Thursday, February 28, 2013

Food Companies & Mail Order: What You Need To Know

By Keren Kipfer


Many of us have heard friends or family say that we should bottle or sell a special recipe. Whether it is a fantastic salad dressing or gourmet cookies or your own special cocktail mix, it can be fun to set up your own company and sell your products via mail order. Here are some things to consider before you open shop.

Your first step should be to create a solid business plan. This will include a general mission statement as well as a ton of details, from listing what products you will sell to where they will be produced to how many employees you will need, as well as your goals. Typically, it is best to start small by selling just one or two excellent products and slowly expanding.

Head into any supermarket and you will see that packaging is a huge part of sales. Hire a talented graphic designer to create a fantastic label or package design for your product. You also need to hire a company to create an easy-to-navigate, attractive website that includes all your product details as well as a shopping card that allows consumers to order quickly and easily.

Once you have your plan in place and a mock-up of your packaging, you will need to get a business license and also possibly a loan to cover your start-up costs. You can talk to venture capitalist or investors and also approach different banks to obtain financial backing for your loan. Just make sure that you have an organized and detailed presentation for your potential investors.

Food products, because they are perishable, definitely will need to have information printed on them such as the expiration date, serial numbers and other important information. There are special types of printers, which also are known as coders, which have been created specifically to mark items with product ids. These product id coders, which includes brands such as Domino, Altima and Maxima, are either drop-on-demand or continuous inkjet printers. These coders can print on just about anything, from plastic and glass bottles to delicate food items such as eggs.

While purchasing a coder is an expense, there are several product id companies that sell refurbished and new models at lower prices than you could find directly from a manufacturer. In addition to the lower priced printers, find a firm that also sells ink and all the necessary make-up fluid at discounted prices. This is a far less expensive option than purchasing ink and other supplies directly from the manufacturer of your printer.




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