Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford

Send us Fan Mail The plant-based food and drink category has grown and evolved tremendously in recent years. We now have plant-based chicken, beef, sausages, cheeses, milks, chocolates, eggs, you name it there’s a plant-based alternative for it.  But have you ever heard of plant-based tuna? In episode 64 of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, I (virtually) sat down with BettaF!sh co-founder and...

Send us Fan Mail You created a product to solve a personal problem, or because you noticed a gap in the market for your delicious product. But did you start off thinking about creating a brand? It’s unlikely. If you listened to last week's episode, which was part 1 of my 2 part series on brand-building strategies, you would've heard that 99% of Foodpreneurs don't succeed because the...

Send us Fan Mail You’ve done all the hard work. You've created a great-tasting product, designed your packaging, organised your labelling, and spent hours upon hours finally getting your product into a retailer. Unfortunately, this won't equal success. In order to be in the minority of packaged food and drink products that actually make it long term, you need to get your product off the...

Send us Fan Mail Thinking about barcodes might not be the most exciting part of creating a product as a Foodpreneur, but it usually is the first step in getting your product retail-ready (and a very important step!). Barcodes can actually do some pretty cool things, like help you sell internationally, make your product look preferable in the eyes of a buyer, help you manage your entire supply chai...

Send us Fan Mail If you think you don't have the time to sit and review your business activities each quarter, think about what it could be costing you in time and money if you don't properly review what you're doing. You won't know what activities, processes, and strategies are working, and which aren't. Without a proper debrief, you'll end up doing the same things,...

Send us Fan Mail PR might seem daunting, unnecessary or expensive to small packaged food and drink business owners, but it can be anything but. Foodpreneurs can leverage media coverage to get a huge amount of eyeballs on their brand, with little to no budget, and there are things you can do during your day to help build out your brand story, all of which will can  be used to generate publicity.  T...

Send us Fan Mail As a Foodpreneur, trying to create a successful brand, in an industry that’s notorious for being tough to make it in, is financially, mentally and emotionally taxing (not to mention all the physical effort that comes into cooking and packing products). You’ll likely experience the rollercoaster of not only being in the F&B industry, but also being a business owner, and some da...

Send us Fan Mail As Foodpreneurs (and in life in general), you'll experience many moments you might think of failures. Whether it's getting a 'no' from a retail buyer you've been communicating with for months, to a major piece of equipment failing right before fulfilling a big order, to thinking your entire business is a failure.  These moments will test you, but if you ch...

Send us Fan Mail I know that marketing can be a point of confusion and overwhelm for many foodpreneurs; where do you start? What channels should you use? Google? Meta? Tiktok? How much budget do you need? What to do if you don't have any budget? Ultimately, in a digital world filled with competitors and 'noise', how does your brand get noticed and stand out to consumers and retailer...

Send us Fan Mail Having worked with foodpreneurs for many years, I know that the chance to get into the mind of a retail buyer is priceless. Knowing how to land a meeting with them, how to get onto their shelves, and even how to get them to respond to your emails and/or phone calls would be an invaluable opportunity for many of you. That's why in episode 55 of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford po...

Send us Fan Mail If you currently use, or are considering using a distributor to distribute your products to a retailer, have you accounted for the margin to pay yourself as well? Using a distributor can help increase your stockists but it is another expense that needs to be accounted for when pricing your product 💸, which is why pricing correctly for distribution is so important. In this episode...

Send us Fan Mail Do you want to get your product in more stockists and onto more shelves? What about getting your product off those shelves, into more baskets and through check-outs? Of course, you do. No business can run off passion or the sweet scent of cookies baking… 🍪 You’ll want to listen to this updated version of one of our most popular podcasts from 2022, where I chat with Christina Basi...

Send us Fan Mail Last year when I made this episode, making money in the food and drink industry was hard. With global market issues and increased competition, it may be even more difficult in the current climate. This was our number #1 episode in 2022 and for good reason. 73% of packaged food and drink brand owners don’t pay themselves a wage because there is no profit to set aside for all their...

