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Help Not2Hye start a business and not screw it up.

not2hye

not2hye

Knucklehead
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
49
Messages
458
Loc
Hellifornia
I have been making BBQ rubs and sauces for a while. Its time to go legit.

I've got the name, recipes, vendor connections, a marketing strategy, been making connections with possible distribution folks through work.

I have a 12 month plan to have a legit business in place and going. 36 months to be in a commercial space with a bunch of stainless stuff. 5 years to have some employees. 10 years I would like to be diversifying into other food products.

Is that unreasonable?

I am not a food scientist, I have an extensive mechanical background, a business education, and a passion for cooking and food.
I'm really good at my current profession, but bored as hell working for someone else...
I am going to keep working full time for as long as it takes, or forever if this is a big flop. Never know if I don't try...

I also need some advice on getting the business financials and licensing in place.

I can play the game with DMV, but I have no clue navigating LLCs and trademarks, etc.

Do I need to hire a lawyer?
Can yall help?
 
not2hye said:
I am not a food scientist, I have an extensive mechanical background, a business education, and a passion for cooking and food.
Click to expand...
I think you'll be fine with that background so long as you understand how crushingly small the margins are in food shit. You're basically in the bulk materials business one 8oz bottle at a time.

And x2 on move to a more business friendly state. Not having an extra 10% leeched off you every step of the way makes a huge difference in how fast you can reinvest/build.
 
Go for it, that seems like an easy space to get into and not massively time demanding. The key is to keep your day job while you get things going so all the business profits can roll back into it for growth/savings. Once it is easily producing the same as your current salary, make the jump.

The modern world is a lot more about digital media and marketing than having the best product. You’ll need an instagram page, do paid ads, and probably want to start a YouTube channel on cooking with your stuff. Good thing is you no longer have to convince Walmart to carry your stuff on their shelves to break out of the “sales to people you know” rut.
 
If you are really serious about taking the leap, read the book The E-myth. This book goes into great detail explaining what happens to most small business people. It usually starts with someone that can do something really well. This may be cook BBQ, it may be working on HVAC stuff, you may be the best pool guy in the county, whatever it is but then you start thinking I may as well make all this money for myself (the Entrepreneurial Seizure). Then you grind thru several years of doing what you are good at plus all the business related stuff till your soul is completely consumed. Most Small business people know nothing about running a business and this becomes the part that kills them. The e-myth book goes into detail about how you can build systems to avoid some of these pitfalls.

Please dont take my post as me saying to not give it a try, Me and my Business partner went into business in 2000 and now in 2024, I can say its the best thing I could have ever done, but I would have not said that for the first 17 ish years. Somewhere around 2017, we had a business development guy teach us the side of business we did not know and that was how to run a business. It was really expensive for that education, in fact comparable to a collage degree, but the way our business runs now and the growth we have experienced has been crazy. If you don't already have a good grip on business management, as soon as it if possibly find someone to work with you to develop that side of your business. I worked for a large Electrical company as an electrician, got my masters license, then went into the office to learn to estimate and project manage jobs, so I thought for sure going into business was no big deal. I thought I knew how it all worked. There was so much more to the business than being able to estimate, PM, and do the work.
 
Provience said:
Timeline sounds slow, jump in sooner rather than later. Or at least prepare yourself mentally to jump in fully sooner
Click to expand...

I’ll somewhat agree with the 3/5/10 year time frame being slow, but really the “jumps” should be based on revenue/profit/need rather than arbitrary timelines.

If 6-12 months after getting things going you’re sold out all the time because you can’t keep up with demand, you probably need both a larger space and an employee NOW. If 3 years in your making a batch of the stuff one Saturday a month, only getting sales through IBB, and have leftover product, it would be foolish to add a bunch of overhead that’s not the limiting factor to growth.

A lot of states have “hobby laws” regarding certain areas of food in small quantities that might allow you to get started without expensive permits and inspections. LLC’s are easy in most states to set up on your own, if you show up in person they can walk you through it.

Think ahead about ultimately wanting to sell the business when it comes to naming, etc. What about if a local BBQ joint wants you to supply them with your stuff but put their label on it?
 
not2hye said:
I also need some advice on getting the business financials and licensing in place.

I can play the game with DMV, but I have no clue navigating LLCs and trademarks, etc.

Do I need to hire a lawyer?
Can yall help?
Click to expand...
Get started and don’t do any of this yet. Get a DBA- doing business as, and then start. No need to spend time or money on this now. Ain’t big enough to “license” or incorporate.
 
Why make the investment in the space and equipment to make it yourself? Have you thought about outsourcing the production? I know a lot of small label food products do that.
 
BBQ rubs seems like a hard market to crack and it's pretty saturated.
I don't know your 12 month plan, but seems like it would take just that long to be popular to social media, where I would be targeting my sales.
 
welndmn said:
BBQ rubs seems like a hard market to crack and it's pretty saturated.
Click to expand...

