Start A Home-Based Food Business In Only 20 Steps
Rachel Teichman, Founder, TheSconeArtist.com in Houston, TX shares with us how she started her customized scone business from home. Here are her 20 steps on how she did it. From product development to marketing & distribution, learn what to consider and action items to take to turn your recipe into a business.
Product Development
1. Decide what are you going to sell. Make sure it can easily be made by just you at first. Check with local Cottage Food Laws regarding what you are allowed to sell.
2. Develop a company name and product names. The company name should make it clear who you are, but not pigeonhole you if you want to add product lines.
3. Ask other people in similar fields for their advice. People will be more supportive than you might think.
4. You can start out buying small amounts of packaging supplies on Amazon and move up to US Box or another company. Vistaprint makes buying small batches of labels easy too. Think about what will keep your products freshest, while also making them easy to transport.
5. Spend time working on recipes and getting them in front of people you know, and don’t know, to try. Listen to their feedback, and then decide if changes need to be made.
6. Streamline your cooking and packaging processes as much as you can, without diminishing quality.
7. Get all the cooking supplies you need now, and add as you see fit.
8. Use the best ingredients you can find and afford. Publicize the high quality ingredients.
Marketing
9. Take photos of your products. An iPhone is fine to use in the beginning. Pick a nice background and lighting.
10. Buy a domain name and build a website. Weebly.com is affordable and easy to use.
11. Get active on social media. Pick as many types as you can manage, and see what works best. Try Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Make sure to update your LinkedIn profile as well to reflect your new business.
12. Develop a business plan including a marketing plan. Think about PR, reaching local bloggers, public relations and advertising.
13. Tell everyone you know! Your friends will be the biggest supporters of you and your food products.
14. Set goals for sales and growth. Think about how fast you can ramp up if needed.
15. Develop your branding including a logo, colors, taglines and mission.
Distribution
16. Check with your local Cottage Food Laws regarding selling from home, payment and delivery.
17. Look into commercial kitchen spaces, or ask local businesses if they rent space.
18. Look into local farmer’s markets, other local events and pop-up shops.
19. If you want to do mail-order you need to make sure you are cooking in a commercial location.
20. Set your pricing so that you will make money, but won’t deter people from trying a new product. Look into local sales tax laws as well.
Looking into ways of accepting payments. Credit cards can be taken on phones if you sign up for a Square or other type of account. Checks are an option if people have them on hand. You should always have change available for cash payments. Decide when it makes sense to open up a separate bank account for your business.
If you liked How to Start a Home Based Food Business, check out our interview with Rachel Hofstetter, “Cooking Up A Business.” Rachel followed 10+ food entrepreneurs over 2 years and shares her top 3 tips on what food entrepreneurs should consider.
ACTION: CLICK TO TWEET the following message and pay it forward.
20 Steps to Starting Your Home Based #Food #Business. The #Scone Artist shares her #Tips
