Starting a Food Business Resources for Good Food, Great Business Readers

Know of other great services to get food businesses off to a great start. Let me know!

• Specialty Food Association (Fancy Food Show) which also publishes Specialty Food magazine and the State of Specialty Food report
• New Hope Network (Natural foods content and ExpoWest / ExpoEast trade shows) has a great newsletter and intell on the natural products industry
• Search online for food category-specific associations which will have in-depth research available. Just a few: Plant Based Foods Association; SCA for coffee; Intl. Dairy Assn. for hard ice cream data; NCA for confections

 Online and Local Distribution

Read How To Distribute Specialty Food Products With a Regional Distributor.

• RangeMe – where most grocery stores find new products
• Good Eggs – for local selling and distribution
• UNFI – nationwide distributor
• KeHE Distributors – ditto

Ask around in your local area for regional and local distributors, and read my article on this topic.

Export Support (contact them while planning!)

• WUSATA – Western U.S.-based food company export support
• SUSTA – Southern food company export support
• Food Export USA Northeast– Northeast U.S.-based food company export support
• FoodExport.org – Midwest-based food company export support
• American Foods in Europe
  

Promote Your Food and Connect With Customers

Business card, label, and literature printing

Search for quick printers in your local area. Or tap into one of these online services I’ve used for various print jobs:

• VistaPrint (save 4% automatically when clicking to VistaPrint through Ebates)
• Overnight Prints (save 6.5% or more automatically when you click through Ebates)
• Patches – Bay Imprint in Maryland has great prices and service.

You’ll also find PS Print, FedEx / Kinko’s, Staples, as well as other print ships on Ratuken   

Marketing, Web and Selling Technology

• See the Systems for Growing Your Food Business write up on how to choose a web / mobile, commerce platform to fit your business

Online and Mobile Payment

So many companies are getting into the mobile payment / iPad-based point-of-sale system business. Why? It’s so easy to get started, and they can offer much lower fees than traditional credit card company setups. Start by looking at these companies: 

Square – You can create a free Square store to take credit card payments in person, at a register at point-of-sale, or online. Square takes a fee when you make sales. Food producers and restaurants can enable pick up and delivery within the store. Square can also handle payroll and loyalty programs. 

Shopify is the e-commerce platform leader that’s helped many brick-and-mortar companies survive by pivoting to online sales. You already read about their deal with Walmart, where makers of packaged goods apply to quickly be sold on Walmart.com.

Tip: Whatever system you use should eventually be able to integrate with your online payment system and “backend” bookkeeping. You don’t want an accounting nightmare! Here are more tips.

E-mail Marketing

• Mailchimp
• Constant Contact
• Infusionsoft – high powered marketing automation system for small business

Customer Survey and Research Tools

• Survey Monkey
• Optimizely
• Google Forms
• Google Consumer Surveys

Food Food Photography Know-how

• PPA – Professional Photography Association
• 5 Tips for Hiring a Food Photographer
• Tips on 101 Cookbooks
• Tips from David Lebovitz and Matt Armendariz

Writing Services

• Email Susie for writing, promotion and SEO help as well as connections to other great writers and bloggers.

Events

Industry Trade Shows

New to trade shows? Get Deb Mazzaferro’s free “7 Mistakes Exhibitors Make at Trade Shows”

Just a few shows you might plan for; look up shows for your product categories and based on your target buyers too (e.g., gift shows or restaurant association).

Show	What	When	Where
Fancy Food Show (Summer)	Specialty food	June / July	DC or NY
Fancy Food Show (Winter)	Specialty food	January	SF
Expo West	Natural Products Expo	March	Anaheim, CA (So. Cal).
Good Food Awards	The best awards and events for food crafters	January in San Francisco	June or July in New York
Expo East	Natural Products Expo	September	Baltimore, MD
Anuga	International foods and beverages	October	Germany
SIAL Paris	International foods and beverages	October	Paris, France

Need help exhibiting at international food trade shows abroad?  Let’s chat! I may be available to help. – Susie
(And as you read in the book, remember to tap into export support resources to offset your tradeshow costs!)

Eco-friendly Supplies and Reusable Straws

• Bambu – Bamboo serving plates and utensils
• Worldcentric – All types of eco-friendly packaging and demo supplies
• Eco-tensil – Those cute foldy serving spoons for demos
• Susty Party (hand made, Etsy-ish paper ware)
• Eco Products
• For eco-friendly straws keep an eye on Loliware who has created a bioplastic straw that is edible!

Also search for phrases like “compostable plates” to find more websites. Also, stores such as Costco, Smart ‘n Final and even Grocery Outlet may have what you need on a smaller scale.

Set Up and Manage Your Business

Contract Help Online

The nice thing about using online marketplaces for short contract jobs is that the contractors have ratings and reviews. Take a look at these sites. I’m sometimes available to help define and / or manage projects, on contract myself!

• Upwork freelancers’ network puts flexible staff at your disposal: from writers to designers and coders, to virtual assistants and bookkeepers, you’ll find talent in the United States and beyond. Formerly called Odesk, I’ve used Upwork extensively for projects ranging from website development to illustration — and I can help you define your product to hire the right person / team.
• Fiverr is addictive. It’s the place where most of those vintage logos you see probably get made. It’s a hub of thousands of designers, voiceover artists, writers, video editors…pretty much most any service people might offer starting at $5 with all sorts of add ons that can make the “gig” you buy add up. I’ve ordered logos, email signatures, all sorts of graphic designs, and video editing through the site.

