Posts Tagged ‘how to make money in the donut business’
Marketing Your Business to Increase Sales
May 26, 2010 | 
Author As you are aware sales are the lifeblood of any business. Without sales you do not have any money to support your business for yourself. This is especially true in the donut business or any food related business for that matter. It is very important to have a good marketing plan and plan of action for how you will market your donut business.
We plan on focusing on one venue at first then branching out to other areas to market to. This way we can focus our attention on what works for the particular market we're working with. What works in one market will not necessarily work in another. We have learned that from our online ventures over the past several years. Hopefully we can secure a spot at one of the local recreation areas/mall in our area. It is an outdoor mall concept that is very popular in many of the bigger cities. I believe the outdoor mall concept is the wave of the future, as I've mentioned several weeks ago. I actually like the outdoor mall better than the enclosed mall it just seems much less depressing. I was in our local mall today and I am just surprised that is still open. A lot of the malls similar to this one are closed in medium-sized cities. I walked around and just feel depressed, there's no light coming in and looks dated it is just overall not appealing to me. I believe outdoor mall concept is dying quicker than most people believe. There is a spot open in the mall that would be interesting to put one of our doughnuts shops in, and I would not even begin to imagine how much that would cost. If we were going to do something like this it would be in the center aisle of the mall where there is the most traffic. But like I've mentioned before, I just do not believe this is a good idea. We are going to stay away from malls. The place we are talking about putting in downtown Huntington is basically a concession cart. If the rent is not too high that we may be able to pull it off.
If this does not work we are thinking about marketing to churches. We are going to get a database of churches and send a mailing telling them that we will set up shop in their church and sell our doughnuts. We can split the profits equally and still be ahead. I think there is a lot of money and selling doughnuts to churches, especially at their social events. I am very eager to market to this group of people. I think it will be very interesting, to see what happens. In the end marketing is a very important part of your business plan. Be sure you have a good marketing plan as well as a business plan before you start in your ventures.
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Getting Capital for your Donut Business
You have an excellent donut recipe, You have a location and an audience to sell your too... and you are certain that they will sell very well. Now you just need to get equipment licensing and other things rolling in order to get your business started. Yet found a great place to get equipment, but you have found that it can be very expensive. If you do not have any money saved but you are financially secure, i.e. you have enough money to make ends meet. Then he may want to get the capital to run your donut business from other sources.
Do you have good or decent credit? If so, then you may be able to get a small business loan from your local bank. Local banks are usually easier to deal with than big banks that just look at numbers. Credit unions are excellent places to get loans for $10,000 or less. If possible attempt to get a loan at a bank that you frequent often. You may be surprised how easy it is. They will want to know what the money is for of course and what you intend on doing with it. This will help you get the necessary capital that is required to get your business venture up and running.
If getting a loan from a bank or credit union is not an option, Have you considered borrowing the money from a family member? Maybe you can borrow the money from a close friend who could possibly be a business partner? We explained the differences between a business partner and a venture capitalist and a previous post. But to summarize, when someone invests (capital) in your company they will have little control over the day-to-day operations of the business. It is simply your responsibility to pay the loan off when you start to make money, or whatever arrangement that you may have with the venture capitalists. Having a business partner can be a sticky situation if you are not careful. The business partner in your donut business could be difficult to work with or have different ideas on how things should be handled. As previously mentioned you can pay a higher rate on the loan than giving 50% of the company to someone who will not be actively involved in it. Be very careful about taking money from people and the contracts that you sign.
The business partner model has worked for us and our situation, but it may not for you. Assess your needs and what everyone brings to the table before you make a decision. This lone decision Could mean the success or failure of your venture. Not to mention the overall happiness that you will have our not have by going into the doughnut business.
