Step by step guide?

zig

Hi,
A friend and I have recently been making a food product which we hope to sell in the long run, it is quite easy to make and is going down well amongst friends/family, its also neither scandalously unhealthy or really healthy, its neither alcohol nor meat oriented. There also seems to be a gap in the market for it, in that I dont see it in any supermarkets/shops.

The thing is, we are a bit clueless as to where to go to. Our short term plan is to set up stalls at markets and festivals etc and sell from there. We are fairly on top of things on that end, in that , we have our packaging sorted , which markets we will be going to, and our pricing etc. So on that end , its just a case of going out there and selling and hoping the product does sell.

But this is not what we envisage in the long run. Ideally we would eventually like to be running it as a proper business and have the food distributed to shops/dunnes/tesco etc as a proper brand. This would require a whole new world of work of which we are clueless of, i.e. proper (fancier) packaging, food safety regulation, the setting up an actual company rather than 2 lads just driving from market to market, on top of all that there is a chance these shops or wholesalers or whatever might not even want the product.
Im just wondering is there any site out there that gives a step by step guide on how to go through all this. Dont get me wrong im not looking to be spoonfed, and I do understand I must go and do my own research, but its hard to research when you dont even know what you're researching .

I have looked at the sticky here, and its decent with a lot of links, but even clicking through them im not sure whats valid to me or not if you get me.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Gloomtastic!

Have you tried your local enterprise board or Bord Bia for help?

Tangled

D

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Have you tried your local enterprise board or Bord Bia for help?

+1 on both of these.

They're are also a lot of regulations for producing food, even if it's just to sell at farmers markets so make sure to talk to your local eho and get yourself compliant before you start.

Bord Bia are great for bringing on small food producers, have a look at the Vantage programme on their website. Contact them when you're starting and they'll keep you in the loop of any food/marketing seminars our assistance schemes that could be of use to you.

zig

Thanks I appreciate the help, we had considered the local enterprise board but felt that you have to go in there with a full business plan etc. Obviously we're wrong so we're going to call into our local one next week.

As for bord bia, we hadnt considered that either, their site alone has loads of info. Thanks again. That kind of shows you how clueless we are on that end of things.:)

Gloomtastic!

zig wrote: »

Thanks I appreciate the help, we had considered the local enterprise board but felt that you have to go in there with a full business plan etc. Obviously we're wrong so we're going to call into our local one next week.

As for bord bia, we hadnt considered that either, their site alone has loads of info. Thanks again. That kind of shows you how clueless we are on that end of things.:)

Do it, review it, change it. You've done the hardest bit, you're doing it. The knowledge comes with time.

Good luck to you!