All right, so maybe you're thinking to yourself can I food from home? Can I create an actual food business from my own kitchen at home? I'm going to show you how to start a home-based food business and give you 10 steps to give you a great foundation to be profitable and successful in the new year 2021. We're going to get to it right now. .

We have over 900 videos to help you get a food business, food product, or even that amazing food truck that you've always wanted to get up and running to help you out. So now we are going to dive into a question which I've been asked frequently lately because so many of you actually are either finding yourself at home, maybe even potentially out of work but are looking for additional income sources but you love to cook, you love to bake.

Can you start a food business from home? And the answer is yes, you can. Now with the actual exemption I believe that the only state that doesn't allow it from home is New Jersey.

And I'm going to double check that but I'm pretty sure that that is actually the only one that I've ever come across that doesn't have what's known as Cottage Food Law and that is actually laws that allow you to sell food products from home and they give you a certain area to sell them and they certain amount and all that.

So, I'm going to actually dive into all of that and explain how that works and even give you a tip on how to find out your specific state. Now really quick side note on our channel here, we have nearly half of the states in the United States we have already created videos for, you can go to the top of the search bar type in your state and put into words, "cottage food" and then your state name and we have a ton of videos for Texas, California, Florida, and Georgia, and so on. So let me dive into this and give you some tips on how this works and let you know what you can and can't make.

So, number one, the most important step is to the legality of your business, the business legalities, these are something you got to do right off the bat.

You need to find out number one, what you can make in your state as far as what is going to be required for the licensing and permits. Now understand this, the state can create cottage food laws but it trickles down to the local cities and counties, those local municipalities where you live they may have additional rules, regulations that may allow you to do certain things or even omit certain things and say, look, you can't necessarily do that in our County, or you can't do that in our city.

So, you need to find out not just your state cottage food laws but what your city is. So for instance, if you lived in Atlanta, Georgia, okay the state of Georgia has cottage food laws, of course now the city of Atlanta though may have some additional regulations, some limitations, or even permits and licensing. Now, many of the States believe it or not this is very unusual, but many states actually don't require you to incorporate as a business but I'm gonna give you a tip and this is for protecting yourself.

I highly recommend whether your state requires it or not you really need to incorporate yourself as a business to separate the potential liability, okay.

When I started my food business my wife and I actually had a bakery of course slightly different of course than the cottage food bar. But we definitely incorporated as an LLC. And you can create an LLC actually for a home-based business. I've actually got a link down below for Inc file and Swift files.

These are actually online websites that allow you to create your business entity in literally like less than 10 minutes or so, maybe in 15 minutes and you're done and you can do it in any state but check out those websites 'cause they also have fantastic deals and pricing for you to create an LLC and to make sure that you're protected under that limited liability.

So, the business legalities, my advice is if your state says, hey, you don't necessarily need it definitely do this, okay. This is something that is very, very good for your liability factor. It's going to limit what you as a person personally would be liable for as an LLC of course, your business is the only entity that they can go after. If somebody gets sick, if somebody eats food that's not cooked properly or baked properly, and someone has allergic reaction they could cause potential illnesses in situations that would be very bad for you financially.

So should you incorporate, yes, please do yourself the favor of doing that. I try to tell my clients that all the time as well it's always the best route to go. So now what kind of permits and licenses Damian would you need for a home business? Well, it varies by state but in general some states require a food handler's card, like a class that you can actually take to get that actual permit or the little card that allows you to do that, some States do not need that. Some have local city and County permits and licenses that have nothing to do with the state licensing.

So you definitely wanna look into what is required. And again, you can simply Google that. And if you are in a city if it happens to be Miami, Florida let's say you can type in a home-based food business Miami, Florida permits, or you could basically substitute whatever city that you're in. Easy way to locate exactly what you'll need but its in your particular city. So number two, where to sell.

Now, some states don't allow you to sell online some states actually do.

