Market Research

Understanding your market is the cornerstone of any successful shared kitchen venture. Market research not only clarifies who your potential members are but also reveals their needs, challenges, and opportunities within your local food ecosystem. By delving into the nuances of your target market— whether they’re entrepreneurs, producers, or small food businesses—you can ensure that your kitchen’s offerings are tailored to meet real demands. A well-conducted market analysis can uncover gaps in existing services, forecast the potential for shared kitchen rentals, and provide insights into the broader economic and competitive landscape.

This chapter demystifies the process of market research, showing you how to systematically investigate the needs of food entrepreneurs and assess the local demand for kitchen space. From conducting surveys and interviews to understanding local market conditions and competition, you’ll learn practical techniques for gathering and interpreting data that will shape your kitchen’s design and service offerings. Whether you’re exploring the potential for launching a new kitchen or looking to make an existing facility more competitive, market research is an essential tool that will guide your decision-making and strategic planning, helping you create a kitchen that thrives. This chapter also explores creative alternatives to traditional shared kitchens, offering ideas for how to support entrepreneurs even if demand doesn’t align with your original plans.

Robust market research early in your planning process will provide many benefits. It will:

There is a wide range of practices among shared kitchens and incubators when conducting market research for a new kitchen. Projects initiated by public agencies and nonprofits often utilize outside consultants to conduct feasibility studies or market assessments. Entrepreneur-led projects frequently conduct their own research on the market opportunity through pre-development marketing and interviews. While some founders put a lot of stake in this research, others undertake it primarily to qualify for funding.

Fundamentally, a shared kitchen/incubator is successful only if its members are successful. This means that kitchen success requires understanding how entrepreneurs and producers define success and what stands in the way of them achieving it. Yet some kitchens fail to invest in understanding their members, markets, and food systems before building, increasing the likelihood of failure.

Kitchen founders who do not have experience with business or development may need help understanding what market research is and how to conduct it. This inexperience can lead them to undervalue it. Several common misunderstandings lead founders to underinvest in researching their markets, including:

• We do not need to do market research because we are not trying to make a profit.
• My area has no shared kitchen, so I know there must be a need for it.
• Market research is too expensive.
• I cannot afford a feasibility study or consultant, so I cannot do market research.
• The best time to do market research is after we have decided what we will build.
• The primary goal of market research is to convince other people to give us money.
• A Google search is all the market research I need.

Developing a Research Budget

The first step in planning is to develop realistic expectations about your planning process. A common mistake in planning a kitchen project is to underestimate the time and resources needed for planning. You may want to read through the Alchemist Kitchen Case Study to gain insight into the journey of launching a shared kitchen, from initial planning to full facility operations. Unrealistic expectations of costs and timelines can erode your sense of progress and leave your team feeling discouraged. Underfunding your planning can also threaten your success by pushing you to skip important research and due diligence activities. Regardless of whether you are launching a self-funded for-profit venture, an upstart nonprofit, or a public agency initiative, it is essential to develop a comprehensive budget and timeline for your planning process. This should include:

Accounting for all these costs will likely leave you with an estimate in the tens of thousands of dollars. Organizations often spend $30,000–$100,000 on feasibility studies and business plans alone. It may cost you or your organization a couple of years’ worth of staff time to do the planning work on your own. You may spend thousands of dollars paying design and engineering professionals to evaluate the costs and feasibility of several sites before securing your final location. Developing your organizational entity may cost several thousands of dollars in legal and accounting fees. Designing your brand and gaining an online presence will also cost thousands of dollars unless your team has the skills to do it.

