| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Minamoo |
We've started a little business! Sort of.....Hello folks! The OH and I have been thinking of starting our own business selling my preserves for ages now and we've finally taken the plunge. This has been a dream of mine for ages (and now misdemeanors' too). It's a range of wild food products such as jams, syrups, cordials, fruit leathers, as well as dried herbs. I decided to stay away from mushrooms as they are not that plentiful where I am and I would much rather keep them for personal consumption when I find them in large amounts.We've come up with a name for our business and a logo. It will be called "Msitu" which means "forest" in Swahili cos all the stuff will be from the wild. I'm sticking to fruits as they are unbelievably plentiful around our home and I can pick as much as I want and there would STILL be more left on the trees! At the moment we have just started with elderflower cordial and it's very much an informal thing. We've printed up labels and are flogging off bottles to colleagues and friends. In the long run however, we would like to have a market stall and be able to sell to a much wider audience but we're not sure what we would need to do to do so. Any help would be greatly appreciated! |
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| Bernie66 |
Well done, grow slowly sustainably and surely is my advice. | ||||
| Effie |
How exciting Mina  I firmly believe it will be fabulous as you are a verry talented lady. Anyone who has owned as many kenwoods as you is well equipped to start this kind of venture 
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| Penny |
Good luck with it Mina
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| mihto |
If you can send your stuff overseas you've got a customer!
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| stumbling goat |
why call your business a name that does not tell people what it is and what it does?
while the name is nice, as names go, and organic even, it does not say anything about you except to a swahili person. a lady i met several years ago at a country show named anilha was seelling her range of curry sauces called "anilhas curry sauces". tells yolu what it is straight away. pls doln't think i am knocjking your dfdreeam but IMHO you are missing out on a large chunk of appeal simply because you are being twee. when i started a company selling donuts i called it "the donut company", when i used to hire out sunbeds i called it "Leisuretan ". but hey good luck with it. ec |
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| Minamoo |
Thanks for the advice, but I'd much rather stick to Msitu as our name. I want to have a name that speaks about who I am and is original. The word msitu sounds nice too regardless of whether or not you know what it means. At the moment we are just selling it in person so we'll just tell people what it means. If in the future we start up a website or have a market stall we'll make sure the meaning of our name is obvious to passers by. Tanks for pointing it out. And thank you so much for the good wishes guys! It means a lot. 
Do any of you know what legal hoops we have to jump through to get selling properly? I have vague recollections of some sort of health and safety tests we have to do to be able to sell things we make but I don't know anything more about it than that.  Any ideas?
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| Cathryn |
Good luck Mina, with your energy it has to work!
There are rules and regulations and there will be quite a few on here that know them. I tried a search of the site but obviously wasn't putting in any useful words, sorry. 
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| earthyvirgo |
I don't think the name will be such a problem.
It would only be part of the 'brand' in the long term, along with some sort of imagery perhaps. Or, you could have the name, and a strapline to accompany it, which explains what the product is ...if people need an explanation. Msitu Wonderful Wild Foods (obviously something more imaginitive thatn that) The very best of luck with it. EV |
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| welsh veg grower |
If its any help I like the name and as ev says it just needs a strap line.
if I was you I would go to your local farmers market and see what is already available so you can develop products to fit a gap in the market. But it all sounds good so far. good luck |
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| vegplot |
It sounds intriguing, the name that is. Yes, I'd go for that as a brand name, a strap line to explain would be good. heck, if an online investment fund can be branded as 'egg' ...
Go for it. Zest is in. |
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| AnnaD |
Good luck! I'm sure it will go very well
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| sally_in_wales |
an unusual name can also help you out, my very first 'official' business was called, for a very convoluted reason thats now utterly irrelevant- 'Grunt, Trundle and Thud', and fifteen years later I still occasionally contact old suppliers and they remember me, even though I probably bought almost nothing from then.
Like the idea of having a strapline though that makes it all clear, that gives you the best of both worlds |
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| stumbling goat |
an unusual name can be a good feature once it is known, the quirkier the better.
i do wish you good luck and success. rv |
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| OtleyLad |
We have an enthusiastic (and rapidly growing) veg growing community group in Otley (see here).
One of our aims is to encourage people to grow their own (hence the name Home Grown) and also to eat local. Would you be interested in giving a talk and perhaps a demo of making preserves, etc from wild or home grown food? We have regular monthly meetings and are setting up a schedule of speakers. It would also be an opportunity to sell some of your stuff
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| Fee |
Exciting stuff, both of you!