Now, when some states do allow you to sell online most of the time you have to sell within the state though it normally you cannot sell something and ship it outside interstate sales as it's known outside of your city and state limits I mean. So you wanna definitely make sure and see if you can do that online because some I've actually had a lot of questions in regards to this in comments about people starting their home and they're telling me, hey, Damian, you know we actually have a website up and running our state allows us to have an online website to take orders and I think that's great. I hope that more States follow suit and they do that. Now locally, it would be like farmer's markets, local events, outdoor events.

Now with obviously everything that's going on currently, there's a handful of events that have either tapered down or minimize the amount of people who could sell. But I'm gonna tell you something I have a very good gut feeling on in 2021 you're going to see a lot more outside events, obviously that are more aerated that have the six foot distancing and so on. So I would highly recommend you don't give hope on the idea. Don't give up hope that you can't do this in the coming year, there's going to be a lot more events that are going to be outside and they're going to need food vendors and that's where you guys can come in because farmer's markets, festivals, fairs, different outdoor events, music festivals, they're going to begin to happen again maybe a lot smaller than it used to but they're going to still need food vendors and that's where your opportunity lies.

Number three, what types of food can you sell?

So what types of food can you sell? That is a great question and that is obviously probably the most important question because everybody's wondering well, can I start cooking food like chickens and ribs and meats and proteins and fish? Absolutely not, unfortunately. California is the only state that actually has a law that allows you to almost create a restaurant in a sense on the state level, but many of the counties and cities in California haven't yet adopted the law allowing you to do it within the city limits.

That's one of the tricks that they have to unfortunately unfold is that those cities and counties have to allow that to happen within their city and County.

The state can put it on the books but unless it's adopted and taken on in those cities and counties it's something that won't be allowed. But that doesn't limit what you can make. Anywhere from baked goods to a lot of times even salsas, hot sauces, you can do snacks, popcorns, chocolate pretzels, chocolate cookies, any type of cookie you can imagine Bundt cookies, Bundt cakes, trail mixes.

These are products that are considered non potentially hazardous, okay. So potentially hazardous items are items that have to be kept at a certain temperature, or they have a certain timeframe that they have to be consumed.

Most states don't allow you to make those types of food products but the list is gigantic in every state and all of them are pretty similar as far as what you can make. And you can still make a heck of a side business out of this, okay. Number four, restrictions and limitations. So many of the restrictions and limitations are actually entailed to who can be in the kitchen at the time of food preparation. Obviously, pets are not allowed, smoking's not allowed.

If you're preparing food for your family, they ask that you do that separately. So, if you're creating a food product for your food business try to do that at a separate timeframe than actually cooking breakfast for your kids while you're trying to make cookies to sell locally, they try to prohibit that as well, okay.

Some of the other limitations are the types of equipment. You can't use commercial equipment or large mixers. Things that are normally found in commercial kitchens are normally not allowed to be in a home setting and used for home products.

So, number five, step five is insurance. Now this something that again, in many states it's not required I highly, highly recommend that you have food business insurance and yes, you can actually get a food business policy for your home-based food business. I recommend that and believe it or not your auto policy, if you don't have a commercial auto insurance policy which you may obviously not because you haven't started your business yet check into getting an auto insurance quote for your vehicle that would actually allow you to use it for your business. So, if you go around town and you're collecting, you're getting ingredients, maybe packaging or whatever it is locally and you're using your vehicle, there are potential tax benefits to that.

And make sure that if you can get yourself an actual and commercial insurance policy for your vehicle on your auto insurance you could actually write that off as a business expense.

Now, the tax benefits and all that that's a whole another video and I'll dive into that on another video. But there are by the way some huge tax benefits to doing this, having a business like this at home. Number six, step six is labeling and logo, okay. So, if you don't have a logo and I highly recommend you really dive into this and get creative. You don't have to be the designer of it you can check out Fiverr.com.