Target Market

Before beginning your research, it’s essential to identify the types of food businesses that could potentially rent your kitchen. Shared kitchens cater to a diverse array of food and beverage makers, with the facility design influencing which types of businesses are best suited for the space. A recent survey of kitchen incubators revealed that bakers, caterers, and food trucks are among the most common renters. Additionally, many kitchens are utilized by businesses producing prepared meals and sauces or spreads. However, the potential range of food business renters extends far beyond these categories, and may include:

The types of food businesses your facility caters to will impact your business model, financial planning, facility design, and marketing. So it is important to explore these types and make a preliminary list of those you aim to serve. In the following sections of this Shared Kitchen Toolkit, we will guide you through the process of understanding their needs.

Feasibility Studies

Formal feasibility studies provide an objective analysis and recommendation about the feasibility of a potential project. They answer critical questions about whether the project is likely to succeed, including whether there is a need and sufficient demand for a facility and/or service, whether it can be financially sustainable, what support is needed, and whether there is sufficient management capacity and stakeholder support. Feasibility studies are an independent assessment of the project’s viability, concluding with a go/no-go recommendation about whether or not to move forward. This means the consultants sometimes conclude that the project should not be built. While the scope may differ between studies, feasibility studies generally answer the following questions:

• Should we build it?
• Is there enough demand for kitchen space to support it?
• Will it be financially viable? Will it be self-sufficient?
• Is there political/stakeholder support for the project?
• How much will it cost to build?
• Will it achieve the goals of the owner and stakeholders?

The scope of the study may be more extensive if the project is spearheaded by nonprofit, public sector, or institutional entities to achieve social, economic, or food systems impacts, such as poverty alleviation, job creation, or improved farm viability. For these projects, the study often includes a needs assessment that evaluates the barriers entrepreneurs, small businesses, and producers face; their business support and capital needs; and the resources available in the support ecosystem. The study will also evaluate the project’s potential social and economic impacts and may include economic impact projections. Additionally, these studies may look at the project’s funding outlook and recommend potential funding sources. Nonprofit and public projects often find that the objective validation provided by the feasibility study is a valuable tool for garnering support and funding for the project.

The best time to complete a feasibility study is during the planning stages after some initial work has been done to develop a shared vision and goals for the project. If the project leaders and stakeholders do not have consensus or clarity on the project goals, it can be difficult to get meaningful feedback from a feasibility study. It may be more effective to engage stakeholders and spend time clarifying the project’s objectives before undertaking the study.

If the project team or community members have several ideas but not enough information to focus the project, commissioning a more general needs assessment first can be an effective approach. This will not only provide insights into entrepreneur and producer needs, opportunities in your market/community, and recommendations for which direction to go, it will also pave the way for a more focused and successful project.

Community or public sector projects sometimes approach projects with a wider lens, recognizing that kitchens are only one component of developing a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem and food system in their community. They may commission other related studies that answer valuable questions about broader community needs and investments that could make a positive impact in the community. Projects with multiple facility or program components, such as retail and food access, may also warrant additional study. These studies can include:

Determining If You Need a Feasibility Study

Feasibility studies can be valuable to almost any project because they provide analysis of your market and expert feedback about the prospects for success. However, they may only be a practical option for some projects. Feasibility studies are generally most valuable for the following types of projects:

• Funding. Projects seeking outside public or philanthropic funding.
• Public partnerships. Projects where a public entity or educational institution is developing the facility or contributing resources, such as land in a public-private partnership.
• Capital. Development projects require significant capital investment and/or sizable operating budgets.
• Capacity. When the project team does not have the expertise or capacity to assess needs, market demand, and financial viability.
• Objectivity. When objectivity is important, a third party is needed to validate the project, weigh in on different visions, or gather candid feedback about stakeholder support for the project.

While feasibility studies are valuable due diligence tools, there may be better options for some projects. A feasibility study may simply be out of reach if there is insufficient funding to pay for one and the prospects for finding funding are poor. Sometimes, this is a matter of timing, and more effort is needed to gather support and funding for a study. In other cases, chasing funding can stall the project, and it may make more sense for the team to start their own market research and business/producer engagement.

