Know-How Exchange : Other

Success of your product will depend more on your marketing strategy than on the quality or taste of the product. You certainly need to deal with the manufacturing and operations elements, and the product needs to taste right for your target audience, but those are really just the "price of admission."

You need to deal early with your objective and face the very high barriers to entry for almost every consumer product -- including your home-made sauce. You also need to decide who the target audience will be: Do you want just a few restaurants to buy and use the sauce, or do you want to sell it to thousands/millions of consumers for use at home?

Unless you have a lot of money to invest , you will need to start locally, with distribution at small stores or restaurants where you know the owners. As soon as you get a following, you can approach a local grocery chain and see if they will take the product.

But before you do anything, develop a rough business plan so you can see if the project has a chance of meeting your objectives in a reasonable period of time. If it does, you can refine the plan. If it doesn't, then you will have saved yourself a lot of time and money.

This is a pretty common question. Basically, start at the farmer's markets in your area. Check with the health department for your county/city. They'll tell you what you need to sell there. Normally, not much...but often you need something if you're sharing samples.

Michael