So what's next for production? How do I pronounce Msitu? At the moment I'm pronouncing it emm-sitchoo, is that right? Not that it matters, but thought I'd ask anyway
And get the domain name registered, I see that the .com has already been registered. |
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| Home on the Hill |
There is a Federation of Market Traders that offer the insurance you'll need for a market stall.
Also contact you local environmental health department for information about food regulations. You might need a food safety certificate - but it's an easy one day course at your local college and no big deal. Also, get in touch with a business development agency or womens' business development agency - these are government funded bodies that exist to help new businesses get all this kinda stuff sorted. Google for one in your country/city/whatever. Here's the one I've used www.wbda.co.uk but I think it is just West Midlands. Good luck...Carrie |
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| Minamoo |
Hello! I do actually do workshops to teach people how to make preserves as part of my fundraising activities for the charity that my aunt, sis and I run in Kenya that's a free school for orphans and children from destitute families in the local community. (I also do regular wild food walks in Leeds.) I only do preserving classes when I've been paid a deposit though as it takes a lot of time and effort and it's not worth it for me if not many people want to come. I would be able to teach you how to make jams, jellies, syrups/cordial, and fruit vinegars and show you how to use the various equipments, test for setting point, etc. I had actually planned on doing a weekend wild food/preserving course when I get back in the Autumn. We would start on Saturday morning, go for a walk and pick all the fruit that we want to use (so crabapples for jellies, Sloes for cordial, etc), start the cooking on Saturday (so leave stuff to drip through jelly bags etc) and finish potting up on Sunday. I would charge about £20 per person for the whole weekend. SO not much really given all that we'd cover. I tend to charge about £12 per person for the day course (can be less if there are more people coming). Just pm me if you're still interested and we can go from there.
As far as preserves for sale, we can do damson, bullace, plum, greengage, raspberry, blackcurrant, japanese wineberry, bilberry and gooseberry jams, spiced and plain crabapple , whitecurrant, bramble, medlar and quince jellies, quince, medlar and damson cheeses, raspberry, japanese wineberry, sloe, blackcurrant, elderflower and elderberry cordials/syrups and blackberry and rasberry vinegar. I have wild sources for all of them.
Very close! Swahili is a phonetic language so it's pronounced exactly how its spelled. So it's pronounced mmseetoo.
misdemeanor sold the first few bottles of elderflower cordial at work dy before yesterday. Very exciting day for us!
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| Minamoo |
Hello! I do actually do workshops to teach people how to make preserves as part of my fundraising activities for the charity that my aunt, sis and I run in Kenya that's a free school for orphans and children from destitute families in the local community. (I also do regular wild food walks in Leeds.) I only do preserving classes when I've been paid a deposit though as it takes a lot of time and effort and it's not worth it for me if not many people want to come. I would be able to teach you how to make jams, jellies, syrups/cordial, and fruit vinegars and show you how to use the various equipments, test for setting point, etc. I had actually planned on doing a weekend wild food/preserving course when I get back in the Autumn. We would start on Saturday morning, go for a walk and pick all the fruit that we want to use (so crabapples for jellies, Sloes for cordial, etc), start the cooking on Saturday (so leave stuff to drip through jelly bags etc) and finish potting up on Sunday. I would charge about £20 per person for the whole weekend. SO not much really given all that we'd cover. I tend to charge about £12 per person for the day course (can be less if there are more people coming). Just pm me if you're still interested and we can go from there.
As far as preserves for sale, we can do damson, bullace, plum, greengage, raspberry, blackcurrant, japanese wineberry, bilberry and gooseberry jams, spiced and plain crabapple , whitecurrant, bramble, medlar and quince jellies, quince, medlar and damson cheeses, raspberry, japanese wineberry, sloe, blackcurrant, elderflower and elderberry cordials/syrups and blackberry and rasberry vinegar. I have wild sources for all of them.
Very close! Swahili is a phonetic language so it's pronounced exactly how its spelled. So it's pronounced mmseetoo.
misdemeanor sold the first few bottles of elderflower cordial at work dy before yesterday. Very exciting day for us!
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| marigold |
Good luck . For some reason reading this thread reminded me that my Gran used to sell her home-made jams and sent me off on a trip down memory lane. Gran's strawberry jam was food of the Gods! People will always be happy to buy good quality preserves.