If the founder is either an entrepreneur or a set of private partners developing a for-profit kitchen enterprise without public or philanthropic funding, a formal feasibility study may not be necessary. While a feasibility study may still be informative, the founders should evaluate whether a formal report is needed. Alternatively, they can invest resources in market research and industry expertise to inform decision-making.

Conducting Market Research

Before developing a kitchen space and an incubation program, it is essential to understand the market for the space and the services you plan to offer. If you are not hiring a consultant to conduct a feasibility study, you will need to undertake three key areas of research:

1. Food business and/or producer needs and desires. This is done through a variety of customer engagement methods.
2. Demand for the space provided and supply of other kitchen spaces. This is done through real estate market research.
3. The services needed and the demand for these services in your market. This is done through ecosystem analysis and entrepreneurs need assessment/market research.

Even if you are hiring a consultant, engaging in some research to gain firsthand knowledge of your prospective members and market is a good idea. This will help you develop a profile of your target member, refine your value proposition, and design your kitchen solution.

Surveys

Surveys are the most commonly used tool for assessing interest in shared kitchens for many kitchen projects. They have several important advantages:

• The results can be quantified, making it easier to summarize the responses and illustrate the need for funders and stakeholders. Online survey tools that tally results, such as Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, and Facebook Surveys, make this task easier.
• They are generally inexpensive to develop and disseminate, particularly if networks can be leveraged to reach the target respondents.
• Fairly detailed information can be gathered quickly and confidentially.
• Surveys can reach entrepreneurs who do not have time or interest in attending community meetings or focus groups. Social media is often a good tool through which to distribute surveys.

Interviews and Focus Groups

Interviews and focus groups allow you to understand the business challenges and needs from the target audience’s perspective and give you insight into the audience’s preferred solution. Interviews are usually done with one person at a time, while a focus group lets you hear from several people simultaneously. A focus group is more than a group interview, however. It is an interactive listening session that allows participants to respond to your questions and each other’s remarks in a setting that feels natural. Some of the best insights often arise in the conversations between participants.

Focus groups and interviews complement surveys. They allow participants to share information and feelings in their own words and enable you to follow up with clarifying questions. The goal of interviews and focus groups is to learn not just about needs but also about the motivations and perspectives that inform their decisions. Through interviews and focus groups, you can glean information about entrepreneurs/business owners’ aspirations, experiences, perceptions, and challenges that will inform the facility and services you develop. The information collected with these methods is generally not meant to be quantified like a survey. It is intended to add additional insight and dimension.

Interviews and focus groups are especially beneficial for projects where there has been limited engagement with or limited research on prospective kitchen members. Unless your group has extensive contact with the intended target entrepreneurs or has already conducted relevant research, it is important to have conversations with potential members as part of your planning. Suppose your group is endeavoring to enter a new territory, such as offering business services for the first time or focusing on a different business type. In that case, you will want to understand the needs and perspectives of entrepreneurs and producers early in the process. If you have the resources within your team or network to conduct a focus group, it can be a rich source of insight. If you are planning the project on your own, it may be easier to conduct individual interviews.

Getting Help with Focus Groups

Projects with sufficient funding can benefit from professional help with focus groups. Bringing in a third-party facilitator can ensure the objectivity needed for a successful discussion. Market research firms, consultants, and professional facilitators are generally skillful in the process.

Projects with limited planning budgets can conduct their own focus groups with the help of volunteer facilitators or partner organizations. Look for volunteers and partners among organizations that share your project goals, such as economic development agencies, food policy councils, universities, or local business networks. These organizations may also be able to provide helpful referrals to participants looking for resources. You may also have a nonprofit in your community focused on community

engagement, facilitation, and/or community leadership development that can provide support. If you are organizing your own focus group, take advantage of online resources to learn more about focus group management, facilitation, and how to form good questions.

