Food Companies & Mail Order: What You Need To Know

By Keren Kipfer


If you have created the world's best barbecue sauce or perhaps the greatest recipe for chocolate chip cookies, you might have been encouraged to open a mail order company and start selling your amazing recipe. If you want to take the plunge into food mail order, consider the following steps first.

Your first step should be to create a solid business plan. This will include a general mission statement as well as a ton of details, from listing what products you will sell to where they will be produced to how many employees you will need, as well as your goals. Typically, it is best to start small by selling just one or two excellent products and slowly expanding.

When it comes to food, you really need to think about packaging. An attractive package makes your food item look much more palatable, so unless you are a very gifted artist, hire someone else to create the design for the labels and packages. Unless you build websites for a living, you also will need to hire someone to build a website, and it needs to include a shopping cart so that consumers can easily make purchases.

It costs a good chunk of money to start up a business, including the cost of equipment, packaging and advertising so you probably will either need to obtain a loan from a bank or get some investors interested in supporting your business plan. Either way, be sure to create a professional looking business proposal for lenders and investors. Don't forget to apply for a business license and learn about the business restrictions and taxes for your state and your type of business.

Whatever type of food item you sell will need to be imprinted with a product id. This id will list information such as a specific batch number, serial numbers, and date and time coding. To do this you will need a special type of printer, which is also called a coder. These words can be used interchangeably. The coders can be either continuous inkjet (CIJ) or drop-on-demand (DOD) printers, and there are many brands, including Maxima, Altima, Domino and more. These coders can print on glass, plastic, cardboard and all other types of packaging and even directly on foods such as eggs.

These printers can be costly, so rather than purchase a brand new coder from directly from the manufacturer, consider finding a full-service product id company that sells new coders, refurbished coders, parts and all of the ink and supplies for the coder. These companies sell ink as well as make-up for the coders at far lower costs than you will find from the printer company. In addition, a product id company can answer questions and many also offer repair services, as well.




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