Starting a Craft Chocolate Business: Top Tips | #PodSaveChocolate

What kind of business do you want to grow to be? Purpose? Goals? Exit strategy(ies)?

Don’t try to actively market outside a one-hour drive of your workshop until after you’ve built up a local base of support. That does not mean you can’t ship online orders, but DO NOT attempt wholesale customers through a distributor until you have a really really really good handle on your costs and your ability to scale up. Really good. This includes Faire, BTW. A large customer too early can kill an otherwise good business.

Use interesting local ingredients that enable you to market collaboratively, If you want to do something with coffee, use a local roaster and make a product the roaster can sell. What is the state fruit? Dessert? Look to those as inspiration for flavors. The last thing the world needs is another two-ingredient, 70%, made in a melanger from Bejofo Estate beans. Unless there is something very different you bring to the table that no one else has.

People in the coffee, beer, wine, and spirits worlds all spend a lot of time tasting what others are doing. And not just the same style of work – but across the board. When you’re thinking of a new recipe, go out and buy ten other bars that are sorta kinda like what you’re thinking of and then ask yourself, “What can I do that is different? Better?”

While there is an ethos in craft chocolate that “more labor == higher quality” THAT IS A MYTH. The only reliable correlation is “more labor = higher costs.” To be profitable you need to reduce your labor costs through investment in equipment.

If you can’t afford the equipment you NEED, don’t settle for the equipment you can afford. Wait until you can buy what you need or find a way to finance it. Buying something smaller because you don’t have the money to pay for the capacity or features you need is a sure recipe for disaster.

Seek outside guidance on packaging and the chocolate you make. You don’t need to enter expensive awards programs that charge extra for feedback, consider alternatives like the Craft Chocolat Challenge. Remember, while it’s important you make chocolate you like, what’s far more important is that you make chocolate that lots of other people want to buy a lot of regularly. Those revenues will fund the passion products, not vice versa.

Free advice is worth what you don’t pay for it. You can only go so far (usually not very far at all) relying on Facebook and Reddit as your sources of advice. There is a lot of good advice to be had, for sure, but there is also a lot of bad advice. As a startup, it’s hard for you to know which is which. You may waste more time and money chasing down bad advice than if you paid someone to help you. There are very good websites – but keep in mind the blinder/box effect.

Be clear, consistent, and unambiguous.