NOW is the time to start your food business! Did you know that? Your cottage food success is not going to come from what you think it will. The path you take will not be easy, common, or something you anticipated. Not what you expected to hear, right?If you enrolled in this course you either sell food, want to sell food, or have an idea for a food product to sell. Keep reading! Youre in the right place. The major mistake many people make is thinking their big food idea is something theyre passionate about “Ill make my amazing cupcakes! Ill sell my familys recipe for elderberry jam, its been in the family for more than 100 years.” All of that is true. butAfter being in the Cottage Food business, dabbling in a variety of food-related jobs, catering, and in some form of food service for more than thirty-six years and teaching Food Entrepreneurship for fourteen years, Ive learned, that the food business is not fickle and food is not hard to sell. Well, good food that is! It is the gurus and experts that want to muddy the water, so it appears to be the most challenging task in the world. Its not. Those who tell you selling food is tough only say this so they can become the gatekeeper and keep you out of the marketplace. What you will learnIn this course you will learn the start-up process, selecting a product that will sell and one that attracts people willing and able to pay the price youre asking for the product you sell. You will also learn that one stream of income will not sustain you in the wonderful world of cottage foods. Your food is the foundation, but it is only one part of your money-making machine. Ill share more about this later in the course. By now you may be feeling a bit OVERWHELMED. DON’T! I’m right here with you. I totally get it. I felt the same way when I started my catering business in 1987 and The Charlotte Pie Authority, in 2014. Yep! Two successful businesses. I asked questions like. Will my customers buy my products? Is the price too high? Is it too low? What if no one buys anything? What should I do during the lean times? How do I get my product in front of my customers? Who is my ideal customer? What do I do after the first sale? How do I get repeat business? Should I pivot and start selling different products? Do I need a website, and do I have to do the social media stuff? Now, theres this COVID wall lingering that is stopping my sales and growth, what do I do? How do I make this work and not waste time and money?It’s A Lot! It should be EXCITING knowing you are going to sell out of product, right? You heard me sell out of everything! I have created and implemented various sales strategies to see which ones work best. Ive interviewed hundreds of cottage food operators, and marketing and social media experts, and this course will address best practices tips, and tricks to help you become a successful cottage food operator so strap yourself in! . is that seatbelt on? Are you ready? Okay. let’s GO! Ignore traditional educational practicesGoing into business is not taught to you in school. Traditional education was created to keep you functioning as a worker bee. School systems pump out great little learners who learn to do the opposite of what is needed to operate a profitable business. You learned to do what you were told, right? That won’t work in the BUSINESS WORLD! In school, you are to do as you are told, take a test by yourself, do your work on your own and remember, there is only one right answer. This is the total opposite of what you need to know to operate a successful business. For years I have asked parents to let their kids have a lemonade stand, sell Girl Scout Cookies or work at a fast food restaurant. In that way, they can at least be introduced to the wonderful (yeah-crazy) world of business. Today I recommend all children and adults start a Cottage Food business. Cottage Food laws are now in all 50 states. You will learn more about yourself and life by operating a business than by working a job. There, I said it! You will also learn: Learn the step-by-step way to sell homemade food productsRevolutionary sales campaigns to use when selling homemade foodsThe difference between non-hazardous food and hazardous foodsFinding folks willing and able to pay the price youre asking for your productsWrite a simple Lean business plan specific to your food businessLearn to use BOLD Product Labeling StrategiesPrep for those pesky Home Kitchen InspectionsStop jumping over a dollar to pick up a dime pricing! Stop struggling to sell at Farmers’ Markets and seek out REAL sales locationsLearn jaw-dropping strategies for using Social Media to get exposure and sell your productsThere is more than one way to launch a business and sell products, and it’s about finding the right strategy that ALIGNS with you and your product. My job is to guide you, and save you from feeling overwhelmed and spending excessive amounts of money and hundreds of hours in launch prep only to learn youre not getting the results you want. Heres what we will be covering in this course:
