Start a Beverage Sales Company
A beverage sales company is an excellent opportunity for an aspiring entrepreneur looking for a niche with a manageable scope and plenty of variety. A beverage sales company should sell plenty of cold drinks during the hot summer months, and can supplement the decline in cold beverage sales during the winter months by providing a range of hot beverages. A beverage sales company can either distribute products to retail outlets or sell directly to customers at a storefront of one's one or through a mobile beverage concession. You can either produce your beverages yourself or distribute and sell beverage made by other producers.
Instructions
1. Choose a focus for your beverage sales company. Decide whether you will produce and sell your own beverages or whether you will offer beverages that have been produced by other companies. Consider whether you will sell your beverages directly to the public or whether you will wholesale them to other retailers. Narrow down your product line by tailoring it to a particular emphasis such as healthy beverages, sports beverages, or juice drinks. Decide whether you will sell fresh beverages with shorter shelf lives or bottled beverages that are shelf stable.
2. Contact your state and local revenue agencies and ask about the licenses you will need to start a beverage sales company, including state and local business licenses. Register with state and federal agencies as an employer if you plan to hire employees for your beverage sales company. Contact your local health department about requirements for a food production facility if you will be producing your beverages yourself. Purchase business liability insurance for your beverage sales company.
3. If you will be producing your own beverages, develop recipes by testing, tasting, and combining ingredients until you find a blend that appeals to you and that you will be able to market. Sample a wide range of beverages on sale at stores where you intend to sell your own drinks to identify characteristics that work well in commercial beverages and also features that you would like to do differently. Give samples of your recipes in progress to friends, neighbors, and relatives in order to learn what they like, and adjust your offerings accordingly.
4. Purchase the infrastructure and inventory necessary to start your beverage sales company. If you will be producing beverages yourself, equip or lease a commercial kitchen and buy the equipment, ingredients, and bottles you will need for the beverages you intend to produce. If you will be distributing your beverages to other retailers, invest in the refrigerated or dry storage that you need as well as a truck for delivering your products. If you will be opening a retail beverage store, lease a storefront and equip it with the coolers and shelving you will need for your beverage sales.
5. Market your beverage sales company to your target market. If you are producing and distributing your own beverages, do product demonstrations at stores that will carry your product and at events that draw your target market. If you will be distributing beverages to retailers, bring them samples, delivery schedules, and product lists.
Tags: your beverages, beverage sales, your beverage, your beverage sales, beverage sales company