Archive for the ‘How To’ Category

I am not in the pet food business and do not have a course on it, but I have located some interesting information for anyone who would like to learn a bit more about how pet food is developed and what you need to know if you want to get into the pet food/pet treat business.

Natual Organic Pet Food

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates cat food, dog food, or boxed dog treats or snacks.  The FDA’s regulation of pet food is similar to that for other animal feeds.  The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) requires that pet foods, like human foods, be safe to eat, produced under sanitary conditions, contain no harmful substances, and be truthfully labeled.  In addition, canned pet foods must be processed in conformance with the low acid canned food regulations to ensure the pet food is free of viable microorganisms (see Title 21 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 113).

All pet foods must be tested and their ingredients listed on the package. There is one company I am familiar with in North Carolina that will test your pet treats to assure they are processed properly, provide an ingredient label for an affordable fee, and allow you to ship your products to them for testing via USPS. They are:

Carolina Analytical Services
17570 NC Highway 902
Bear Creek, NC  27207
919-837-2021

I recently learned I had to have some expensive dental work done and one dentist charged on price and another dentist charged a bit less. I went online to read some of the reviews and the dentist that charged less turned out to receive grand reviews while the other dentist did not.

My questions: Does pricing have anything at all to do with the perceived value we get or is it all about how we value our time and skill?

Scenario: Both cakes are exactly the same. I sell a wedding cake for $325.00 and you sell the same wedding cake for $525.00; which cake is better? Both cakes may be excellent but the difference may lie in how much I perceive my time is worth since all other variables are the same.

Here is some “pricing” food for thought.

• Determine what it costs you to make your premier products.

• You have fixed costs (kitchen rent, utilities, insurance, license, pans, etc.) and variable costs (ingredients). For each product, figure how much time it takes to mix, bake, decorate, package and label.

• Don’t forget the time it takes to take orders, answer questions, troubleshoot, etc. How much you charge for your time is simply the amount of money it would cost you to hire a baker (look in your local newspaper ads to see what typically a baker makes per hour). Eventually, you may wish to hire someone to do the baking, freeing you to run the business.

• Split your monthly fixed costs over the number of products you sell. That gives you a rough idea of what it costs you to produce a cake; e.g. the cake batter makes (2) 11 oz cakes.

• Check out the competition. What are others charging for similar cakes (your customers will be looking at that as well)? While you can create a business by being the lowest price offering in the area, this is not a viable strategy. Position yourself in relationship to the competition. All organic ingredients? Do you mill your own flour? No margarine, only butter? Fair trade chocolate? Awesome decorations? You need to create a true reason to charge more for your creations. If you can’t justify the price to your customers, you won’t get sales. If you are going the premium route, then charge it. Your price will create a perceived value.

• There’s no simple formula. You want to make money on every product you sell. Ideally, you want to make a lot of money, grow your business, hire others to do the baking, cleanup, and be free to be the “face” of the business and take orders, etc.

The following is a cake matrix that can be used by bakers of cakes and cupcakes to price their products. The tool was created by a baker named “Alice” who is no longer baking cakes but gave me permission to post the tool on my website to help other bakers. You may save this tool to  your desktop, along with the directions that accompany it.

Download The Cake Matrix

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