Starting a natural supplement company

[AllanSupplement]

Hello,

I'm Allan, 33.

Despite having faced significant losses recently, I'm embarking on a new venture with a partner to launch a food supplement company focused on natural and preferably ethically & qualitative sourced products.

Though I have no previous experience in the supplement industry, I am a long-time supplement user. Many products on the market today are low quality with dubious origins (alibaba or chinese dropshipping) and I know that I would pay more to get a better quality, so my bet is that there is a market for this.

Distribution Channels:

• Amazon
• iHerb
• TikTok Shop Affiliates (shopify website)

Traveling to India next week to source our first product and plan to work with a U.S. manufacturer then.
I plan to create some content about the sourcing for my sales pages.
Will probably start with ashwagandha + another product to be determined.
No compound at the moment, only simple natural best-selling plants.

I would appreciate any advice or insights.
I will update this thread regularly.

 

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[Bounce Back]

Hello,

I'm Allan, 33.

Despite having faced significant losses recently, I'm embarking on a new venture with a partner to launch a food supplement company focused on natural and preferably ethically sourced products.

Though I have no previous experience in the supplement industry, I am a long-time supplement buyer. Many products on the market today are low quality with dubious origins (alibaba or chinese dropshipping) and I know that I would pay more to get a better quality, so my bet is that there is a market for this.

Distribution Channels:

• Amazon
• iHerb
• TikTok Shop Affiliates (shopify website)

Traveling to India next week to source our first product and plan to work with a U.S. manufacturer then.
I plan to create some content about the sourcing for my sales pages.
Will probably start with ashwagandha + another product to be determined.
No compound at the moment, only simple natural best-selling plants.

I would appreciate any advice or insights.
I will update this thread regularly.

So I see things like this quite a bit where you can go pretty hard at something like this and sometimes its as simple of "did you really search for what you are thinking/claiming doesn't exist?".

As a thought exercise what is one supplement that you can't find a trustworthy looking offering for? I'm sure you can find it most likely just isn't a price you want to pay. If that's the case the problem doesn't become reinventing the wheel it becomes more understanding why they charge the higher price and can you really beat it? If they then lower their price what's unique about your offering? Etc.

Point is what starts as a simple concept turns into the classic value prop issues any product will face. That often isn't as glamorous as feeling like you are bringing something new to the world and that's when most people tap out after wasting a year of their life on a half baked idea. No offense meant here just trying to save you some grief if you can be honest with yourself.

For instance based on your post saying ashwagandha + Amazon I searched Amazon for "organic ashwagandha". Pages of both big name (Garden of Life, Mary Ruth's, etc.) and indie name brands USDA organic with thousands of reviews. Not saying you can't join the party but it doesn't seem the premise of there not being options holds.

 

[AllanSupplement]

Estimated numbers:

• $100 cost of label design (in progress on fiverr)
• about $3,000 for third party certification
• about $1,500 for the sourcing trip

Variables

• $1 cost of ingredient (including transport)
• $3 cost of packaging (including bottle, filling, sealing, sorting)
• $4 cost of delivery to customers
• others variables such as amazon ads & commission, storage, affiliate commission, ...)

Targeted final retail price

• $28 for 120 capsules
• margins to be determined later when we have enough volume but we know that we need to build trust and organic ranking via positive reviews so even break even would be a great start for the first months

Of course I am very flexible, this is just an estimation to give an idea.