This. I know one guy pulling it off really well but he was a decently well known chef at least locally/regionally and started off selling through trade shows, farmers markets, etc. Then he started selling through local specialty retail before breaking into a few Ace Hardwares where he then was able to build enough base to get into their internal warehouse system. Now he's exclusively selling through Ace. It's working out really well for him but then again Ace Hardwares has him by balls since all his eggs are in one basket.
 
nbjeeptj said:
If you are really serious about taking the leap, read the book The E-myth. This book goes into great detail explaining what happens to most small business people. It usually starts with someone that can do something really well. This may be cook BBQ, it may be working on HVAC stuff, you may be the best pool guy in the county, whatever it is but then you start thinking I may as well make all this money for myself (the Entrepreneurial Seizure). Then you grind thru several years of doing what you are good at plus all the business related stuff till your soul is completely consumed. Most Small business people know nothing about running a business and this becomes the part that kills them. The e-myth book goes into detail about how you can build systems to avoid some of these pitfalls.

Please dont take my post as me saying to not give it a try, Me and my Business partner went into business in 2000 and now in 2024, I can say its the best thing I could have ever done, but I would have not said that for the first 17 ish years. Somewhere around 2017, we had a business development guy teach us the side of business we did not know and that was how to run a business. It was really expensive for that education, in fact comparable to a collage degree, but the way our business runs now and the growth we have experienced has been crazy. If you don't already have a good grip on business management, as soon as it if possibly find someone to work with you to develop that side of your business. I worked for a large Electrical company as an electrician, got my masters license, then went into the office to learn to estimate and project manage jobs, so I thought for sure going into business was no big deal. I thought I knew how it all worked. There was so much more to the business than being able to estimate, PM, and do the work.
Click to expand...
Interested in the consulting you had done. I’m at this point in my business right now. I need to do something before it breaks me :homer:. Doing the work is the easy part. It’s the backend shit that suck at. Who did you use, do they have a website?
 
My wife set up her corporation through LegalZoom. It was cheap and easy enough
 
Dang. Good luck dude. You know the first and best business decision when starting new, is to give people free product. I will pm you my address. Thanks bud. :flipoff2:
 
Before you incorporate, think about business name and website address as what you may want to call it may not have a good website available.

My wife has set up 3 LLCs using Rocket Lawyer. Pretty easy.

Lots of good info already posted. Good luck!
 
OP, I'd be very careful how you choose to start/grow something that's your baby.

A former coworker at the factory grew peppers, even hybridized some of his own. Also make rubs, seasonings, breadings and such. When he took early retirement he "partnered" with some bigger entity and also sunk some of his own money into making a business out of it. Tried growing it in the region. The brand no longer exists after 5 years and I believe he lost rights to it as well as the ability to restart on his own for a period of time. From what I understand he had to front the marketing money and did a bunch of the b2b contacts, drove something like 200k in the first two years. The "partner" took all the profit (though I'm pretty sure they fronted a big chunk of the $$ to scale the ingredient purchases) but didn't really help with anything else. He had a great product but I think he made an unwise decision regarding the partnership and its structure.

I would say that for anything food related getting it in front of someone who is a foodie that has a following would be job #1. I don't think being able to fill truckload orders is what you want right away. Hell, McDonalds has made a killing creating scarcity with 10 cent "ribs".
 
Pawpaw flavor and cal-Tex are local up here, decent stuff but since moneys been tighter I just buy kinders at Costco, bout half as much money for the same size container. 🤷‍♂️
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
Interested in the consulting you had done. I’m at this point in my business right now. I need to do something before it breaks me :homer:. Doing the work is the easy part. It’s the backend shit that suck at. Who did you use, do they have a website?
Click to expand...
www.mckinsey.com

Contact Us

Contact us to inquire about our work in Growth, Marketing & Sales.
www.mckinsey.com www.mckinsey.com

There you go. McKinsey got you covered for everything you could possibly need :flipoff2:

My firm has an offering in space as well. Only problem is the big firms might be a little $$$$:homer:
 
Hooligan said:
Get started and don’t do any of this yet. Get a DBA- doing business as, and then start. No need to spend time or money on this now. Ain’t big enough to “license” or incorporate.
Click to expand...
Oh snap, let's see if the hornets nest has been kicked in gcc:rasta:
 
Oh, and there’s a bulk spice place right behind my job site, smells wicked good when they open their garage door.

I guess they fix meat processing equipment too.

meat-processing-companies.cmac.ws

Miranda Verne & Son

Miranda Verne & Son on Otto Cir in Sacramento, CA
meat-processing-companies.cmac.ws meat-processing-companies.cmac.ws
 
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