Good questions that elicit the information you are looking for are the heart of any interview or focus group. Use open-ended questions that gather insights on feelings, ideas, beliefs, and perceptions and are free of judgments. Avoid “yes” or “no” questions, except for clarification. Ask “why” and “tell me more about that,” to encourage deeper reflection. Refrain from steering participant answers through leading questions or assumptions. Always ask an open-ended question like “What else do you want me to know?” This gives respondents a chance to share things they may not have been asked initially.

Entrepreneurs and community members who attend focus groups and community meetings are often in search of resources to support their businesses or entrepreneurial aspirations. Co-hosting with community organizations that provide relevant business or economic opportunity services (business planning, job training, microloans, culinary training, etc.) can be an excellent opportunity to provide valuable resources to event participants in exchange for their insights. In addition, co-hosted and sponsored events are an opportunity for you to strengthen your network with organizations that share your vision and maybe a source of referrals after your facility opens. Sometimes, these organizations can also help underwrite event costs.

Local Market Conditions

It is essential to analyze market factors that influence demand for your kitchen space, even if your kitchen will be run as a nonprofit facility. If you are charging a fee and counting on that fee to pay the bills, you want to be sure there is enough demand for what you are offering. Kitchen utilization is also key to achieving strong outcomes. To effectively assess your market, you’ll need to evaluate several key factors:

Kitchens that fail to understand these market factors are more likely to have insufficient utilization and fall short. Many kitchens underinvest in this research because hiring a consultant can be expensive, and founders may need more experience with market data. In this Toolkit, we aim to give you tips to get you started and make the process less intimidating. However, this is an area where bringing in a consultant or volunteer advisor can be very helpful and save you money in the long term.

Defining Your Market Area

When researching your real estate market, start by defining what geographic area you are likely to draw members from. This market area will be important for analyzing the potential demand. Consider typical driving distances in your area for the kind of businesses you hope to attract, which may differ for rural areas or neighborhoods subject to heavy traffic. Your market area could be a few ZIP codes or an entire city, county, or metropolitan region, depending on your facility, geography, and target business types.

Remember that rental kitchens sometimes do not advertise or market their space, particularly if they are a food business or community facility renting extra space during off hours. Search for them so you understand the landscape of kitchen options in your community. This will help you evaluate the supply of kitchen space and develop plans that position your kitchen as a unique offering in your community.

Outreach

• Ask entrepreneurs at farmers’ markets, craft fairs, food trucks, etc., where they produce their food and if they know of any shared kitchens in your area. If they are familiar with any kitchens, ask about their experiences or impressions.
• Contact community kitchens in community centers, senior centers, churches, and event centers and ask if they rent space to entrepreneurs for production (not just for on-site events).
• Inquire with local licensing agencies such as city/county public health and state agriculture departments for referrals to shared kitchens.
• Reach out to your local SBDC and other business advisors in your area for referrals.
• If you are having trouble finding kitchens and are comfortable with spreadsheets, you can make a public records request to your local licensing agencies for the names and facility addresses of business types you are interested in (caterers, food trucks, bakers, packaged goods, etc.). Depending on the size of your market area, the data can be time-consuming to sort through but it can identify clusters of businesses at the same address that may indicate businesses are sharing a kitchen. It can also give you a sense of how many of your target businesses there are. By requesting a few years of records, you can look for trends in the number, types, and locations of businesses.

Analysis

Once you have identified these kitchens in your area, research the following:

• Rates and pricing structure. Do they rent hourly or monthly? What are their rates?
• Characteristics and competitiveness. What facilities do they offer? What scale of production do they accommodate? What is the desirability of their location in terms of access to suppliers, markets, parking/ transportation hubs, and security? How clean is the facility? Is the space pleasant to work in?
• Target businesses. What are the primary types of renters in the space? Are they the same business types you anticipate serving at your facility?
• Demand. How full are they? Has the number of shared kitchens in your market grown or declined over the last few years? If kitchens have closed, what have been the reasons?