The only advice I have to offer is: don't underprice yourselves! Do your costings very carefully - e.g. the fruit may be "free", but the time taken to gather it should be noted and costed. |
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| Minamoo |
So how much do you think would be a reasonable price to charge per jar of jam? We were thinking about £3 for a 12oz jar. Is that too expensive? The problem is that there are already about 3 or 4 other people selling jams at our local farmers' market. They don't do other things (so syrups, cordials, cheeses or leather). I think it might be the case that I load them up in our bike trailer and drag them over to all our neighbours! Lol! I think it may also be possible to sell them at the Green Food Coop at the University as well as at our local community centre. Nothing is for sure yet obviously but I think that the fact that some of the profits will be going to help support our charity will help open doors for us. Fingers crossed! |
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| marigold |
To some extent you can only charge what the market will bear, but you have a unique selling point (USP) that your fruit is local, wild-harvested etc and that is probably worth a premium.
However, assuming you wish to make a profit from your business, you must work out your costs, then add a mark-up (bearing in mind that profit is taxable) in order to arrive at your selling price. I'm no expert but something like: cost of ingredients/containers + cost of production (gas/electricity etc) + overheads (cost of premises, equipment) + transport = costs This won't be easy to work out per item, but you should think about it all. To exaggerate a little, if it costs £2.80 in total to produce a pot of jam, selling at £3 adds only 20p mark-up. Then if it takes you, say, 1 day to produce 100 pots of jam (including picking, making and marketing time) and you sell them all you'd make £20 profit (less tax) - is that enough to cover paying yourselves for one day's work, paying any taxes, making your charitable donation and reinvesting in equipment when necessary? If you need to make £50 per day then you'd need to either reduce your costs or increase your selling price. Charge as much as you think the market will bear - you can always offer discounts to people you like, as "introductory offers" or for multiple purchases, but putting prices up annoys people! Doing the numbers stuff isn't particularly exciting, but it's very important . There's lots of useful info about starting a business on the business link website http://www.businesslink.gov.uk . You might not want to write a complete business plan for your small start-up, but it's worth casting your eye over that section to see what factors you might need to consider longer term.
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| earthyvirgo |
It sounds a little expensive to me but then I think from your description of the product it'll be targeting the top end of the market in the main, people who aspire to making their own preserves but either haven't the time ... or the skill, but DO have the money to pay for good quality products. People like myself might buy one or two as a treat or a present for a friend. As Marigold said you need to get this right or right ish from the start and certainly not put your prices up because you've not done the sums. Did you see the final of The Apprentice? The new chocolate product. If it's still available as a download the pricing part was very interesting ... Might be worth a watch in between jamming sessions
EV |
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| sueshells |
With that name the first thing I would think is that it is some sort of import business bringing stuff in from Africa or the Far East. The wild food would have me imagining dried bush meat etc.! It's OK to have an unusual name but with the short attention span of Joe Public these days they might never get close enough to your stall to realise that you've made it yourself! | ||||
| gil |
Marigold makes a very good point, and one you shouldn't be shy of pointing out to obstreperous customers - as a friend of mine put it 'that fruit didn't just walk into your kitchen'. Up here [poorish rural region], the going rate for an 200g jar of jam is £2. Allowing for economies of scale for 12oz jars, but adjusting the other way for northern city-level incomes and the uniqueness of your product, I think £3 sounds fine. You might want to think about using 200g jars and charging £2.50, especially for stuff you make in smaller batches / less of / more interesting and unique. Cheapest place for mail-order jars I've found was that family-run company in Wales that was mentioned elsehwere on here, possibly by Jerkymeister. |
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| Silas |
Have to say that I agree with the goat.
If you start by having to tell people how to pronounce the name of your company you are putting barriers up straight away. UK people are funny about words they cannot pronounce. I know that as a Nissan dealer we have lost a number of sales because people are too embaressed to try to pronounce 'Qashqai' the best selling car we have (Its Cash-kai BTW). Good luck though. |
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| Tavascarow |
Consider selling two or three much smaller jars in some nice ethical packaging.
It looks more like a gift so it will encourage people to buy for others & although it will cost more in packing it will take less of what will take you the most time ie the preserves & you should be able to mark up the price higher. Good luck.
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| earthyvirgo |
Nice idea. And perhaps themed produce running up to Christmas - mulled or spiced maybe. EV |
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| btp |
hi first thing is where do you make all your products,has it beeen certified by your council eho if not you need this done before you sell properly
you need your basice food hygine certificate 1 day course about 35.00 insurance about 49.00 for 5.000.000 cover from cmtia on 02085008489 next do a reccy of all your local markets find out who is the organizer give him your details you will probably find they have only 2 of each type of stall if they are run ok so if you go on with chutneys , jams, syrups,and leather you might get objection from others selling one of these but not the others good luck with your venture but you will find it is very very hard work for little reward for the first few years until your name gets around if i can give any more help please pm me cheers brian |