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Food Business Trends
Try Selling a Family Recipe

Food business trends are growing among home based business owners. We have all heard about people who have taken a delicious family recipe and developed it into a company that earns big bucks. Any special condiment, sauces, brownies, cookies or cakes made from a recipe that has been handed down in your family, that people rave about could be your specialty food that could bring you profits.

But before you invest any money into marketing Aunt May’s sweet potato pie or Grandpa’s secret barbeque sauce, the first step is to thoroughly research what it takes to get a new food product into stores and into the hands of customers.

Your food item must be unique to compete with big companies. You must make sure the recipe is not from a copyrighted source.

You must perfect your product until it is just right to compete with big companies that have lots of money to spend on research and development.

After perfecting your product, you will need to design or hire some to design a food label and packaging.

You must have a detail business plan. Bring a food product is a large undertaking you must know where you are going.

What you need to know about this business

You will need a food handler’s license and other permits, and FDA approval if you plan to run a mail order food business.

Start-up cost will be between $10,000 and $26,000, depending on your ingredients, packaging, and the cost leasing a commercial kitchen if you do not have one.

Pricing your product will be a continuing process, as you balance covering cost and staying in the same price range as your competitor’s products. Specialty foods often price higher than similar manufactured products because customers value them as unique.

Income potential depends on the demand for your products. Income could range from $5,000 to $100,000, if your items sell nationally.

You will primarily work in-home except when attending trade shows.

How to market this business

Rent booths at trade shows

Send direct mail with samples to specialty retailers and suppliers

Give away many free samples

Send out direct mailings and visit food stores and shops

Try to get your product in five to ten different kinds of stores and talk to retailers to see if they are happy with you product. Once that has happened and your food has been on shelves for a year you can consider exhibiting at trade shows sponsored by the National Association for Specialty Food Trade.