I need YOUR help! please

fitinyoga14

I passionately want to start a business in making healthy breakfast bars. I am a just a young college freshman and will be starting from scratch (most likely starting by selling out of my dorm room). There are many reasons why I want my business to take off: to provide 'homemade' comfort to students, to improve a customer's nutritional health, to spread my knowledge and advice on nutrition to others, and to make some extra cash are just to name a few.

does anyone have any advice for me as i attempt to carry out my passion?

oh, and anyone have an idea for a business name? :laugh:

Your response is greatly appreciated. :flowerforyou:

mreed911

Not to dissuade you - I strongly encourage you to pursue this to get the success you want - but make sure you do it legally. There can be some strange gotchas to food processing in terms of permits and laws and you don't want to cross them. So ask questions - call the city permit office, talk to them about what you want to do and start off on the right foot! When you need testers, let me know!

fightingthebulge

yes this is true cause I have looked into selling food and you need permits and i think you need to take a test for something I forgot what they called it but it has to do with the cleaniness and all and safety cause you can actually get sued. good luck with everything

tessjordan88

Don't forget the local health department will need to inspect your kitchen. You need to get a copy of the food safety guidelines and health department score sheet so you know what they will be looking for before they inspect.

xarrium

Agreed--make sure you're following all the rules when it comes to prep. There's enough to deal with at school without having angry health authorities on your case.

My *biggest* problem with granola bars/breakfast bars is that the majority of them are essentially cookies with some oats mixed in. While a lot of students are reasonably active (walking from class to class, working out if possible), most don't need an extra 300 calories of high-fat high-sugar deliciousness... they'd be better off with a delicious high-fiber bar with appropriate nutrients to fuel them for the day (especially considering you're marketing them as "breakfast" bars). I'm sure you have recipes already and you sound like you know a fair bit about nutrition, so you probably know this already, but I wanted to point it out.

As far as a name, I know that the super-famous Lara Bar is named after the creator (her first name is Lara)--maybe you have a nickname or something you could use?

Good luck--I wish you all the best... keep us updated!

Dawn_2013

Well, NUT BAR (health nut?) is one name

But yeah...selling food has tons of regulations. And if the place is not sterile and people get sick...well...the $$$ are flowing the wrong way then. It is an expensive propostion you are suggesting as to get licenced you will need a proper kitchen...and those cost a fortune for retail sale.

That's the bad news.

The good news is you have passion, you are interested in health and you are obviously entrepreneurial! Brainstorm a bit more, do a LOT of research...and then GO OR IT!! Business is fun, exasperating, and probably a lot when you are going to school..but exciting all the same.

fitinyoga14

You all bring up a good point! looks like i'm getting myself into more than i expected. i will definately be doing research on regulations!! keep the responses coming.:flowerforyou:

themommie

If it is a passion of your then you should research it and look at several different ways of doing it. If the cost of getting a kitchen that will pass all the health inspections is too expensive maybe you could talk to a bakery or established place about using their kitchen to make the bars in, maybe even selling your recipe to them. Another option is to buy one of the kitchens on wheels so to speak and selling them on campus in the parking lot. There are several different ways you can go about getting it done.