Hi all. I am in the very early stages of trying to start a business. It is based on pickles. There's a little bit more to my USP but that's not important for this discussion.
I have lots of questions but my most burning questions have to do with the main ingredient of my product: cucumbers.
1) How do I go about finding a good source for this product? Being small starting out I don't want to buy several pallets worth of cucumbers (although I'd like to get to that point). Can I get wholesale prices at a smaller level until I can grow big enough to buy in larger bulk? I'd really like to go organic if possible, making this even harder. It is currently winter time here in north Texas and Farmer's markets aren't really happening yet so I haven't gone that route yet. I can try to talk to distributors but would really like to sound like I know what I'm doing before I call them.
2) How do I deal with the seasonality of it? Cucumbers are typically harvested in late summer/early fall. Does that mean I have to wait until July to buy my cukes and then try to guess how much I'll sell until the following July? Once they're pickled they should keep for quite a while but how do I deal with this problem?
I am trying to create my business plan but sourcing ingredients is one of my biggest problems right now and something I have no experience with at all. Any advice, help you could offer would be greatly appreciated.
--Kevin
I have lots of questions but my most burning questions have to do with the main ingredient of my product: cucumbers.
1) How do I go about finding a good source for this product? Being small starting out I don't want to buy several pallets worth of cucumbers (although I'd like to get to that point). Can I get wholesale prices at a smaller level until I can grow big enough to buy in larger bulk? I'd really like to go organic if possible, making this even harder. It is currently winter time here in north Texas and Farmer's markets aren't really happening yet so I haven't gone that route yet. I can try to talk to distributors but would really like to sound like I know what I'm doing before I call them.
2) How do I deal with the seasonality of it? Cucumbers are typically harvested in late summer/early fall. Does that mean I have to wait until July to buy my cukes and then try to guess how much I'll sell until the following July? Once they're pickled they should keep for quite a while but how do I deal with this problem?
I am trying to create my business plan but sourcing ingredients is one of my biggest problems right now and something I have no experience with at all. Any advice, help you could offer would be greatly appreciated.
--Kevin
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