A Business Plan for Your Big Food Idea

This week I attended the class "How to Write a Business Plan" for the food industry at the Natural Gourmet Instiute in NYC. This was a course taught by Terry Frishman, formerly of Kraft and it was a combination of business school and crack cocaine in a three hour binge. Frishman was direct, detailed and moved at the same pace as the Amtrack Excella, but doing so managed to cram an entire week long course into a few hours.

The class though thorough, was a complete "wake-up call." And there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's what most of us need, so we don't end up throwing away our time and money on some inflated dream of happiness and success without the hard facts, costs and competition that are sure to come down the line. Frishman did a really good job pinpointing which ideas had major issues, like my own (personal chef) because many businesses related to food are successful based on volume. I couldn't quite convince myself on my own that my idea wasn't going to earn me beau coup bucks, so I needed her to tell me, and she did.

The positive side of it all is it really does force you to truly focus on your business, your competition, your strengths, your weaknesses and what is truly going to make your business or service stand out from everyone else. Frishman said a business plan can take a few weeks to years to finalize, but creating one is "only informing yourself."

If you're interested in starting a fast food vegan chain, or vegan cupcake business or even your own line of pickles like some of my classmates, I do highly recommend creating a full fledged plan. Better yet, take a class (preferably more than a few hours) that can really walk you through how to prepare yourself for the road ahead and invest wisely in a potentially profitable food business.