back, shop at the front’. Gradually the rich people changed it to ‘house above, shop below’.

But this is going to change in the future, when ‘your house will be your shop’. This will happen not only in villages but also in the crowded metropolises of rich countries, because government schemes to promote small businesses are increasing rapidly. From the changing global situation, we should learn that if you have even a little space, like a car garage, then this small space can become your biggest asset in future business.

The bottom line is that Do not sell even your small space for any re-development project, because it will be difficult for the future generation to get good jobs in the new AI-world. In such a situation, their house itself can become their future shop.

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