How to Start a Home Based Candy Making Business

Candy, also called sweets or lollies, is a confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, called sugar confectionery, encompasses any sweet confection, including chocolate, chewing gum, and sugar candy. Vegetables, fruit, or nuts which have been glazed and coated with sugar are said to be candied.

Physically, candy is characterized by the use of a significant amount of sugar, or, in the case of sugar-free candies, by the presence of sugar substitutes. Unlike a cake or loaf of bread that would be shared among many people, candies are usually made in smaller pieces. However, the definition of candy also depends upon how people treat the food. Unlike sweet pastries served for a dessert course at the end of a meal, candies are normally eaten casually as a snack between meals. Each culture has its own ideas of what constitutes candy rather than dessert. The same food may be a candy in one culture and a dessert in another.

From chocolates to lollipops, children and mature adults enjoy indulging in candy. It’s consumed as a daily treat, for special occasions, such as weddings and birthday parties and during holidays, such as Valentine’s Day, Halloween and Christmas. Whether you make candy as a hobby, or spent years working as a candy maker for a shop, you may consider starting a home-based candy making business.

If you're great at making candy, you may have the beginnings of a business in your kitchen. Running your own business is never particularly easy, but a home-based candy-making business does have a few advantages over other types of self-employment. The supplies are relatively inexpensive, and almost everyone eats candy sometimes. One great advantage of a candy business is that candy stays fresh much better than most other types of food, so you have a bit of flexibility in terms of how quickly it sells.

Things Needed:

Computer
Internet
Business plan
Vendors
Suppliers
Molds
Icing
Food coloring
Decorating tools
Candy thermometer
Candy flavoring
Decorating pens
Decorating bags
Lollipop sticks
Cellophane bags
Assorted empty boxes
Ribbon
Office
Phone
Desk
Chair
Logo
Website
Designer
Brochure

Ingredients For Profit Starting A Candy Making Business:

The 3 key ingredients for starting a candy making business are surprisingly simple. Profit is the focus. But understanding the importance of each of these keys to generate significant income is paramount to the prosperity of your candy business opportunity.

Selection of type of product(s) to be made
Quality assurance
Effective marketing of your product(s)

If you’re considering a home business making candy, a candy basket business, a candy art business opportunity, a candy bouquet business opportunity or focusing on making a candy business out of your super duper home candy recipe, one thing is certain: you have an opportunity to have a very, very profitable business.

The business of selling candy is very competitive. Everybody and their Uncle want to make their candy making hobby a candy making business. Easier said than done.

However, you have a secret ingredient for being hugely successful: the Internet.

A key to being successful is getting your product exposed to as many people as possible. The Web is the answer. Please see “Effective Marketing” below.

So, what’s the road to travel?

Selection of Your Product

Let’s use an example.

Say you are an expert at making a chocolate covered brittle. It’s crunchy, delicious and all your friends and relatives crave for you to make some for them. That’s a good start.

In the marketplace it is very difficult to make money from just attempting to sell only one product.

Your costs are virtually the same for the marketing of one product as for six or ten.

So you should figure out how to vary your flagship product idea into several similar products.

For instance, can your chocolate covered brittle be altered into a

butterscotch candy recipe
cinnamon candy recipe
praline candy recipe
peanut butter candy recipe
white chocolate candy
chocolate coconut candy
maple candy
used to make gourmet candy apples
dark chocolate candy

Or maybe your candy making business can use your basic chocolate covered brittle but format it into

chocolate Easter candy
candy grams
chocolate Christmas candy
Kosher candy
wedding favor candy
valentine candy

Of course there are almost unlimited candy ideas you may also think of.

The point here is when starting your candy making business please be sure to expand your horizons to explore the big picture.

Assuring the Quality of Your Product

Consistency in making your product batch after batch is a key ingredient to success.

When you start your candy company an objective you have is to build a reputation for your brand.

If your product(s) is good, then making it to exact standards is very, very important. To be off one eight of a teaspoon on one ingredient or to have the cooking temperature and time vary from batch to batch is a no no.

Quality assurance is not cheap.

You will need to explore buying excellent candy making equipment and an excellent digital candy thermometer.

You may even have to invest in a candy dishwasher to make sure all your candy making equipment is sterile after each use.

After all is said and done, you may need about $5,000 to $7,000 to get your business started right. Cutting corners will be to your detriment.