Need money? If you need to make money on the side while developing your food business, you can sign up to be a seller / contractor on any of these sites.

Food Job Posting Sites

See a more extensive list of websites to post food jobs online.

• Good Food Jobs pioneered the idea of a nationwide job posting service only focused on fulfilling jobs in the food industry. Get ideas for people to hire. And know that people will be perusing this site for jobs like the ones you’ll be posting. This great, tiny company is based in New York.
• Oh yes, Craigslist. You knew that.

Technology and Systems for Sanity and Success

• Dropbox is my favorite way to store files. It’s as easy as using Windows or the Finder on a Mac, only your files sync to the “cloud.” Once you’ve got a lot, it’s only $10 / month for a terabyte of data. (That’s all the videos you’re shooting of your company!)
• Systems for Growing Your Food Business – This guide offers thoughts on recommended systems to set up early on, along with links

Insurance Brokers experienced with food business

Be prepared to invest in insurance, which can cost $1,000 or more.

• Susan Combs – New York
• Charlie Massie – California

Communities

When you participate in FoodStarter Academy you join a small but growing Facebook group of food entrepreneurs helping each other.

• Specialty Food Association holds local groups connecting food companies in a region for support and education (and wine drinking). A great way to learn!
• Foodcentricity and LA Food Hub support Southern California makers and beyond
• Edible Communities unites local food makers around the local Edible magazines.
• Good Food Merchant Guild sprang from the Good Food Awards and helps you connect with likeminded makers.
• The Chocolate Life – a huge online community of confectioners and bean to bar chocolate makers

You’ll find all sorts of niche communities online with good old fashioned forums (or “fora” for the grammarians out there).

Funding

Educational Websites and Resources

• Small Business Administration – Your first stop to learn about funding
• Slow Money – The movement for funding local economies, spawned by the book Slow Money

Crowdfunding Websites

New crowdfunding sites pop up faster than my weeds (or almost as fast). Know that you’re on the hook for driving excitement and traffic to your page. The majority of contributions will come from people you know. That is, unless you launch a breakout, viral campaign like the “potato salad.”

• Kickstarter – the largest audience
• IndieGogo – more flexible as far as your being able to take the money even if you don’t meet your goal
• Fundable – another crowdfunding option

You can also host your own crowdfunding service this days on your website. If you do so, you’ll be on the hook for driving traffic. So you need to be hot hot hot for that to work.

Food Business Loans and Investors

• Whole Foods Producer Program
• Credibles – Customers prepay for food and receive edible credits to use like a gift card.
• Kabbage.com – Business lending
• Prosper – Peer-to-peer lending (small-ish loans)
• Lending Club – Similar to Prosper
• The Angel Food Network – Angels specifically interested in food and beverage
• Gust – Connect with angel investors

Regional Food Business Incubators / Accelerators

New funding programs and competitions are cropping up all the time. Here are just a few food-focused incubators that also help line up money:

• Good Food Business Accelerator (Chicago)
• Cooperative Fund (New England) – for worker-owned co-ops
• Food-X (San Francisco)
• Foodcentricity / LA Prep (Los Angeles / Santa Ana)
• Chobani Food Incubator (New York) for food producers as well as a food tech incubator
• Read this Forbes article
• Read this NPR article
• See a short list of nationwide incubators

Books

• Raising Dough: The Complete Guide to Financing a Socially Responsible Food Business by Elizabeth U.
• Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit from It, by Amy Cortese

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Business Books

Business Planning and Entrepreneurship Books

Food Business

• Good Food, Great Business: How to Take Your Artisan Food Idea from Concept to Marketplace by me, Susie Wyshak. Just in case you don’t yet have it. 🙂
• A Lapsed Anarchist‘s Approach to Building a Great Business, by Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman’s Press, 2010.
• Rachel Zemser offers a series of books on food product development
• Sell Your Specialty Food: Market, Distribute, and Profit from Your Kitchen Creation, Stephen Hall’s long-time guide offering further perspective and details, especially on operational topics.
• Business Mensch: Timeless Wisdom for Today’s Entrepreneur by Noah Alper with Thomas Fields-Meyer, Wolfeboro Press, 2009.
• Million Dollar Cup of Tea,

General Business & Planning

• One Page Business Plan
• Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything, by Guy Kawasaki, Playaway, 2009.
• Small Giants: Companies that Chose to Be Great Instead of Big, by Bo Burlingham, Portfolio, 2006.
• The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, by Chris Anderson, Hyperion, 2006.
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t, William Collins, 2001.
• PEAK How Great Companies Get Their Mojo From Maslow, by Chip Conley, Jossey-Bass, 2007.

Research and Consumer Behavior Books

• Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, by Paco Underhill, Simon and Schuster,1999.
• What Women Want: The Global Marketplace Turns Female-Friendly, by Paco Underhill, 2010

Self-Improvement Books (Really Good Ones!)

• Think and Grow Rich by Hill, Napoleon, Ballantine Books, 1987.
• Life Strategies: Doing What Works, Doing What Matters, by Philip McGraw, Hyperion Books, 1999.