Hi guys and girls, I have some great dessert recipes. I would like to sell the idea or the desserts itself. Does anyone have any advice as to how to start something like this? I got this idea because different people at different times told me I should be selling them. Any advice would help. Should I start a bake sale? And where would I do it?


Lynn

Lynn

You have several options open to you.

You can create a recipe book, simply sell the recipes one by one to individuals for $1 a piece or by selling it to a manufacturer or you can actually go into making and marketing the desserts themselves.

It all depends on how much work you want to do.

Simply selling the recipes themselves requires a classified ad in a food magazine or something along the lines of the National Enquirer... I do not have the slightest clue how lucrative that might be.

Creating a cookbook is an interesting project, but it not inexpensive to create unless you have the means to fund it or a publisher who wants to pay for it. Without a "name" behind it, such as, oh, I dunno, Gordon Ramsay, or Bobby Flay, not many publishers will jump on it, unless you've got something so special, they can't help but believe it will sell enough to justify the expense.

If you can convince a manufacturer to buy the recipe from you, you may have a valuable commodity, but that will take a lot of door knocking and sampling of the recipes before you will find the manufacturer who will run with the recipe.

Making and marketing the desserts yourself is going to cost you no less than a $5,000 cash outlay just to find out whether or not your recipe can be made for professional marketing by a co-packer.

Unless you get yourself into an incubator kitchen at minimal cost and make it yourself. Which of course is a whole nother ball of wax. You can't just whip up these desserts in your home kitchen and then sell them. There is a whole slew of regulations that food manufacturers are required to follow at various levels of Government.

So... really, how much work do you want to do? I don't mind putting a whack of time into giving you as much information as I can, but I'd rather focus on what you really want to do before answering.

T

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

Eat more peppers!

I used to watch this show on CNBC called the Big Idea. They used to feature about 5 entrepreneurs and they would thell their stories. anyway, several guests started food companies. A common way of starting out small was to rent a kitchen when another business is not using theirs. At night for example. thats how Bare Naked granola company started out. at least i think thats the granola company i saw on the show. this will save you money until you can afford your own.

Thank you for your helpful suggestions. Much appreciated. I like the idea of a cookbook and also the one about renting a kitchen of a business that already exist. That would be perfect.

Lynthen

Lynn

Hi Lynthen,

My girlfriend makes fabulous desserts and she connected w/ several local restaurants (not chains) and offered samples of her creations. They loved them so much that they paid her handsomely to teach their chefs how to make them. They are now on their dessert menus.

Might be another avenue you could try.

Good luck!
Palkia

Hey there Palkia. I thank you for the suggestion. I am willing to try that!

Lynn