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I did not find that this book was helpful for getting started with a food business. Lots of people start by selling small to local stores, at craft fairs, mall kiosks, etc. This book was more geared to starting big - that means a big investment and is better suited to someone who already has a decent small business going. For them, this book would be helpful.
I was looking for help getting my product sold locally, and this was no help. After all the money I have spent trying to get my product sold, I wish I had the money I spent on this book back.
territories for your product; researching the markets; developing and positioning your product; government regulations (a list of the relevant agencies for each process of the business is provided); packaging, labeling, pricing, warehousing and shipping your product; principles for marketing success; promoting, publicizing and advertising; finding buyers; arranging deals; finding copackers, and much more.There is a lot of valuable information to process and I found myself reading the book a second time (and most likely will do so a third time as a refresher). His intention is to inform and he does so clearly by using flowcharts and explaining indepth the various aspects of the specialty food market.
Though he does discuss various important aspects of the industry as a whole, his emphasis is on marketing.He uses real-world examples of entrepreneurs that have either succeeded or failed in bringing their product(s) to market and in some cases due to being under-capitalised or not being prepared to handle the demand for their products once they had become successful. Make no mistake, Mr.
Stephen Hall's book is a honest guide for aspiring food manufacturers who are new to the specialty food industry, and most importantly, who have limited funds to sustain a long-term marketing effort. But this a positive rather than a negative point, because it encourages you to be realistic and to prepare for success rather than set yourself up for failure.
Hall in no way sugarcoats the process. In fact, in the chapter where he discusses start-up costs, he stresses the importance of an independent source of income to successfully start your business, especially for the first 3-5 years.
He covers important issues such as defining the best U.S. I highly recommend this book as a good foundation and to get you started in the right direction.
Excellent author and wonderful expertise though. If you already have an established product and do large scale production, this is a great book for you.
As a Small Business Consultant, I was asked to teach a class on marketing your food product for a local food incubator, which is beginning level. This is a good book, but not exactly what I was expecting.
It did give guidance to higher levels of the same thing, and was very professionally done, just a bit above what I was expecting. This is great if you want to have your mustard in a national chain, your tea or coffee on grocery store shelves, or the like.
What I thought it would help with was entry level marketing to get your food into local stores, selling on the internet, and getting into a trade show. For beginners, it doesn't really take it right out of the kitchen.its sort of a couple notches past that.
Definitely a keeper for my personal library.
My biggest questions are: What are the laws about the sale of food from the kitchen. I enjoy preparing food and giving it away in pretty containers. Is a health inspection of the kitchen necessary. Where would I find this information for the state in which I live.This book does not cover any of the information that I think is necessary. I was hoping I could sell some of my gorgeous and delicious gifts with little overhead. According to the author, one should plan on laying out a rather large investment for this type of business.FROM KITCHEN TO MARKET contains many details but omits the basic information required to get started.
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