Homemade for Sale, Second Edition: How to Set Up and Market a Food Business from Your Home Kitchen

by Lisa Kivirist, John Ivanko

Overview

Updated and expanded! The authoritative guide to conceiving and launching your own home-based food business – from idea to recipe to final product.

Follow your dream to launch a food business from your home and join the booming movement of food entrepreneurs.

Fully updated and expanded, Homemade for Sale, Second Edition is the authoritative guide to launching a successful food enterprise from your kitchen. It covers everything you need to get cooking for your customers, providing a clear road map to go from ideas and recipes to owning a food business. Contents includes:

• Product development and testing
• Understanding state cottage food and food freedom laws and advocacy
• Independently tested recipes for non-hazardous food products, including frostings
• Marketing and developing your niche
• Step-by-step guides for packaging, labeling, and creating displays
• Structuring and running your business while planning for the future
• Bookkeeping and financial management
• Managing liability, risk, and government regulations
• Avoiding burnout through self-care and time management
• Profiles of successful food entrepreneurs.

More people than ever are demanding real food made with real ingredients by real people, and you have the freedom to earn by starting a food business from home. No capital needed, just good recipes and enthusiasm, plus enough business know-how found in the pages of Homemade for Sale to be a success. Everything else is probably already in your kitchen. Best of all, you can start right now!

AWARDS

• SILVER | 2023 Living Now Book Awards: How-To / DIY

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865719699
Publisher:	New Society Publishers
Publication date:	12/13/2022
Edition description:	2nd Revised ed.
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	305,176
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

Lisa Kivirist and John D. Ivanko are nationally recognised speakers and writers with 15 books between them including the award-winning ECOpreneuring, Homemade for Sale, Farmstead Chef, and Rural Renaissance. Lisa is the instructor for the best-selling online Udemy course: How to Start and Market a Food Business from Your Home Kitchen. Together, they spearheaded the first-ever Home-based Food Entrepreneur Virtual National Conference. Lisa served as a plaintiff in the successful lawsuit that legalized the sale of home-baked goods in Wisconsin. She also leads Soil Sisters, an award-winning project of Renewing the Countryside that supports women in sustainable agriculture and is the author of Soil Sisters: A Toolkit for Women Farmers. John is a photographer and the co-author for six award-winning multicultural children's books including To Be a Kid, Come Out and Play, and Back to School. John and Lisa are innkeepers of the completely solar-powered Inn Serendipity B&B in Wisconsin.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Nell Newman

Introduction: Cottage Food, Food Freedom, & Growing a Movement
Cottage Food Surge
Work Your Passion for Food
First-timers or Seasoned Pros?
It's Thyme. Why Now?
Key Elements of Cottage Food Laws
Organization of This Book

SECTION 1: GETTING STARTED

Chapter 1: Navigating Your State's Cottage Food Law
Historic Roots, Back to the Homestead
Food Products Versus Food Service
Cottage Food Movement is Growing
Tips for Understanding a Cottage Food Law
Mapping the Movement with Forager
Cottage Food Operator Assessment by University of Wisconsin-Stout Research Study

Chapter 2: What's Cooking?
What Products Can You Sell?
Where Can You Sell Your Products?
How Are You Allowed to Sell Your Products?
How Much Can You Sell of Your Products?
Be Your Own Advocate

Chapter 3: Ideas in the Oven: Identify Your Business Goals
My Kitchen, My Rules
Recipe for Success
CFO Self-assessment

SECTION 2: WHAT'S COOKING: PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND RECIPES

Chapter 4: Understanding Non-hazardous Food Products
Food Safety
Non-hazardous Basics
Common Non-hazardous Food Products
Non-hazardous Testing Process

Chapter 5: Independently Tested Non-hazardous Recipes for Food Products
Best Practices & Kitchen Wisdom
Ingredients: Celebrating Local Foods & Grains
Recipes: Muffins & Scones
Recipes: Cookies & Cakes
Recipes: Crackers
Recipes: Frostings

SECTION 3: SELLING YOUR STORY: MARKETING

Chapter 6: Product Development: Design, Name, Logo, & Packaging
Niche, Target, & Positioning
Product Design & Attributes
Naming Your Products & Business

Chapter 7: Better Labels & Packaging That Increase Sales
Keep It Homespun, Yet Professional
Five Basics of Product Labeling
Identify Packaging Goals

Chapter 8: Packaging Ideas to Increase Sales
Three Purchase Scenarios: Impulse, Gifts, Snacks
Packaging that Reflects Your Values & Brand
Encyclopedia of Packaging Options

Chapter 9: Amp Up Your Jams & Other Jarred Products
Common Jar Blunders
Adding Effective Visual Appeal to Jars
Combining Items to Create Attractive Holiday Gift Baskets
Label & Package Efficiently

