Starting a beverage company

[hazbin]

Hi all,

Im new here so sorry if I've posted in the wrong place but just looking for a bit of advice.

I have had an idea for a new drinks company and have looked at using a beverage start up company for recipe formula and production but unfortunately they ask for about 15k each time and thats money I dont have spare at the moment.

I was thinking about buying the ingredients I need and putting them together myself but I cant find any helpful information on the Internet as to the best way about going about that. The only information I have found is about creating my own juice brand.

So my question is, is this something that can be achieved on a limited budget and in a kitchen? And if so where would I find some helpful videos/articles telling me how best to start?

And I know the drinks market is extremely competitive but im in the very early stages and just looking for advice ?

Thank you all.

Harry

 

[BillyB]

Hi Harry,

Good to hear from you and your future business idea, I like the idea of homemade beverages as a start up brand

- Think about what you are going to package your drink in; now the safe option is probably to go with something like a plastic PET bottle with a closing cap but if you want your drink to stand out you could choose a nice standard glass bottle with screw top lid. The deciding factor is whether you plan to make & ship out the drinks as the glass will add extra postage weight.

-Next comes the bottling, if you are choosing to produce a sparkling drink you'd definitely need to invest in a counter pressure filler (also known as a Isobaric Filler) to help keep the drink sparkling. If the drink is going to be still this shouldn't be a problem.

If you search for Small Scale Bottling they have a lot more information about it all, they also offer trials and test runs at much smaller amounts compared to some of the others.

From what I've seen to make this a big time thing, it needs to have a quirk or something different. Take for example Liquid Death in America, it's literally just flavoured sparkling water but went from $0 to $700m in 4 years.

Hope some of that helped and good luck!

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

So my question is, is this something that can be achieved on a limited budget and in a kitchen?

Yes, if you have knowledge, experience and funds!

 

[Mark T Jones]

Before you invest in your product, invest in market research.

This is an absurdly crowded & competitive space unless you have discovered a great niche.

 

[aminc0]

Hi @hazbin, have you considered crowdfunding in order to raise capital? Like it has previously been mentioned by @Mark T Jones:

This is an absurdly crowded & competitive space unless you have discovered a great niche

If you have discovered a great niche, crowdfunding can enable you to not only raise the funds, but to validate that you have indeed found a great niche, by the response from your community of backers. It is quite likely thet you'll only raise the money if you have found a niche which resonates with people. Crowdfunding would also be even more viable if you have a good online platform or network to promote the campaign.

If the campaign doesn't go well - you'll only lose the time you spent promoting it, as most platforms don't charge for an unsuccessful campaign.

 

[Ditata]

Start small, make batches in your kitchen, give them to anyone willing to try it, get feedback and keep iterating.

Document everything when you're making it every time so you can easily replicate a good batch again in the future.

Keep in mind so much of a beverages value is in the branding, do you have an idea for the brand? The back story? Who your target customer is?

Try filling in as many of the puzzle pieces as you can so that you can really clearly communicate what your drink is, who its for and why it's for them. Also, why you.

This is _ _ _ _, it's specially formulated to meet the needs of _ _ _ _, they love it because _ _ _ _. I made it because _ _ _ _.

EG: This is RedBull, it's specially formulated to meet the needs of extreme sports athletes, they love it because it gives them a hit of energy and focus so they can take their sports to the next level. I made it because I wanted to combine benefits of caffeine with the ease of consumption of a soda.

Use something like 99Designs or Fiverr to get a graphic designer to create a logo and brand, then create some mock-up ads... you can tell the story even if the product isn't in production yet.

Once you have something to show people you could then look to attract partnership or investment.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Hi @hazbin, have you considered crowdfunding in order to raise capital? Like it has previously been mentioned by @Mark T Jones:



If you have discovered a great niche, crowdfunding can enable you to not only raise the funds, but to validate that you have indeed found a great niche, by the response from your community of backers. It is quite likely thet you'll only raise the money if you have found a niche which resonates with people. Crowdfunding would also be even more viable if you have a good online platform or network to promote the campaign.

If the campaign doesn't go well - you'll only lose the time you spent promoting it, as most platforms don't charge for an unsuccessful campaign.

Crowdfunding always seems to come in like the patron Saint of lost causes.

In reality building your crowd is a huge task that will distract you from the business of building your business.

If you're relying on the ready made Crowd on the platform, you will struggle.

 

[Ditata]

I agree with this:

Crowdfunding always seems to come in like the patron Saint of lost causes.

In reality building your crowd is a huge task that will distract you from the business of building your business.

If you're relying on the ready made Crowd on the platform, you will struggle.

In my experience; crowdfunding is often recommended by those that haven't done it themselves.

The reality of crowdfunding is its an incredibly time and energy consuming process with a small success rate, you mainly hear of the successes like Monzo and BrewDog but rarely the thousands and thousands of other unsuccessful campaigns that run each year.

For how early the OP is in their journey, I think their energy is best spent on developing the concept, refining the proposition and getting some knowledge of & contacts within the industry.

It's a long road to develop and launch a product, there are years and years of hard work ahead until the real rewards start to materialise.

Small steps, make progress every week, you'll get there!

 

[Bernard_001]

Hi all,

Im new here so sorry if I've posted in the wrong place but just looking for a bit of advice.

I have had an idea for a new drinks company and have looked at using a beverage start up company for recipe formula and production but unfortunately they ask for about 15k each time and thats money I dont have spare at the moment.

I was thinking about buying the ingredients I need and putting them together myself but I cant find any helpful information on the Internet as to the best way about going about that. The only information I have found is about creating my own juice brand.

So my question is, is this something that can be achieved on a limited budget and in a kitchen? And if so where would I find some helpful videos/articles telling me how best to start?

And I know the drinks market is extremely competitive but im in the very early stages and just looking for advice ?

Thank you all.

Harry

Hello Harry

I will recommend you start your journey with a market research.
1. create a buyer persona: this will help you know what demographic and consumer behavior, trait, activities.

2. Create a business plan: with a buyer persona you will already know your target market

3. Branding and marketing: it all comes down on how well can you influence customers to choose the product you are trying to over other competitors, by showing them ways you are 10x