Starting up your own food or drink brand is exciting, scary and usually pretty full-on. And we know how crucial finances are to your planning.
So, when you’re starting from scratch, how do you prioritise your spend?
There’s nothing more inspiring than hearing directly from brand founders who have been through it all and know exactly what you, as a fellow entrepreneur are thinking.
The ‘stop throwing money away’ talk from the Bread & Jam festival in July did just this. Featuring founders from Superfoodio; Other Foods and Tonic Health, they had some incredible insights to share.
We’ve captured some of their top tips for you…
Do spend your money on…
Manufacturing
The chances are you’ve started in your own kitchen, and this is a great way to test your idea and prove the concept works. But don’t leave it too long before you outsource manufacturing – this gives you the flexibility to scale as and when you need to, and most importantly gives you more time to be able to promote and grow your brand.
Brand Identity & Packaging Design
You don’t have to spend a lot, but ultimately this is what will make people want to pick up and try your product. Using a professional, who knows what they’re doing means you can start to build recognition of your brand, safe in the knowledge that you won’t have to change it all, a few months down the line.
(obviously we agree wholeheartedly with this one, but we honestly didn’t pay anyone to say this!)
Sample, Sample, Sample
Getting your product into people’s hands is absolutely crucial. Infact 82% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product they’ve sampled first-hand – that’s a pretty astounding statistic.
Ultimately if you have a great tasting product that looks amazing, and you’re actively engaging people to pick it up and try it – it will start to sell itself!
Be careful spending your money on…
Trade Shows
These can be really expensive (it’s not just exhibiting costs but costs to create your stand too) and are not guaranteed to give you results. If you do want to try, pick your trade shows carefully based on their audience, and remember that the best ones are where you can also sell your products – so you have a chance to make some money back.
Social Media
While paid online and social media advertising may look enticing, acquisition costs for food and drink brands is around £30 – so you need to carefully consider how many sales you need to recoup the costs. Tap into your friends and family to promote you via their social media networks. When you’re just starting out this is a great, zero-cost way of extending your reach and increasing awareness.
Website
A tempting as it might be, you don’t need an all singing all dancing website in the beginning – you just need a presence. So, keep it really simple – just one or two pages is all you need to start, but make sure it’s designed in a way that you can easily add-on as and when you need to expand.
Final Top Tip
One additional top tip that all three brands unanimously agreed on…
Network, Network, Network
The more you put yourself and your brand out there, the more like-minded people you’ll find. People, who believe in what you’re doing and want to help. For the founders from the Bread & Jam talk, nurturing these relationships led to collaborations across several different areas that ultimately made their budgets go further and work harder.
The UK food and drink community is thriving – so many entrepreneurs and brand founders.
The Bread & Jam events are the best place to start meeting fellow founders, hearing their stories and building your network. So if you haven’t been to an event yet, find out more here.
And if you want to get inspired by a fellow Bread & Jam brand founder, check out our work with Marietta, founder of delicious granola brand Cheeky Nibble .
Join us…
We’re helping more brands launch, grow and thrive through sharing the why and the how, sprinkled with a little creativity to inspire you. If you want to elevate your brand and really engage your audience, then this is the place to be!