As I mentioned in a handful of my other videos, I've actually used five now probably about 30 plus times I think maybe a little bit over 30 times now for a variety of services for my food business and you can get it done very inexpensively. So if you wanted to check out actually fiverr I'll put another link down below in the description section below this, in the comment section and you can definitely click on that and see what you can get done. We have a lot of resources on marketingfoodonline.com on our website for services that you can get done for anywhere from 15, 20 even 30 bucks or even less to help you get up and running.

But highly recommend that when you create your label and you put all of the information that's required make sure you have a really cool logo something that's, you can create your brand from keep in mind that this is a small home-based food business your brand is just starting and you can build on that and continue to use this and build a brand once you get into a commercial setting.

Number seven, packaging. Think of how you're going to package your particular product So as I mentioned in the introduction in the opening there's a variety of things. So if you're doing chocolates well then you need to look at some type of really fancy box for the chocolates. You wanna make the presentation stand out.

You wanna look professional and people to consider you as a professional a food business by your packaging. It says a lot about your product and a lot about your business. So, look into the packaging if it's a bag, don't make it just a simple bag create a really colorful, beautiful logo on the front. You got a great label on the front and then all of that necessary information on the bags such as ingredients, allergen listings and so on that stuff can go on the back but you winna really get eye attention eye grabbing packaging for your product so don't underestimate the power of having a really cool packaging when you start.

Now, you can down the road always change and always evolve and that's okay, there's nothing wrong with that.

So number eight, how are you gonna market and promote it? Well, believe it or not whether or not your state allows you to sell products through your website I highly recommend you create a website. And again, just to put another plug in for Fiverr because they helped me out with a couple of my websites check out down below you can actually get somebody to develop a website for you, don't be afraid or seem afraid of that idea, the concept of creating a website 'cause you may not have any type of technical skills you can actually get one made for you. But even though you're not selling on the website the reason why I tell you this is create a website when you start your home-based food business as your business grows and becomes a commercial business, you're going to have a completely done viable ready to go e-commerce website, okay.

And you can actually easily transition that website into something that can sell products once you get to that level.

So that's why I always tell my clients when I do my consulting too start your website as soon as possible, okay. Next up, step nine. Keep all of your receipts and expenditures. Now, like I mentioned before check into your auto insurance policy. If you can change that into a commercial policy or upgrade that and let them know you're using that understand and know all of the different monthly payments for that.

Any receipts that you use for ingredients, receipts for packaging, if you create a website with Shopify, or if you create a website with Weebly or GoDaddy or Wix, you wanna make sure that all these hosting domains that you have out there, every month you're paying for that. Use that also you keep the receipts for that because that is part of your business expense.

So, all of these expenses that add up are actually going to be hugely beneficial for your home-based food business. Great platforms to create websites on really quick would be Wix, Shopify, Weebly. And you're looking at it like a 20 to $30 a month or $35 a month fee and those fees can add up definitely very quick.

Step ten, just start. Okay, and I know you may be thinking oh, I saved in a way to all the way to another step ten to hear that, yes don't delay and don't procrastinate just get started. Now, are you going to have all the answers upfront? No. Are you going to know everything, what to do?

No, I didn't, 12 years ago I just determined that I was going to start a business and I was going to make it work and it was going to succeed period. Did I have all the answers? Absolutely not. I have still learned 12 years later there's a lot still to learn.

So be open to learning and be open to not knowing everything because that doesn't need to be the fear that prohibits you from actually creating your business or getting it up and running.

So those are the top 10 steps to create a home-based food business and make it profitable and succeed. In 2021 if you're looking for a side business and you are home a lot because I know many of you definitely want to look into this. So if this was helpful, as always give me a big thumbs up. If you have questions, let me know down below and we'll see you guys on our next video.

Thanks for watching marketing food online.

And if you are looking to create your own food truck, start a home-based food business under the cottage food law franchise a food operation, start a packaged food business, private label your own food product, sell on Amazon, get your own online store or sell food online remember to subscribe and check out these videos for more resources. Take care.

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