Notes from Homemade For Sale : How to Set Up and Market a Food Business From Your Home Kitchen by Lisa Kivirist & John D. Ivanko; homemadeforsale.com; 664.00681. Also see ECOpreneuring.
Mail services: MailChimp (mailchimp.com), Constant Contact (constantcontact.com), and Emma (myemma.com).
Website: company name, products, contact info, order forms, backstory. Your personal story – differentiate from mass-produced.
- How did you get started making your product?
- What makes your product unique?
- Why did you start your_business?
- When you’re not in the kitchen, what are you doing?
FAQ page
- How can I get your product?
- Do you have a minimum order?
- Can you deliver?
- What kind of payment do you accept?
- How quick is your turnaround on an order?
Feedburner (feedburner.com) to repost your social media to your website.
wordpress.com, wix.com, weebly.com, sites.google.com
google.com/+/business; youtube.com
Forrager (forrager.com), Etsy (etsy.com), LocalHarvest (localharvest.org), Agrilicious (agrilicious.com), Eat Well Guide (eatwellguide.com), CSA Center (csacenter.org), All Organic Links (allorganiclinks.com)
Host private product parties – less restricted in terms of food handling.
Media coverage: identify your media goals, create your compelling story, develop a media list, write a press release, capture visuals (photos and videos), time your press release, submit your release, accept and manage the interview (and photo session), offer thanks for the media coverage, and keep track of it all.
Feedback: follow-up emails requesting customer comments or feedback; market testing; snail mail with survey and SASE; Survey Monkey (surveymonkey.com); focus group. Avoid soliciting social media feedback until the product is fully hardened (to avoid an unwarranted negative review).
Business plan: enloop.com, score.org, sba.org. Business assistance: Association for America’s Small Business Development Centers (asbdc-us.org). Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE; bealocalist.org).
Equipment: KitchenAid. Sasa Demarle (sasademarle.com) pastry liners and flexible molds. Silpat Workstation Roul’pat (silpat.com). Stacked racks from King Arthur Flour (kingarthurflour.com). Water bath and pressure canners. National Center of Home Preservation (nchfp.uga.edu/). Wide-mouth funnel from Norpro (norpro.com). Food grade plastic – has a cup and fork symbol for food-safe plastic; not all HDPE (#2) plastic is food-safe.
Convert recipes from volume to weight measurements.
ServSafe (servsafe.com) is operated through the National Restaurant Association and offers an annual online food handler certificate for a nominal fee.
Prep area sanitization: scrub with hot, soapy water; sanitize with a bleach solution (one T bleach in one gallon water); air-dry. Equal parts vinegar and water to clean stove and appliance tops. Separate cutting boards. Keep out insects. Test water.
Pets and CFO in CA?
FDA (fda.gov) – includes label requirements (Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations). ReciPal (recipal.com). UPC Code and SKU (stock keeping unit).
Exemptions: employee and new hire state regs, state unemployment insurance, state worker’s comp insurance, USDA’s FSMA, FDA’s nutritional labeling (unless you’re making a health or nutritional claim or sell wholesale and/or in volumes over limits).
Cottage Food License or a Home Processor License. Wholesale and/or mail order: food processor permit, retail food license, or processed food business license. State specific include: retail food establishment license and a food processing plant license. Commercial kitchen license requirements vary by state and type of product. Options include incubator kitchen, restaurant, or some church kitchens. Sample kitchen rental contract on homemadeforsale.com. See Commercial Kitchen for Rent (commercialkitchenforrent.com).
Nolo Press (nolo.com); LegalZoom (legalzoom.com).
PayPal (paypal.com), Square (squareup.com), Spark Pay (sparkpay.com). Money drawer or belt.
Deductible expenses: supplies and ingredients, government licenses and fees, credit card processing fees, advertising, use of your personal vehicle for the business, employee training, use of premises for business purposes only*, equipment and capital expenses, and depreciation. *Pay yourself rent for the business’ use of a room. Put the rental agreement between the property owner and the business in writing and take photos of the space.
Scaling Up: From Kitchen to Market: Selling Your Gourmet Food Specialty by Stephen F. Hall. How to Start a Home-based Bakery Business by Detra Denay Davis. Starting a Part-time Food Business: Everything You Need to Know to Turn Your Love of Food into a Successful Business Without Necessarily Quitting Your Day Job by Jennifer Lewis. The Soup to Nuts Small Business Tradeshow Guide: What Every Artisan, Craftsman, and Handmade Entrepreneur Needs to Know About Growing Their Wholesale Business Through Tradeshows by Jennifer Lewis.
$300 – 700 for a labeling machine from Zap Labeler (zaplabeler.com). Some machines can take self-adhesive roll labels and attach them to as many as one thousand containers per hour.
Loan through Kiva Zip (kiva.org). Community Investment Collaborative (CIC). Matches by commercial lenders such as Capital One. Kickstarter (kickstarter.org), Indiegogo (indiegogo.com), Slow Money Alliance (slowmoney.org), Kabbage (kabbage.com), Small Business Administration’s microloan program (sba.gov).
CakeBoss (cakeboss.com). Komida (komida.com).