Keep notes of this research and reflect on how well the current options are meeting the needs of entrepreneurs and producers. Compare your findings to your surveys and interviews. How well is demand meeting supply? Are there gaps in what is available? Are the current offerings unappealing or unworkable in some way (such as high rates, inadequate sanitation, or lack of truck facilities)? How can you improve on what is available and eliminate some key pain points for your target businesses?

Look for opportunities to differentiate your facility from others in the area. This may be by offering specialized equipment, serving a different type or scale of entrepreneurs/businesses, or offering something superior to what is available. Some kitchens have found that by differentiating from existing kitchens in the types of businesses they serve, they can create collaborative referral relationships with other facilities in their area and better withstand competition from new facilities. Take notes on your ideas and findings; you will summarize them in your business plan and marketing plan .

Investigating Demand for Kitchen Space

There are a number of economic and cultural factors that can reduce the demand for shared kitchen space that all projects should evaluate, especially those without direct competition. A common mistake founders make is to assume that if there is not a shared kitchen in their community, there must be demand for one. A market that does not have shared commercial kitchen space may be an exciting opportunity or a sign that there is not enough demand for a kitchen. If you discover no direct competitors in your market (such as formal shared kitchens or incubators), or that existing kitchens are not well utilized, you should find out why that is and carefully assess the demand for kitchen space.

Similarly, if you offer a below-market rate rental, you should not assume that there will be demand simply because entrepreneurs and producers cannot afford other kitchens. Entrepreneurs have formal and informal options and are savvy problem-solvers. Try to look at the choices from the entrepreneurs’ perspective so you can discern how they value shared kitchen space and whether they will use it. Sometimes, what entrepreneurs “should” do, logically or legally, is not what they will choose to do because they are motivated by different interests. It is important to identify our assumptions to assess the opportunity clearly.

Use the following questions to identify factors that could impact the utilization of your kitchen. If there is a lack of shared kitchen space in your area, investigating these factors will help you understand why.

Entrepreneurial Headwinds

In general, factors that inhibit the growth of small food businesses could impact demand for kitchen space, so it is important to understand the barriers businesses face. These can include lack of access to capital for start-up and expansion expenses, high licensing fees or taxes, unfavorable market trends, restrictive food truck ordinances, lack of skilled workers, etc. Since the kitchen’s success is closely tied to its members, be sure to evaluate the potential impact of these factors on the kitchen. Surveying and interviewing entrepreneurs and researching food industry trends and local policies will help you identify these factors. The Business Incubation Programs chapter provides guidance on developing services to address hurdles businesses face.

Stay alert to changes in food safety and licensing requirements that could reduce the need for your space or place limits on who uses it or how it is used. Examples include: the expansion of the kinds of products that can be made under cottage food rules, limitations on the number of businesses that can share a kitchen, or requirements for businesses to have designated rather than shared prep areas.

If you discover barriers or conditions in your community that will diminish demand for shared kitchen space, it is a good time to stop and reflect on your options. Check out the Reflecting on Your Findings section for tips.

Informal Home-Based Businesses

If you are targeting small-scale businesses just starting out, or transitioning from a home-based operation, take time to understand how common informal business activity is in your community. Your goal in this outreach is to determine whether informal home-based businesses are interested in formalizing and moving into a commercial kitchen, or if there is a culture of informal business activity that may be a barrier to signing up members.

Formal businesses have access to greater sales opportunities and growth. However, entrepreneurs may face higher costs, more taxes, and less convenience when they formalize. Some businesses may choose to remain informal despite the availability of a facility or other resources you offer.

Here are some reasons why businesses operate informally and questions you will want to consider:

Interviews and focus groups with informal/home-based businesses as well as those who work with them (service providers, sales venues, etc.) will be your best bet for gathering this information. You can often find informal food businesses by looking on social media, Facebook groups, roadside stands, informal markets like craft or holiday fairs, corner stores, and small ethnic food markets.