Send us Fan Mail Having a business partner can be great. Someone to share the workload with, someone who brings their own set of skills into the business and someone to support a crazy idea of starting a food business that involves selling a product using an ingredient hardly anyone knows about….. Sounds, well brave, doesn’t it. But that’s exactly what my two guests this week on Foodpreneur with C...

Send us Fan Mail Did you know that 320 people in Australia search for ‘handmade chocolate’ every month on Google? How about that 2,900 people in the US search ‘best kombucha’ online EVERY MONTH. And that’s just a fraction of searches people all over the world make looking for packaged food and drink products to buy online. Now, if you’re a Foodpreneur who sells directly to consumers from a website...

Send us Fan Mail In a perfect Foodpreneur world, your product would have buyers knocking at your door. The reality, however, is a little different. With thousands of packaged F&B products out there, and only so much shelf space, it’s essential that products and brands stand out from the crowd to get onto (and off of) more shelves. In this week’s episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast...

Send us Fan Mail There’s a reason food and drink businesses that remain current do well. Aligning your business – whether that be packaging, tastes, or ethics – with what customers are interested in help products get on, and off shelves. This doesn’t mean a major overhaul of your brand or products every year to be ‘on-trend’. There are a number of industry trends I’ve discovered through extensive...

Send us Fan Mail The fourth quarter has become known as the ‘Golden Quarter’ – a time when large uplifts in retail site visitors and revenue can occur due to known sales periods such as Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the Christmas period. Some days are more dependent upon your location than others, although I see them becoming ubiquitous. In this week’s Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford...

Send us Fan Mail Unfortunately for many foodpreneurs, having an amazing product is not enough to get stocked or drive sales. There are a number of elements that need to come together to create a successful packaged food and drink business that has longevity. Two of these elements are: 💪 Your brand story; and 💪 Persistence I know so many foodpreneurs with delicious products that SHOULD be stocked...

Send us Fan Mail Getting your packaged food and drink product ON the shelf is a huge win for a foodpreneur, but it's only the beginning. The key to longevity, business growth and profitability (apart from correctly pricing your product) is getting your product into more consumers’ hands (or baskets/trolleys/sustainable grocery bags…) And the key to this? Marketing 📣📣📣 It might seem simple...

Send us Fan Mail Getting into the mind of a retail buyer is priceless for foodpreneurs. Knowing how to land a meeting with them, what to (and what NOT to) do, and the information they want to know about your product to improve your chances of getting stocked is what every Foodpreneur wants to know right?? Retail buyers, like most of us, are busy people; get them at the right time and you could see...

Send us Fan Mail You’ve spent a lot of time and effort honing your product, you’ve designed the packaging, done your market research, and are even making sales. You know you need to get into more stockists to increase your revenue but the thought of making cold-calls makes you anxious; it’s just not YOU, you’re a Foodpreneur, a maker, a creator, an innovator, but definitely not a salesperson….. Th...

Send us Fan Mail As a Foodpreneur you’re often working IN the business and ON the business at the same time…and trying to run a household….and it’s exhausting; so, when things are tough at home, it can have a negative impact on your business, affecting your physical and mental health. This episode hit close to home for me as it was a phone call with a distressed Foodpreneur who had decided to clos...

Send us Fan Mail While the financial aspect of branding is considered somewhat 'unsexy', majority of packaged food and drink businesses that fail in the first year, do so because of a lack of financial planning and understanding; making it pivotal to your brand’s success and longevity. In this episode, I chat with Brand and FMCG expert King Eddie Stableford. With almost half a century&ap...

Send us Fan Mail “Don’t take on a national account [such as] Woolworth’s… just because they came knocking on your door if that doesn’t actually fit in with your strategic plan” said Chris de Bono, co-founder Meru Miso and Umami Pantry brands. “If you are going into the supermarkets, the reality is from a margin point of view, you are looking at being a higher volume, but lower margin product, that...