Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Great advice all. 

I have a pastery product that I would like to sell in local restaurants, coffee and tea spots and stores.  What`s the best way to approuched them.  I have a unique dessert that no one else is selling. 

I would like to send emails first before calling.  Are there any sample drafts of letters out there showing me how to introducing my product via email/letter?

Thanks!

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

Here in the Cincinnati area, I started doing festivals, craft shows and farmer`s markets to get my company off the ground. You will get to know other vendors there and learn a great deal from them. (As long as they are not direct competitors.) I have just added my website and am now dealing with shipping issues. There`s always so much to learn.

I sell dip and dessert mixes and microwave pork rinds. The Dept. of Agriculture said I had to use a commercial kitchen. They sent me a list of over 100 kitchens in the area that are licensed by them. You can approach any of them to see if you can work a deal for using their kitchen when they don`t need to use it.  The Dept. of Ag also will tell you (at least in Ohio) what your labeling requirements are. Steve was exactly right with his info. You don`t need nutritional breakdowns unless you make a specific nutritional claim. Getting a nutritional breakdown for each recipe is about $550 from one company I priced.

I just developed my recipes and started having friends and family tasting them for me. Then I started with a flea market, then went on to bigger markets as mentioned above. Also tried a county fair. You get great in-person feedback from customers this way and you will learn a lot. Good luck.

Lots of great ideas here! 

I am a chef in the NYC area with a couple of products that I would like to introduce to the market, the problem is, I have no contacts, no real money or commercial kitchen when to prep my items.  No real help.  I am now in the process of legally establishing a brand.  Any ideas who could help me in terms of having it packaged and distributed?  Where should I go?  

Any answers would be greatly appreciated.

Thx!    

Karen

Try to send food samples on FDA. And let's hope they approve it. And also, try the consumers.

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pizza franchises

Wow, thanks for this wonderful thread! half of the questions that I have listed in my notepad have answers here! I am working full time but planning to do part time by doing homemade products, and some of the info's here can help me! Thanks!

Best of luck to everyone here! If you need help creating a tasty logo :) or any other branding, I can help.