Real Estate Market Conditions

Trends in commercial real estate in your market area also play a role in how much demand there will be for your kitchen. If commercial space is in high demand and expensive, then more businesses may be inclined to share space and stay in shared kitchens longer. If commercial space is relatively abundant and inexpensive, or if there are private spaces that can be converted to food facilities fairly cheaply, then businesses may move into their own spaces at an earlier stage and find less value in sharing space.

When looking at real estate trends in your market, look at the following factors:

• What is the availability of commercial real estate? How quickly are places leasing?
• How much does it cost for a food business to rent a space for its production needs?
• What are typical lease terms?
• Are there many spaces available for your target businesses?
• What improvements are required by the licensing agencies (such as venting, wastewater management, plumbing, parking, etc.) to make a space food-ready?
• How many new commercial spaces are being constructed compared to the growth of businesses in your market? Is there a surplus or are you likely to have a shortage?

Entrepreneurial Activity

It is important to consider the level of entrepreneurial activity in your area to see if there will be an ongoing pool of new businesses to utilize your space. A consultant or advisor experienced with entrepreneurial ecosystems can help you analyze economic data and other indicators of entrepreneurial activity. If you are doing a feasibility study, your consultant will analyze this as part of their report.

If you do not have access to these services, you can reach out to your local economic development agencies, chambers of commerce, and SBDC to gather their insights. They may also be able to help you find and interpret relevant business data.

In addition, you can search for published reports and articles about trends in food entrepreneurship in your area and your community’s overall startup culture. Local libraries as well as public university libraries in your area may provide access to premium market research databases that feature business data and consumer research reports. If you are comfortable interpreting economic data, download business data from the Census Bureau and other federal and state agencies that track business indicators to analyze the trends in entrepreneurship and food business growth.

You will also want to look at the services, supports, and incentives your community offers entrepreneurs to understand the resources in your entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Industry Research

As part of your market research, keep up with changes in the specialty food market and food industry. Is the market growing for the types of products that are likely to be produced in your facility? Are there consolidations or changes in the retail sector that will make it difficult for small businesses to break into markets? You want to consider how larger food industry trends will impact your members.

Knowledge of the food industry will also help you understand how to serve the needs of food entrepreneurs and producers interested in food processing. The deeper your knowledge, the more likely you will create innovative solutions to help entrepreneurs succeed.

If the founders or project team members do not have experience with food businesses, you will want to bring this expertise to the project. This can be done by adding team members, advisors, or consultants with this experience or by developing your own expertise through research and training. Start by honestly evaluating the knowledge of your team. Few people have knowledge of all aspects of the food industry and the entrepreneurial journey (not to mention how to manage a shared kitchen or incubator). Identify your gaps and think creatively about how to fill them.

If you will be managing the kitchen/incubator and do not have experience in the food industry or with starting a business, make a commitment to deepen your knowledge. It will pay dividends later when working with members. Here are a few ways to do that:

• Attend food business classes sponsored by local organizations or national groups.
• Become a member of national or state industry associations.
• Subscribe to food industry publications and podcasts, and join social media groups and feeds to stay current on trends.
• Volunteer or pick up shifts with a local food business to get a firsthand feel for their work and struggles.

Reflecting on Your Findings

Once you have completed your research, reflect on what you have learned. How has your understanding of prospective members evolved? What is your assessment of the demand for kitchen space? What impact will local economic and real estate conditions and industry trends have on the success of your kitchen and its members?

If your research has revealed a strong base of potential business renters and positive conditions for success, then this is a good time to begin working on building out your business model. Through your research, you will have identified your target business types and can reflect on your understanding of their needs through further research on services and the Value Proposition Canvas exercise.

