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A Guide to Commercial Kitchens for Food Business Newbies Choosing the right kitchen is critical when launching a food business. In a decade of working with startups, I’ve watched this decision make or break new ventures. Let me walk you through what truly matters when picking your workspace. First up: Equipment essentials. Before diving in,…
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What Your Prices Say About Your Business Future Small food business owners often get caught between two choices: making their products cheap enough for everyone to buy, or charging enough to stay in business. While selling at low prices feels good and brings in lots of customers at first, it’s often a path to going…
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it’s hard to hold yourself accountable when you’re going it alone Running a food business can feel lonely. When you’re making granola, bottling hot sauce, or packaging meal kits yourself, there’s no one there to tell you if your ideas make sense. Independence is great – it’s probably why you started your business. But being…
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Ever notice how every culture has that one comfort food that makes people feel better? Americans have mac and cheese, Japanese have ramen, and Indians have khichdi. These aren’t fancy meals—they’re the simple foods we eat when we need a mood boost. But why do these foods make us feel good? Science has some answers.…
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The Pressure to Expand Everyone will tell you that your food business needs to get bigger. They’ll say you should sell in more stores, make more products, and hire more people. If there’s no growth, people might think you’re doing something wrong. The Hidden Cost of Rapid Growth But here’s the truth: staying small can…
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Think back to why you started your food business. Remember those early days filled with pure creation, testing recipes, and dreaming big? Yet today, you’re buried in operations, and as a result, that creative spark is suffocating under endless tasks that anyone could do – if only you’d let them. The Hard Truth Let’s face…
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Is It Time? You’ve been juggling your food business with everything else—work, life, sleep (when you can). It’s exciting, but it’s exhausting. Maybe the orders are piling up, or you’re daydreaming about what your business could become if you had more time. But is now the right moment to go full-time? Follow the Numbers This…
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I remember when I first started building Crafted Kitchen. Like every entrepreneur out there, my inbox was bursting with these “amazing opportunities” that would supposedly put us on the map. Vendor fairs came knocking, wanting big booth fees. Marketing partners pushed for huge investments. Service platforms tried grabbing massive commissions. Ring a bell? Trust me…
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After being laid off from my job in financial services, I seriously considered starting a food business. Although I had several products I wanted to make and sell, my research around LA led to a sobering realization: I was going to fail. Not because my ideas weren’t good enough, but because I couldn’t find a…
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The Real Price of Figuring Everything Out on Your Own The 2 am club. When business keeps you awake Late at night somewhere, it’s 2 AM, and a food business owner is staring at a spreadsheet, trying to make sense of numbers that won’t add up. Meanwhile, another is scrolling through pages of regulations, desperately…
