Being in the food industry, I can vouch for the long hours and hard work.

I have few suggestions, since my experience is in a different branch of food than you're planning and is potentially of little value.

1. Yes, calculate in loss. If you don't you'll have to calculate it out of profits.

2. pay yourself separately and keep track of all cash transactions. It is far too easy as a small business owner of a food business to fall into the trap of nipping a bit of food here and there and not keeping track of that and the cash coming in. It will eat into your earnings and revenues when it should be on paper and going out as salary. Your accountant will thank you for it.

3. For the machinery... I suggest leasing to start, you may discover that you are not happy with a particular machine and although on a monthly basis it is more expensive to start, having leased, you will be able to switch to a better model if the one you leased isn't quite up to snuff. Both the leasing fee and the interest is deductible. Buying it, locks you into being unhappy with it until it has lived out its amortization schedule.

4. An added benefit to leasing is the maintenance schedule and installation. Having bought a steam jacketed self-stirring kettle, we have found that we need a gas certified electrician to install it. Having bought our printer, we find that we have to pay cash to have a technician visit.

I hope these thoughts are useful to you.

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!