My goal that I want to focus on for the purposes of this course is laid out as follows.
Goal: Start a business selling vegan honey and yogurt.
(Oxalis Foods)
Benefits:
- Self Employment - Creative freedom
- A better work schedule - work less nights.
- Self starting pride
Obstacles:
- Time - I work 70 hours a week, which doesn't leave me much time for other things
- Licensing Organic
- Finding a kitchen to rent
- Startup costs for ingredients
- LLC
- Physical and emotional exhaustion
Required Skills:
- Culinary Knowledge
- People Skills
- Salesmanship
- Business knowledge
- Web Design
Possible Contributors
- Kevin A. - Business background, community organizer, recently unemployed
- Brother - Time and money to invest
- Portlandia Foods - A helpful resource, as they sell organic jams
- Krzystof - Web design
- Earthly Gourmet - Purveyor for organic sugar and other ingredients
Deadline: March 2017
Plan of Action:
- During July and august - gather all of the people involved and organize to get all of the information pertaining licensing and packaging.
- By September - Gather materials required for test batches and samples.
- October - LLC and get proper licensing
- January - Find prospective clients
- February - Begin selling small scale.
- March - explore other products
Hi Kei!
ReplyDeleteWhat is your interest in making and selling vegan honey and yogurt? I am asking because it sounds like you already have a busy work schedule working 70 hours a week, I am curious about your passion here. And to that, your passion might help lead you to other people who share that and venues to sell at or through.
When you think of selling vegan honey and yogurt, what niche in the market are you filling? Who will benefit from your product? Who might benefit from your product that you could also tap into that market?
I think you have a very interesting idea and I am glad you are looking at the business side of it as well and getting properly licensed.
In March, you wrote about looking into other products to sell. Do you have any inklings what that might be? Have you taken many business courses and salesmanship courses?
I am excited to hear more as you continue to build your business.
Take Care,
Samantha
1. Please tell me what vegan honey is!
ReplyDelete2. What's your plan for ramping up your business and decreasing your 70-hour work week?
3. Other groups that you might consult with: Food Front Grocery, all of the co-ops in town, New Seasons.
4. Have you considered starting out with a stall at a farmer's market?
5. Have you considered finding a mentor? Early in my career, I found a mentor and it was a game changer. I could go to her with questions (should I ask for more money? how should I structure this major giving campaign?) that I couldn't ask my colleagues. Consider identifying someone in a similar line of work who has achieved success and asking them to mentor you. Paige at Eatin' Alive? Tabor Bread? Pixie Retreat?
It sounds super-direct the way you wrote it. Do you see it as direct, do one thing, then do the next thing, or is that more how you write? It sounds persuasive that you can do it.
ReplyDeleteI'm also curious, as Samantha wrote, about why. What are your core personal values (or core personal value; about half of people have 1 core personal value, and 25% of of people have 3, and 25% of people have many).
Also, what's your BHAG is a question I like (big hairy audacious goal), and related, how will what you're doing change the world (on whatever size it does change the world)?
Basically (for all the above), why does it benefit other people to be involved, what's bigger than you and the food?
Also I'd suggest making a spreadsheet with estimated revenue and expenses, if you don't have that yet.
Hi Kei,
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are an entrepreneur at heart.
Is the vegan yogurt and honey business something you aspire to keeping local or eventually branching out much larger? Would you like to to stay self-contained or make the kinds of products that get sold to stores and restaurants? What is your biggest best dream for Oxalis Foods? (There are so many possibilities!) I wonder what you envision.
Do you have any connections to the chefs at some of the super successful local vegan restaurants like Portobello or Blossoming Lotus or Harlow to find out what vegan yogurts and sweeteners they are currently using and if they have any complaints about the current products they use...to see if there are opportunities in the current market that you could make work for you? Do you want to consider a survey of vegan patrons? (formal or informal... to see what it is they especially like in a vegan yogurt or honey) Another business to talk with might be The Maple Parlor (soft-serve self-serve yogurt place with lots of vegan options). Eb and Bean also. They might be able to give you helpful feedback, and could potentially be future business liaisons.
A few more questions to toss in the mix:
Do you already have it figured out what you'd like to do in your spare time? Do you think you'll miss being in a more collaborative food-making environment? Or does the alone time sound amazing to you?
Do you have an idea of what that start-up costs are?
Do you have it figured out how and when you can ease out of your 70-hour/week job so that you can do this?
I'm excited to hear more about this! And I'd love to know what kinds of yogurts you'll be selling....will they be nut-milk based?
Looking forward!
Liz
Hi Kei! I want to question an assumption I am making here: Is your long-term vision/hope to leave or reduce your 70-hour/week job due to the income from the honey? If so, it might be worth the crazy additional grind to launch the business in the short-term, but given your time constraints it seems very ambitious without bringing on a partner that can do the majority of the work. Might also be useful for that person to come with connections to the vegan community. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Kei.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the specificity of your goal, and all the details of what you see as the steps and obstacles to get there!
I think a big question for me is how you envision this project to intersect, compliment or hinder your current position and 70-hour workweek. I imagine there will be at least one year where Oxalis Foods will demand a lot of your and/or your partners' time, but won't yet be sustainable enough to support you. Do you envision being able to move to a different, lesser position in a kitchen during this time - either the one where you currently work or another restaurant? Do you plan to quit altogether and live off your savings? Or do you hope to keep your current 70 hours and fit this project in to the remaining 20-30 waking hours of your week? If so, is that realistic and healthy?
I think the most important thing you can do, even before you embark on this project, is to assemble an all-star team. If you identify the right people, if you are able to assign them the right roles, and they are committed to them, then maybe all you will need to contribute will be the vision and the recipe. Don't feel like just because it is your idea, that you will need to work the most and the hardest. Maybe one of the people you listed has skills and time that you don't have, and are looking for a project that they can really sink their teeth into, and all they need is the right idea and vision for them to really run with it! I think given your time constraints, you might have to design a project of which that you may not have complete 100% control. If if you need that level of control, you will need to build a skilled team that you trust and trusts you, knowing that you may not be able to put as many hours into this project - at least at first - that they do.
Hi Kei, this seems like an excellent goal for you, since as we learned on Monday, you already have the skills and expertise (and recipe) to create the product. I wonder if it might be helpful, as part of the action plan, to map out a budget for money and time. I also wonder if there are any ways your current restaurant or those who work in it could support this project.
ReplyDeleteYou probably know more than I do but here is a link to Hacienda CDC's page about their micromercantes program. http://www.haciendacdc.org/business-development/
As part of it they have an affordable kitchen.
Do you see this plan of action as a first step for a larger business? Or do you want this first batch of the product to be what you want to sell on a larger scale? If it is a step of a larger goal I wonder if it would be helpful to to some visioning for how it fits into the bigger picture of what you want for your life or for this entrepreneurial venture.
hi kei -
ReplyDeletei would echo a couple of points above, specifically finding a mentor and making connections. hope some of the classmates's connections helped! but i would also say: start small. start selling to friends. word of mouth. underground. think about building buzz before ever formally setting up a business.