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Do you love to cook?  Are you good at it?  If so, have you considered passing on your knowledge and skills to others? If so, a cooking school may be just the home business idea you've been looking for!

To start with, keep things small and simple by holding classes in your own home (check with your local regulatory authorities to make sure you comply with any necessary regulations such as zoning, licensing and public health).  As your business grows, you can expand into conducting classes at outside facilities such as your local homewares store or community college.

Begin by planning a course curriculum for three courses. You might run, for example, a beginner's or introductory course teaching the basics over, say, 6 weeks or so.  Follow this with an intermediate course (most of the "beginners" from your first course will, more likely than not, enrol in this one too) and then an advanced, or "gourmet" course (which your intermediate students will hopefully enrol in).

You would start out, naturally enough, with your beginner's course one day or evening per week.  Then, once your beginner's course is over, start running your intermediate course and your next beginner's course at the same time, on different days.  Then, once your first intermediate course is finished, start running your advanced course alongside your third beginner's course and second intermediate course. Eventually, you'll be running three courses each week.  Your beginner's class on Tuesdays, your intermediate class on Thursdays and your advanced class on Saturday mornings, or whatever schedule suits you.

Once you have your basic three-course syllabus running smoothly, you can expand even further by introducing specialty classes in particular cuisines ... French, Thai, Japanese, Chinese ... the sky's the limit.

Recruit your first batch of beginners from local mother's groups by posting advertisements at your local kindergarten, school, pediatrician's office etc..  Scheduling some of your cooking classes around school classtimes will ensure you can target the SAHM market and make it possible for you to run your business while your own kids are in school! By scheduling other classes such as specialty cuisines on weekends and/or evenings, you will also tap into the career worker market.  After all, many full-time workers outside the home are looking for ways to relax in their off-time. You may find that a good proportion of enrollees for your specialty cuisine classes come from this target market. And don't forget to target classes to the budget-conscious market as well.  There are plenty of people out there on a budget who would jump at the chance to learn how to cook good, nutritious food on a shoestring.

Of course, as your business grows, you can recruit others to conduct classes as well.  Former students would be a good talent pool to draw from.

When you set your course fees, make sure your fees cover your materials (ingredients and utensils), your time, plus a profit component.  Require payment for the full course in advance if you will be relying on fee income to pay for your initial investment in utensils and ingredients.  Otherwise, you may consider allowing students to pay on a "per week" basis. This will make it possible for the lower-income end of the market to participate in your classes.