From pies to pickles, wedding cakes to granola, preserves to decorated cookies, fledgling food entrepreneurs now have the freedom to earn, producing non-hazardous foods in their home kitchen. This course offers an exciting snapshot of the growing “cottage food” business movement and the opportunities and the possibilities it offers. Thousands of home cooks are embracing the idea of launching their own food product enterprise from home. This course serves as the launching pad for your dream business built around your passions and a clear roadmap for you to start your own food product venture.

This course on starting a food product business from your home kitchen offers a comprehensive overview of everything you might need to launch your business tomorrow. From licensing requirements for what is commonly referred to as “cottage food laws” to developing your product for market and managing your business to make sure it remains fun, lucrative and successful. I’ll share my direct personal experience as a home baker and canner. I’ll draw upon numerous aspects food business start-ups covered in my authoritative book, Homemade for Sale, as well as expand upon my first-hand experience serving as one of the three plaintiffs in a victorious lawsuit against the State of Wisconsin that lifted the ban on selling baked goods in my home state. I’ll also be featuring numerous success stories of others around the country just like you, with a dream, a recipe and a passion for sharing what they bake or make with others in their community so you’ll have the confidence to launch your business, too.

This comprehensive and accessible course covers everything you need to get cooking for your customers, creating items that by their very nature are specialized and unique. Topics covered include:

•     Product development, packaging, labeling and testing.

  
  

•     All facets of marketing, especially ways to amplify your product displays, generate press coverage, tap into social media and with little to no investment.

  
  

•     Structuring your business and getting a handle on the financial aspects and deductions.

  
  

•     Managing liability, risk, and government regulations.

  
  

•     Organizing your kitchen and managing your time to balance your business with family, outside jobs and other commitments.

  
  

•     Planning for future expansion with incubator kitchens or other commercial options.

  
  

•     Becoming a cottage food advocate, to expand your state laws to serve you, perhaps even calling for “food freedom.”

  
  

•     Special section covering both the new challenges and opportunities of operating during the covid-19 pandemic.

  
  

•     Special Wisconsin sections devoted to baking and selling high-acid canned items.

You can’t fail, at least in the traditional sense, when you launch a new food product business from your home kitchen. Everything you need, you already have in the cupboards or on the shelves in your home kitchen. Many bakers and canners already have perfected some of their recipes and food products. A few might even be State Fair award-winners!  It’s about time to start selling them to your neighbors or others in your state.

From “Buy Local” to “Small Business Saturdays,” from slow food to fancy food, from farm-to-fork to hand-made artisan breads, more people than ever are demanding real food made with real ingredients by real people — not by machines in factories, the same way they make cars or computers, or with ingredients you can’t pronounce.  This course gets you started, organized and cooking for your customers, creating items that by their very nature are small batch, fresh, unique, specialized and, of course, delicious.