Starting your own business

[bethany17]

Probably not the right place to post this, but I am trying to start my own local vegan cookie business. Any advice for where to sell, how to advertise, etc?

[Ludi]

Food businesses are very special cases with their load of health regulations.

[MaryC1999]

Food businesses are very special cases with their load of health regulations.

I was going to post this.
You should check with your local health authority first. I believe in most states food vendors need to be licensed and any reputable store will require seeing that license before talking deals with you. (I don't know anything about Canada or other countries though, it may be different-I'll just continue with US advice).
Licensing will not only involve money but probably a thorough inspection of your kitchen (if that's where you intend to bake the cookies) including any appliances that will be used in producing the cookies (ovens, refridgerators, etc). They'll test the internal temperatures, look for crumbs, and probably want to test/inspect finished product. They'll also be authorized to come in and do surprise inspections and follow up on any complaints filed against your company.
You may have already considered this (YAY for you!) but the start up costs for a food based business will probably be very high. I worked for a restaurant for 6 years and I can tell you HI's can be a real pain. One crumb and they'll knock off 10 points even if they showed up unannounced in the middle of lunch rush and if they'd been 30 minutes later the place would've been spotless. (Nope not bitter :p [actually I'm all for clean restaurants really]). I'm sure it all depends on where you live. We'd get some HI's who'd be understanding of a busy restaurant at a rush time and could tell the difference between localized messes due to quick cooking and assembly and we'd get some who would take off as much as possible for a tiny crumb in the door gasket of the refridgeration unit located under the assembly counter.
Just some things to take into consideration. If it's still something viable and interesting to you, why not try health food stores, smaller 'mom and pop' organizations or even the internet? You can set up a fairly inexpensive website and packing cookies for shipment isn't too hard as long as nothing in them is easily spoilable.
Good luck!
Mary

[bethany17]

I was going to post this.
You should check with your local health authority first. I believe in most states food vendors need to be licensed and any reputable store will require seeing that license before talking deals with you. (I don't know anything about Canada or other countries though, it may be different-I'll just continue with US advice).
Licensing will not only involve money but probably a thorough inspection of your kitchen (if that's where you intend to bake the cookies) including any appliances that will be used in producing the cookies (ovens, refridgerators, etc). They'll test the internal temperatures, look for crumbs, and probably want to test/inspect finished product. They'll also be authorized to come in and do surprise inspections and follow up on any complaints filed against your company.
You may have already considered this (YAY for you!) but the start up costs for a food based business will probably be very high. I worked for a restaurant for 6 years and I can tell you HI's can be a real pain. One crumb and they'll knock off 10 points even if they showed up unannounced in the middle of lunch rush and if they'd been 30 minutes later the place would've been spotless. (Nope not bitter :p [actually I'm all for clean restaurants really]). I'm sure it all depends on where you live. We'd get some HI's who'd be understanding of a busy restaurant at a rush time and could tell the difference between localized messes due to quick cooking and assembly and we'd get some who would take off as much as possible for a tiny crumb in the door gasket of the refridgeration unit located under the assembly counter.
Just some things to take into consideration. If it's still something viable and interesting to you, why not try health food stores, smaller 'mom and pop' organizations or even the internet? You can set up a fairly inexpensive website and packing cookies for shipment isn't too hard as long as nothing in them is easily spoilable.
Good luck!
Mary
Yeah, considered the health thing but not the cost thing. Thanks anyways...