My wife and I started selling Low Carb baked goods at the local Farmer's Market as a side gig/fun/extra cash. This was July of 2017. Since then our products have gained popularity and if we continue to grow, it will be too much for me to handle alone. A couple weeks ago we paid for a Facebook boost ad and it tripled our sales.

I have no clue what to do next. I was planning on building a mobile commercial kitchen so I could get into stores/online (we are currently following Texas Cottage Food Laws which prohibit this), but at our current growth it again will be too much for me to handle alone. Plus, if we ramped up advertising more than FB, I have a feeling it would take off more due to so many low carb/keto/diabetics out there.

Who can I reach out to to get information and a good plan going forward? I don't know if I try to get this going on my own and hire people, or try to sell to a larger corporation.

I'm having a challenge determining the next step.

Good luck! This sounds like the right kind of problem to have.

Is it possible to piggyback commercial kitchen space/time off of an existing restaurant?

I am no expert but these three things came to my mind right away: in no particular order...

• Raise prices... slowly. This should deter some of that additional demand but allow you to increase sales/profits while keeping you at current max output capacity without the need to invest more capital.
• Lease space at a commercial kitchen in order to meet increased demand.
• Find someone else to make your items for you, and work out a deal with them. This would allow you to keep your main job, and focus on advertising & growing the business further.

If you think there is huge growth opportunity, i would go #2 or #3 before personally investing a ton of capital into a commercial operation.

Edit to add: One more idea is to get really good at filming/editing and post videos to youtube of you making them. Some of these fitness foodies on youtube have a ton of subscribers and I am sure they make some decent money from that alone. Main issue here is giving away your recipe.

Is the Shark Tank response legitimate? I get told that a lot by people at work. I have seen a few episodes, and I have no idea what my business is currently valued at nor do I even have a business plan/mission statement. Like I said, it was a hobby that I now see a lot of potential with. But with a pregnant wife and soon to be one household income, leaving the main job isn't an option.

One person today was telling me about finding "angel" investors and also find people to help market and grow the business. But, no clue where to start.

On FB, it's Leonidas Low Carb Baking...we are based in Conroe.

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• Find someone else to make your items for you, and work out a deal with them. This would allow you to keep your main job, and focus on advertising & growing the business further.

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This man speaks much wisdom. You'd be surprised at the number of million dollar companies that keep their headcount and hassle to a minimum by farming out the 'common' operations, and focusing their time on the things that others either won't or can't do.

OTOH, you need to select a commercial baker who will respect your proprietary rights, and who has enough sense to stay behind the curtain, and not either become your competitor, or supply your competitor.

Many times that is handled through a legal agreement, but there is no substitute for integrity in this type of partner. I might suggest you look for someone who has done private-label baking for others.

Fixed costs (e.g. equipment) and employees (wages + benefits + expectation of steady work) can really bog down a startup. I'm not saying it can't be done, because it has many times, but I'm speaking from personal experience.

With big-time private-label suppliers, you can carry yourself as big time.

One more caveat - I have no idea what the margins are in your business. If things are ultra thin, it may be you need to bake in-house just to keep from pricing yourself out of the market. If you really get to high volumes, however, you are in a much better position to control the pricing you pay.

Good luck. It's always refreshing to see guys with the fire in their belly.

The margin issue is why I mentioned the cook book. He could educate and teach people how to make their own product at a higher margin than selling more and more product. Product that is perishable if sales suddenly drop.

Good luck with your plans. I do not know anything about that type of business, but do have a friend that has done something similar over the last few years. She is on FB at Willow Basket Bakery. If you take a look and want me to introduce you, let me know.

Ragoo said:

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newhowdyag2004 said:

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Is the Shark Tank response legitimate? I get told that a lot by people at work. I have seen a few episodes, and I have no idea what my business is currently valued at nor do I even have a business plan/mission statement. Like I said, it was a hobby that I now see a lot of potential with. But with a pregnant wife and soon to be one household income, leaving the main job isn't an option.

One person today was telling me about finding "angel" investors and also find people to help market and grow the business. But, no clue where to start.

On FB, it's Leonidas Low Carb Baking...we are based in Conroe.

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Do you have a website? Do you take orders online? Do you market on instagram? Do you blog about Keto diet, advantages, meal plans, etc and then how your product fits in to those?

I would grind out an online profile before I ever entertain shark tank.

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^This. Before you think about something like Shark Tank make sure you are maximizing all available options. On that note, a cookbook is something I would consider.

Raise your prices. People will pay a premium for them being "healthy".

$1/cookie and $2.50/muffin is low.

Or if you're comfortable with managing it via Skype or WhatsApp, I've had phenomenal luck using overseas freelancers via upwork.com for many many tasks at work. From 2D animation explanatory videos, vector artwork, web design, CAD work, website development, 3D modeling, etc. You can usually save a bunch of money (with admittedly likely a bit more micromanaging) rather than using a domestic company. You sacrifice some of your time to make sure the results are exactly what you're wanting, but if capital is tight I highly recommend looking at it as an option. Depending on the type of service you're looking for there are different parts of the world I like to hire from.

If you decide to go the cookbook route, you can find print designers, photoshop retouchers for your artwork and imagery, and even helpers that can do a lot of the "busy" work like converting your personal recipe cards and such into digital typed-out text ready for incorporating to your book (the busy work aspect).

Just an idea that many people fail to realize is an option and it may or may not suit your needs.

Good luck! I love the excitement of business opportunity. It fuels my fire for sure.

mts6175 said:

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ExpandYouself said:

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First of all you have to make sure that your service is quite easy to understand for your potential clients and visitors of the website. One of the most common technics to do so is to find a company like this one https://topexplainers.com/ that will make a video for your business . It is quite a well know fact that people tend to order services that are clear and transparent.

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Buy an ad......

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Seconded

Have you looked at co-op kitchen similar to below

https://www.commercialkitchen205.com

Good luck

Your business is a good product, but to scale successfully you must leverage a human resource system. Either hire someone yourself and come up with an efficient system that works for you or outsource and manage your supplier. Either way, human resource management is your next step.

You can also possibly outsource certain tasks like have a supplier create the mix, pre-mix your stuff or make the dough, then you only bake it, or vice versa. What's your most time consuming human task? Consider outsourcing that somehow.

Maybe try and network with other food entrepreneurs or businesses similar to yours and see how they scaled.

If your constraint is production, your wife is about to know a lot of stay at home mom's who would love to make some extra money baking stuff during the day while with the kids.

If your product is legit (seems like it is) I would consider...

Hold status quo on the baking goods side of the business. This can get out of hand quickly and you won't be able to handle. Keep what you having going to fund the next concept...

Put together a classy offering of dry mixes and sell in kits of 2-3 items. Market as high end with good margins. Expand your internet efforts and advertising on dry mix sales and even go global if feasible. Hire stay at home ladies to build dry mix kits (logistics can be difficult here but I have some ideas). Baking these goods yourself takes time, logistics, equipment, shipping, and shelf life consideration.

As you build sales and cash flow revisit baking but you will have to go all in or contract out to larger baked goods company.

Above mentioned "publish a book" has merit also but if you have proprietary personal recipes you will loose it and others will launch.

Just my initial thought. I'm a inventor / entrepreneur guy with marketing experience. I'm in same boat as you with a couple of inventions. Side income but do I patent, go to market, seek an investor, etc. Tough decisions.

foleyt said:

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Find an ecozapp thread on this website and do literally the exact opposite of what you read

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