Believe it or not, many food-related businesses start in a home kitchen. Yes, even with all the FDA regulations, OSHA and food safety, you can start up a food-centric business in your home. Here’s what you need to know to be part of the many new small food businesses that are coming into the market.
Clear The Regulatory Hurdles
Let’s get this out of the way first. Obviously, you need to clear the regulatory hurdles if you want to sell stuff you made in your kitchen. You will need licenses and permits. In addition to this, you may need to have the local fire department come and inspect your premises to make sure nothing poses a serious hazard.
Finally, you will need to abide by local and state health codes, and may need a health inspector to come in periodically to check over the area where you cook.
Getting Equipment
You’ll need equipment for a commercial operation. For example, you may need Smallwares professional equipment if you expect to bake in high volume. You will also need a commercial mixer, baking equipment, and probably safety and health equipment.
Choosing Your Niche
Assuming you’ve already got the legal and basic equipment requirements out of the way, you’ll want to choose your niche. This is one of the most important aspects of succeeding in a home based business, yet one that’s often overlooked.
The food industry is very competitive. And, people are launching new food businesses every day. If you’ve got a good idea, make sure the product is in a niche category or you may not succeed. Find out what your market really wants, and give it to them.
For example, you may find that people in the gluten-free niche are hungry for a gluten-free bread that doesn’t taste like cardboard. This is an amazing opportunity for you, because you can create a new product that will sell like hotcakes.
Choose Your Brand
For your brand, it’s important to choose a trade name you’ll operate under. And, that trade name has to be something that no one else has. This means you need to check with the USPTO and probably hire a trademark attorney to help you conduct a trademark search for names. If you do not, you risk infringing on someone else’s intellectual property.
It might not seem like a big deal, but companies, even established small businesses, that bother to register a trade name with the USPTO spend money to protect it. This means suing those who try to infringe on their trade name.
It’s just not worth the legal hassle not to do this.
Consider A Co-Packer
Thankfully, there are many co-packers (co-manufacturers) that are happy to make your food product for you. Once you’re doing enough volume, these co-packers will take over and make your food product for you. Some of the great things they can do for you include scaling up your operation in a way you never could, have the proper storage for your food product, including the raw materials, have the necessary certifications and permits to make your food product, have systems in place to maintain detailed records if you ever need to do a recall, and they can work with large distributors to coordinate pick ups and deliveries to major and minor food chains.
Abbie Ellis is a foodie who is making a career out of it. Recently graduated, she is now busy developing her bakery brand and she’s aiming for the top!
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