If your research uncovered challenges that change the outlook for your project, then this is a good time to re-evaluate your strategy. Revisit the goals, outcomes, and strategy screen you created when you initiated your project. Are there changes to your facility plans, target business types, revenue streams, or entrepreneurial supports that would overcome the challenges? Are there other ways to achieve your goals and have an impact?

resources and help organizations with underutilized kitchen spaces, such as churches or community centers, prepare to rent to food businesses. It is also challenging to keep listings for available space current and accurate. Additionally, multiuse facilities have unique management considerations when it comes to shared kitchen rentals. Opening Community Facilities to Food Entrepreneurs: Guidance for Communities and Facility Operators is a guide that provides more information about renting existing community kitchens to food businesses as an alternative to building new facilities. It can be accessed in the References chapter.

Once a cluster of businesses has established itself, facility investments may become more impactful and feasible, supported by the increased demand from new and growing businesses. At this stage, developing a dedicated facility can significantly boost the local food business ecosystem.

• Team capacity. Consider the time and bandwidth your team has to devote to establishing the temporary location and the long-term facility. A temporary space can be time-consuming to secure, outfit, market, and manage, which can detract time and energy from long-term plans. Depending on the size of your team, it can be difficult to focus on planning, fundraising, and development when you are busy managing day-to-day operations.
• Ramp-up time. Be realistic about the length of time it will take you to get the space up and running and recruit members. Remember to budget time for negotiations, cleaning, repairs, inspections, and marketing. You want to make sure your lease period is sufficiently long to make use of the space and achieve your goals for it.
• Suitability of the space and revenue potential. The temporary space may not have all the features that your permanent space will have. This can limit the number or types of businesses that rent space, making it difficult to accurately measure demand, especially in the face of competition from better-equipped facilities. It can also limit the revenues you can earn in the temporary space. Carefully analyze how many and what types of businesses can utilize the facility and calculate your cash flow and costs to determine if there will be sufficient revenue to break even in the temporary location.
• Condition of existing equipment. If the space is outfitted with kitchen equipment, be sure to inspect the equipment and get estimates for needed repairs, servicing, and cleaning. Get clear with the landlord about who is responsible for maintaining and/or replacing the equipment, and include this in your lease agreement. Be sure to budget reserves for repairs and replacements of equipment during the lease period.
• Management commitment. Plan to manage the temporary space with the same care you would the permanent space so you can operate in an organized and professional manner. Plan for adequate staffing to develop kitchen policies and procedures, manage billings in a timely fashion, and enforce sanitation standards. This will help build your reputation among prospective members and allow you to refine your management systems before you expand.
• Branding. Consider how the temporary space reflects your brand and the impression it will give potential renters. Its contribution to your reputation and brand image may outlast your lease of the space. If you have been touting a vision of a new state-of-the-art facility, a temporary space that is in marginal condition or poorly equipped may send the wrong message.
• Messaging. If you are hoping to use the temporary space as a proof of concept, be mindful of the messages the temporary location could send to your stakeholders or funders. While success can attract support, it can also give the impression that you are already meeting the needs and diminish interest in a new facility. To help build a sense of investment in the long-term vision, have a clear and consistent message about your goals and cultivate funder relationships and stakeholder buy-in each step of the way.

Final Thoughts

Market research is a critical step in ensuring your shared kitchen aligns with the real needs of your community. By thoroughly understanding your target audience, competition, and local conditions, you can make informed decisions that shape your kitchen’s services and operations for long-term success. Whether you’re fine-tuning your initial plans or uncovering new opportunities, this research lays the groundwork for building a facility that truly meets the needs of entrepreneurs and captures the demand in your market.

Now that you understand your market, it’s time to develop your pricing strategy. In the next chapter , we outline the best practices for pricing your kitchen’s rentals, storage, and services. You’ll find Mock Pricing Sheets as useful guides, but remember to adjust your prices based on the local market conditions and entrepreneur feedback you uncovered during your research. Your rates and fees must be part of a larger financial strategy, so be sure to continue to the Financial Planning and Management chapter, where you can test your assumptions and map out your kitchen’s long-term profitability.