Chapter 10: Proving the Market & Getting a Plan
Market Feasibility: Testing the Market
Competitive Analysis
Planning for Profits
The Back-of-the-Napkin Plan
Organizing, Planning, & Managing the Business

Chapter 11: Getting the Right Price
Business Expenses
Self-worth: Valuing Your Time
Pricing Your Product
Variable Savings

Chapter 12: Moving Your Product to Market
Sales Venues: Places to Sell
Direct Customer Deliveries
Home Pickup
Community Events
Special Events or Weddings
Wholesale (Indirect)
Mail Order
Stay on Target for a Bull's-eye
Thematic Displays to Boost Sales

Chapter 13: Promotion: Persuading Customers with Advertising & Public Relations
Promotion
Advertising
Public Relations

Chapter 14: People, Partnerships, & Purpose
People
Partnerships, Networking, & Cause-related Marketing
Purpose & Passion

SECTION 4: ORGANIZING, PLANNING, & MANAGING THE BUSINESS

Chapter 15: Ready, Set, Go: Organize Your Kitchen
Five Steps for Setting Up Your Home Processing Facility

Chapter 16: Time Management & Beating Burnout
Identifying Burnout
Six Components of a Healthy CFO Lifestyle
Let the Care for the Product Carry Over to You

Chapter 17: Make It Legal: Establish Your Business in 7 Easy Steps
Step 1: Do a Local Zoning Check
Step 2: Get Licensed
Step 3: Set Up Your Business & Structure It Wisely
     No Personal Liability Protection
     Distinct Legal Entity Offering Personal Liability Protection to Shareholders
Step 4: Secure a State Business License (If Needed)
Step 5: Get a State Sales Tax Permit (If Needed)
Step 6: Get a Local Business License (If Needed)
Step 7: Manage Risk with Insurance

Chapter 18: Day-to-day Financial Management
Day-to-day Financial Management
Income Statement & Balance Sheet
Expenses Defined
Bookkeeping Basics
Cash Flow Is King
No Cakewalk: Hobby Versus Business

SECTION 5: SCALING UP

Chapter 19: Scaling Up
First, a Reality Check
Casting Off the Shackles of the Cottage Food Law
Wholesale Expansion
State Prerequisites for Wholesale & Mail Order
Three Options for a Licensed Food Production Facility

Chapter 20: Multiple Markets & Money Matters
Markets, Markets Everywhere
From Handmade to Mechanized
Labeling for the Big Leagues
Pricing & Distribution Revisited: A Whole New Formula
Magnifying Your Marketing
Raising Some Dough
Keep Tabs

SECTION 6: FUTURE OF COTTAGE FOODS: FREEDOM!

Chapter 21: Importance of Cottage Food Advocacy
Wisconsin: Lessons in Lawsuits, Collaboration, & Patience
Work the System

Chapter 22: Organize Your State Cottage Food Association
The Reasons Why State
Associations Rock Association Start-up in Four Steps

Chapter 23: Final Frontier: Food Freedom
Foundation of Food Freedom
States Leading the Way
Lemonade Law Loophole
Online App Platforms Provide a Bridge to Customers
Ignite Your State's Food Freedom Law

Epilogue: Icing on the Cake

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Having spoken with thousands of cottage food entrepreneurs, I can confirm that this book is exactly what someone needs when starting a cottage food business. I've seen many new entrepreneurs making tasty products with bland profits, and Homemade for Sale correctly focuses on the missing ingredient — marketing. It will give your new business an edge in a crowded marketplace. Well-researched, loaded with examples, and perfectly tailored to the home cook, this book will point you in the right direction and set you up for success!"
—David Crabill, founder, Forrager.com and The Forrager Podcast

"Kivirist and Ivanko are two of the most important leaders in the cottage food movement and have been instrumental and absolutely indispensable to the movement's rapid progress over the last few years. We are all grateful to have them."
—Erica Smith Ewing, senior attorney, Institute for Justice

"By the time you finish reading Homemade for Sale, you'll be wearing your farmers-market-John / jam-n-jelly-Jane hat in total confidence."
—MaryJane Butters, author, Milk Cow Kitchen, MaryJanesFarm.org

"Lisa and John are leaders in this community and Homemade for Sale is a must-read for anyone considering or already running a cottage food business."
—Mark Josephson, founder and CEO, Castiron

"Homemade For Sale is an inspiring guide for anyone interested in starting a home-based food business. Lisa and John have been through the fire themselves and scoured the cottage food industry to find the best resources to help you get off the ground and succeed. From understanding your state's laws to incorporating your business to choosing the right products customers to market to, they take you step-by-step through everything you should be doing and thinking about. Their profiles on other cottage food entrepreneurs bring everything a little closer to home and might be just the motivation we all need to take part in the movement ourselves."
—Lev Berlin, founder, ReciPal

From the Publisher