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

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

this discussion is beneficial for me as i want to start a food selling business. Before reading it only thought to sell my product at the lowest rate so that a normal person can afford it. And gradually increase it when it will become a habit for the people. Like the maximum businesses do. But after reading it i come to know that there are many other way to by which i can start my business.