Effectively Marketing Your Products

Using the above example of a chocolate covered brittle as your base product, it is always better to present your products as upscale and to position them in the market place for the discerning buyer.

Why?

First, your retail prices will reflect a solid margin for your efforts.

There is no sense in having your business unprofitable. An excellent margin gives you opportunities to vary your marketing efforts to see which ones work best for you.

Second, it will cost you a fair amount, when starting out, to design and have made candy wrappings and candy boxes.

A high quality 4-color presentation of your product’s packaging goes a long way to appealing to potential customers.

Your candy making business will initially attempt to get boutique shops to carry your product line. This is usually easy to do.

Third, you will not make a significant return on your efforts until you develop an ”excellent”business website.

Thousands of entrepreneurs, including me and over 40,000 others, use Site Build It to build their own business website.

SBI holds your hand every step of the way.

Absolutely no experience is needed or required to build a super "business" website for your candy making business.

Or, if you are still searching the Internet for the website building system that best meets your needs please be sure to ask the right questions to select the best system for you.

Instruction:

Step 1

Research the candy industry to evaluate trends and growth. Identify potential competition, which may include other local candy makers, brick-and-mortar candy stores and online candy stores.

Step 2

Determine the types of candy you’d like to sell and identify your target market.

Step 3

Create a name for your candy making business, and then contact your local Chamber of Commerce for information on registering your business with your state or local office. Use a creative name that potential customers can easily identify with candy, sweets or the specific type of candy you plan to make.

Step 4

Create a business plan, which gives an overview of your candy making business, how you plan to finance, market and operate it. Entrepreneur, an online resource and magazine for business owners, notes that a candy making business can be operated from home and may cost $2,000 to $10,000 to start.

Step 5

Search for local vendors, as well as online suppliers who sell the items you need to for your candy, package it and ship and present it to your customers. Purchase candy decorating and making supplies, including various molds, icing, food coloring, decorator tools, a candy thermometer, candy flavoring, decorating pens, decorating bags and lollipop sticks. Select packaging, such a cellophane bags, boxes and ribbons, to hold candy for your customers.

Step 6

Set up an area in your home to serve as your office. Give yourself enough space to store your supplies and orders in progress. Equipped with a desk, long table, chair, computer, phone and general office supplies, you can create a work space for your home candy making business.

Step 7

Create samples of candy to showcase your talent. Hire a photographer to take pictures while you make the candy and pictures of your finished products. You can use the pictures on your websites and in your print marketing materials.

Step 8

Work with a graphic designer to create a logo, business card design, postcards and brochures to help you promote your home candy making business. Hire a web designer to create a website for your business.

Step 9

Network with local business owners who offer complementary services. Contact wedding planners, bakeries, party planners, florists and bridal shops to see if they’ll allow you to advertise on their websites or inside of their stores. Ensure that their clientele fits your target market.

Step 10

Join local business and networking associations to help promote your business to the community. Provide members with samples of the candy you make.

Step 11

Develop your signature recipes. Figure out which types of candy you can make that taste the best and are the most unique. You may want to start with a bit of variety because people have such different tastes, but try to narrow your list down to a small number of great items to start with. If your business succeeds, you can add more options later.

Step 12

Keep your receipts when you shop for ingredients. Figure out the cost of the ingredients that go into each batch of candy, then divide by the number or servings the recipe makes to get your base cost per portion of that item.

Step 13

Decide how much you need to charge for each item in order to make an acceptable amount of profit. For example, if your ingredient cost for a box of candy is $10, you will want to price your product at at least a few dollars more than that, depending somewhat upon how long it takes you to make each item.

Step 14

Package your candy attractively. Depending on the type of candy you make, you might want to wrap it with foil or plastic, box it with tissue paper, bag it and/or tie the packages with ribbons. You don't want to spend to much time on packaging, but this is an area where a creative handmade touch can be very appealing and add value to your product.

Step 15

Explore your options for marketing your home-based candy-making business. Relatively easy methods for selling homemade candy could include offering in person to friends and acquaintances; vending at craft fairs, flea markets, or bazaars; or advertising your products for mail-order online with a website.

Tips & Warnings:

Keep track of all your purchases. If your business makes any profit after covering your expenses, any business costs are tax deductible.

Technically, home-based food businesses are illegal in many areas unless you have an officially inspected commercial kitchen. However, realistically there are a great many such businesses, and it's very rare for them to suffer any legal consequences. It is a consideration to keep in mind, though, when you think about starting a home-based candy-making business.

Reference