🍅 Part 3: The Product or Service
(What you’ll make, how you’ll make it, and why everyone wants it)
3.1 What You’ll Make or Do (Simple Words)
This business is about drying food smartly — without losing its look, taste, or aroma.
With the SNL Heat Pump Dryer, you can:
• Dry fruits, vegetables, spices, and herbs,
• Dry cooked food for long shelf life, and
• Offer drying services to others on “per batch” or “per kilo” basis.
Now let’s see how this looks for different kinds of clients 👇
🏡 Homemaker / Home Entrepreneur Example:
Meena ji from Indore dries mango pulp into aam papad, leftover cooked poha into ready-to-eat flakes, and coriander into powder.
She sells them at her local housing society and on WhatsApp groups under her own name — “Meena’s Dry Delights”.
Monthly earnings: ₹18,000–₹25,000, all from her kitchen corner.
👨🌾 Farmer Example:
Ramesh from Tonk district brings his surplus green chillies and tomatoes to the nearby drying unit. Instead of letting them rot, he gets them dried for ₹5/kg of raw material.
He then sells dried chillies at ₹160/kg instead of ₹10 fresh — many times income, zero waste.
🍽️ Restaurant / Dhaba Owner Example:
Hotel Ananda in Jaipur dries leftover cooked rice, dal tadka, and bhindi fry using the heat pump dryer every night. They reuse it later for staff meals or rehydrate and serve during off-season. This saves them ₹50,000+ every month in food waste costs.
🧑🍳 Catering & Cloud Kitchen Example:
Chef Neelam’s Tiffin Service uses the dryer to make ready-to-eat pulao mixes and curry bases. She packs them in zip pouches for her customers who travel abroad — they just add hot water and have “ghar ka khana”.
🧴 Herbal / Cosmetic Product Maker Example:
Arjun Herbal Works, a small Ayurvedic brand in Udaipur, uses the dryer to make clean dried neem, tulsi, and rose petals — earlier they were sun-drying on rooftops. Now they get consistent color and fragrance, making their products look premium.
🎓 Student / Youth Startup Example:
Three college students from Kota started “SnackSmart”, drying fruit slices — apple, banana, and chikoo chips — selling at ₹120–₹200 per 100g.
They run it from a small rented garage, using a single SNL dryer and earning ₹40,000+ profit monthly during the season.
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3.2 How You’ll Make It (Local Process + Small Tech)
The process is simple — no big machines, no rocket science:
1. Collect Raw Material: Fresh fruits, veggies, or cooked food.
2. Pre-Cleaning: Wash properly, remove damaged parts.
3. Cutting / Slicing: Uniform size for even drying.
4. Load the Dryer: Put slices or cooked food on trays.
5. Set Temperature & Time:
o Fruits: 35–45°C
o Vegetables: 45–55°C
o Cooked food: 50–60°C
6. Wait & Watch:
o The heat pump quietly removes moisture — no heat loss, no burning smell.
7. Cool, Pack, and Store: Airtight pouches or jars.
Each batch takes 3–5 hours. You can do 4–5 batches a day — that’s 80–100 kg of fresh input daily for one small machine!
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3.3 Raw Materials & Source
You don’t have to go far — everything is local.
• Fruits & Veggies: Buy from mandi or directly from farmers (even seconds or odd-shaped ones are fine).
• Cooked Items: Use your own kitchen or tie up with local caterers.
• Spices & Herbs: From local traders or FPOs.
• Packaging: Zip pouches, labels, and stickers from any city market (₹4–₹6 per pouch).
Example:
If you buy 50 kg of ripe tomatoes at ₹10/kg = ₹500,
You get about 5 kg of dried tomato flakes worth ₹250/kg = ₹1250.
Your drying cost (electricity + labor + pouch) ≈ ₹250.
Profit in one batch ≈ ₹500 — that too in 4 hours!
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3.4 Simple Quality Check Practices
You don’t need fancy labs — just common sense and consistency:
• Color Check: Dried item should look natural, not burnt.
• Touch Check: No moisture or stickiness.
• Smell Test: Aroma should stay fresh, not sour or smoky.
• Weight Record: Keep a log of how much raw → dry ratio.
📘 Pro tip: Keep one small airtight jar from each batch with date and batch number written. It helps track shelf life and impresses your customers too.
Example Quality Trick:
When drying mint leaves, if they crumble softly between fingers — perfect! If they bend, still some moisture left. If they turn brown — overdone.
💬 In Simple Words
You are not just drying food — you’re preserving taste, tradition, and trust.
Every household, every restaurant, every farmer around you has something that can be dried.
You become the “local drying walla” — the person everyone calls when they want to save value, not waste it.
