Open a neighborhood butcher shop with a deli counter

Local households, home cooks, lunchtime customers, and nearby restaurants or caterers who want quality cuts or special orders.

Selling meat by the pound, deli items by weight, and sandwiches or prepared meals by the item. Margins come from buying whole or primal cuts and breaking them down yourself, and from higher-margin deli and prepared foods.

• Knife skills and meat cutting (or a skilled butcher on your team)
• Food safety and cold-chain handling
• Customer service and product knowledge
• Ordering and managing stock to limit waste

• Health department permits and inspections for retail food, plus any state or local meat handling rules, check with your county and state
• Whether your plans (such as making sausage, curing, or selling wholesale to restaurants) trigger USDA or state meat inspection requirements
• Check zoning, ventilation, grease and drainage requirements before signing a lease
• General liability insurance, and workers' compensation once you hire
• Spoilage and thin margins, so keep tight control of stock and cold storage
• Sales tax rules for prepared foods versus raw meat differ by state, check with your state tax agency

Estimates suggest startup costs typically run around $60,000 to $250,000, depending on your premises, cold storage and equipment, and the size of your opening stock.

Monthly revenue is typically estimated at around $20,000 to $100,000, depending on your location, product range and whether you add deli items or restaurant customers. Spoilage and thin margins mean tight stock control matters.

Check health department permits and inspections, plus state or local meat handling rules. Also check whether sausage-making, curing or wholesale sales trigger USDA or state meat inspection, and zoning, ventilation, grease and drainage requirements before signing a lease.