Everyone tells Mary that her cheesecake is so good, she should sell it to the local neighborhood gourmet specialty store. Paul makes an unbelievable Bloody Mary with a secret mix that he concocted, and his brother wants him to market it to Trader Joes or the local bar scene. Leslie makes muffins that she brings to work to rave reviews, and her office friends think she should sell them to local shops.
How do I start a food business, is one of the most common questions I get from blog readers. Having built a multi-million dollar brownie enterprise with my wife, it makes perfect sense that these matters would rise to the top. Seems like millions of people want to ditch the cubicle for a slice of the pie.
Ten things to consider if you are thinking about your food (or beverage) start up:
- Do you enjoy cooking or baking or brewing? That isn’t the same thing as running a food business. Think about how you want to spend your day – making something or selling something. In the early years, most food entrepreneurs have to do both things at the same time. Make the brownies, sell the brownies.
- What does the competition look like for the product you wish to market? How many other cheesecakes, Bloody Mary mixes, and muffins are available in the stores you’d sell to? What is the online competition like for those product categories?
- What, if anything about the product is special? Gluten-free, low-sugar, unusual free-trade ingredients, twenty percent of the profits to build schools for kids in impoverished communities?
- What, if anything about your backstory is worth telling? What is the WHY behind starting this business beyond, I want to make money.
- Besides friends and family, do you have any evidence that this product category needs another brand? Has anyone who doesn’t love you ever said anything positive about your product? Friends and relatives are rarely objective. Try getting input from people who don’t know you.
- Have you ever been in a food manufacturing facility, a professional kitchen or bakery? If not, it is worth finding a way to get a peek inside. It may open your eyes to the future.
- Have you tried to take the product to one store to see what it’s like to sell to a retailer? (You will learn so much taking this little action step) Selling is SO different from being in a kitchen – you need to realize how much of your energy will be tied up in the marketing of the product versus producing it.
- Can you find someone to talk to who can coach or advise you on the pros and cons of getting into this line of work? Maybe someone in your community who is already doing something similar but in a non-competitive category. Volunteer to work for free at a bakery or a small food manufacturer to learn what you are getting into.
- Do you enjoy selling and trying to convince someone to buy from you? Great sales people are very different types of people from people who love to be in the kitchen. Selling is a skillset that is an art unto itself. Do you like to sell?
- There are many channels available to a food business from retail to online to wholesale. Do you have a good understanding of these options? Where could your product be sold that might limit competition but open up new and unusual opportunities? For example, imagine selling beautifully constructed fresh salads in vending machines where you compete with processed foods?
Another important consideration is to find a way to test the idea, without a significant investment. If you can keep your day job while test marketing your product, it helps you move closer to a decision to commit to moving forward.
The best advice, if you are serious about considering this idea is to find a small business advisor or coach who can help you get an understanding of the challenges. There are free services that organizations like SCORE, which offers free advice to small business starts ups. I hear wonderful things about the work they do, although I don’t have first-hand experience working with them.
The journey of thousand cheesecakes starts with an appetite for trying.
_______________________________
I advise small business startups to help them begin to build a food business. I’d be happy to help you see if you have a half-baked idea. Call me. Watch this free video fill with ten lessons on how to market a product, a business or a service. It is packed with clear and simple ideas to help you unravel some of the mysteries of marketing.
