Week 6 Part A

So a while back, maybe in October or November I met with a guy who owns a co-packing business in South San Diego. I was interested in working with him to have his bakers do all my baking and packaging for my cookies. I had heard really great things from a number of people who work in the same commercial kitchen with me. Having the convenience of professional bakers who all the necessary equipment and accurate weight measurements to provide me with a consistent, packaged and sealed product every time was very enticing. 

So I went and met him at his facility where all the magic happens and I was blown away by the amount of cookies they would be able to produce for me each month. I sat along side his bakers for 8 hours that day, watching them measure and mix and scoop and bake and then package and seal each cookie individually. It was an incredible experience and I learned a lot. Not just about how to better bake the cookies myself, but it opened my eyes to the world of food distribution. The owner also owns his own brownie company and he connects with distributors to get his product on shelves across the country. 

I was suddenly intrigued and felt like so much more was possible within my cookie business. I had the vision of seeing my cookies in bags on shelves in grocery stores all across the U.S. I would have a big facility with the industrial sized mixers, and flow wrap machines, and my labels across every package.  

Fast forward to today, I didn't end up going through with the co-packer and I continue to do all the baking and packaging myself with the help of a few employees. But I still have my vision for getting onto shelves. So I decided to follow several Facebook pages that I think could be somewhat beneficial to me. Some businesses are cookie businesses similar to my own so I can keep up with the competition, some are for local promotion opportunities, and others are food distributors that I could potentially work with in the near future.  Those 7 companies I chose are Goldbelly, US. Foods, Coremark International, The Cravory, Lenny and Larry, The Oceanside Morning Farmers Market, and Metroflex Gym in Oceanside.

So far the Oceanside Farmers Market is a helpful promotion because I work there every Thursday, and Metroflex gym because of my history and ongoing work with body building, I know many professional body builders out of this gym with huge followings on social media who would be more than happy to promote my product.