Parker - Jam, jelly and pickle making business startup: how to grow a million dollar success from home!

Jam, Jelly and Pickle Making Business Startup

How to Grow a Million Dollar Success from Home!

By

Samantha Parker

Copyrighted Material

Copyright 2017 Valencia Publishing House

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the proper written consent of the copyright holder, except brief quotations used in a review.

Published by:

www.Valenciapub.com

Valencia Publishing House

P.O. Box 548

Wilmer, Alabama 36587

Cover & Interior designed

By

Alex Lockridge

First Edition

I

ALWAYS had a mini side hustle selling cookies, birthday cakes, homemade jams, and pickles that I made at home. But it was more of a hobby than anything. There were months when I made $400 and then there were months when I made as low as $70. But I didnt care; I enjoyed it. Then in 2008, my husband got laid off from the Ford plant. It was like the whole world just collapsed all around us, to make things even worse, we were in the middle of planning our youngest daughters wedding.

We both knew at the age of 57 Bill will not have much luck finding a decent paying job in Detroit. It took us a good month to actually absorb the shock and for the reality to sink in. Then I decided I needed to step up and for the first time try to be the bread winner by selling the cookies, cakes, jams and pickers.

I knew a lady from our church who sold homemade brownies, but hers was an actual business unlike mine, I asked her for help and told her about our situation. She was an angle, she guided me through every step of the way, and in 3 months I started making enough income to support our family.

She taught me the followings:

Focus on only one type of product, not many (I was doing cookies, cakes, jams, pickles)

• Start from home
• Create a brand around your product
• Have a niche that makes you stand out from rest of the crowd
• Find out what flavors sell the most
• Create a line with no more than 5-7 SKU
• Market the product by taste test in local shops and markets

Well it sounds simple enough I am sure especially as I write this, but for me, the learning curve was a very steep one at first.

The angel ladys name is Betty, and she became my business partner after just a month and then came two other good news, Bill was called and hired back at the Ford plan again and our daughters wedding went just as we expected maybe a little better than what we originally planned, thanks to my extra income.

In last seven years, we grew our business from 0 to $1.45 million dollars. We now have distribution throughout the country( mostly in various health food stores, Trader Joes and Fresh Market stores nationwide). We recently received a decent purchase offer from a big brand food company and signed a contract to sell once their due diligence is complete. This is the very reason I am unable to mention our brands name or any other details as that is part of the agreement we signed.

Okay, I am sure you didnt buy the book to hear my life story, it should all about you and your success. By the way, the very first thing she had me decide was if I was going to bake cakes or make Jams and Jellies, it was a tough call, but I picked Jams and jellies because of their shelf life and for the fact that it is much easier to package and display.

In this book I shared a lot of images, so you get a visual idea, I also shared a few YouTube videos of various processes, so it is easier for you to understand the individual process.

Okay, lets get started, Enjoy!

I

F YOU recall the five points I mentioned in the intro, that is where you need to get started.

My suggestion is to start small, start for under $500, so you can see how it does before you go spend a lot of money.

Lets go through the steps to see how ready you are.

Once you decided to get into this business, the first step is to create a brand for your products, a name that people can recognize you and your products with. Gather a few friends, brainstorm a few ideas and see which ideas stick and sound appealing. Once you decide on a brand, try to buy the domain name for that brand, just in case if your brand ever grows big you can take it national.

Once you decide on the name, you then would have to get a designer to design your logo and labels. This is an easy step, if you are on a tight budget, go to Fiverr.com and hire a logo and product label designer for $5 (make sure to hire someone with high positive ratings) and let hand this task. Now if you have around $150-$300 to spend, my suggestion is to go to www.99designs.com and post your job. Let many designers put in bids with a mock design. You pick the designer you like the best and let them do the work. This way you get a professionally done logo along with your labels that you will use on each jar

Next step is little more involved, in this step, you will need to do some market research. You need to find out a few things.

1. How many other competitors will you be competing with locally
2. How are their brand and packaging
3. What is their pricing
4. Where do they sell their products
5. Is there any uniqueness about their product

Once you find these answers, then come up with a plan that would make you stand out from your competitors. Remember you have to have at least USP (Unique selling proposition) about your products that will make you stand high above everyone else.

Otherwise, lets say there are three other sellers selling homemade jam and jellies in local farmers markets, flea market and fruit stands, then you enter the same market, same stores with similar looking mason jars filled with strawberry, pear and apple jellies, just like the other competitors. Give me one reason why customers should pick your jam/jelly over the others, if you say it is because yours is cheaper, you are wrong! NEVER try to compete on the basis of price, it is a slippery slope, once you lower your price, your competitors will do the same, and before you know it, you will be losing money every time you sell a jar.

I cant tell you what your uniqueness should be, but I will tell you how we stood out from the rest. We stood out by making our whole line Organic and Natural. Yes, we did paid little higher price to buy USDA certified organic fruits, but we did price our products higher too.

Here are few buzz words that can be your uniqueness but please make sure you follow what you put on your label.

• Non GMO (Meaning you used all non-GMO ingredients)
• All Natural
• Home Made
• Made from locally grown Fruits(Instead of using the work locally you can use your own city or states name if appropriate)
• 100% Organic
• No Sugar Added
• Made With Pure Cane Syrup

Once you pass this hurdles, lets now figure out a line of products you need to have. Once again you need to come up with 5-7 SKU at the most. Your market research will tell you what flavors and items sell the most in your area. In our case, we started off with Apple, Strawberry, Pear and Apricot Jelly along with sweet and dill pickles.