What about the saturated markets??

[Veronica Velez]

I just finished to read unscripted and it gave me a clear view of the rute to take. My boyfriend and I already founded a small business that is ultimately my boyfriend's, but I have been with him all the way long.

From our first call taken in the house, to have a small office in my city's downtown with over 10 employees. I already knew that the road was tuff but MJ DeMarco gave me a much bigger perspective.

As the business is my boyfriend's and he doesn't need me anymore, I want now to follow my path, and I have 2 ideas. I have tried to do the expected value and failure probability that MJ does in the unscripted book, and it seems like the business that can actually give me a homerun is the second I will describe, but I have read from other authors to avoid markets that are overcrowded (as the beauty and health industry). So I am indecisive.

For both businesses I have already worked trying to find the right productocracy, here are the 2 businesses I have been contemplating:

1) Food Truck of shrimp cocktails.

I am from Monterrey, Mexico. And here I have seen over and over food businesses with one single dish that are extremely popular.

There is a taco restaurant with only one taco and is always crowded; there is a tostadas business with several branches around the city that has only one type of tostada; and similarlly there is a shrimp cocktail small place that only sell cocktail shrimp, but is so crowded that you can wait in line up to 30 minutes to get your cocktail, I must add: The service is bad, the hygiene is bad, and still Crowded!

So I have been trying several cocktail sauce recipies on my own, investigating and trying with several ingredients, trying to find the right productocracy. The idea is to have several shrimp cocktail food trucks around town with one warehouse for food preparation, money reception, inventory and to store the food trucks.

In time, the same all around Mexico.

2) Fresh and Asadero cheese from my local town.

Sorry, I said I am from Monterrey, Mexico; Actually, that is where I live, I am actually from Aguascalientes, Mexico; Which is a very small city. I have lived in other cities around Mexico, and I have tasted their milk, cream, cheese and yogurt and is always so bad compared to my hometown.

As the majority of the people in Aguascalientes, my favourite dishes were always contemplating some kind of the above products, because they are so good. In time I realized, I will not find the same flavour anywhere else, because the milk quality and flavour is related to the cows, the enviroment where they live and the food they eat (among other thngs), and there are no better cows, food cow or enviroment than in Aguascalientes.

There are even 2 types of cheese that are only fabricated in my hometown (I don't know if the rest don't know the recipie), and I have seen local brands of cheese and products very profitable all around Mexico.

I have taken courses and participated in expos on how to fabricate those types of cheeses, I have tried several ways to find the right productocracy tasting different types of milk and processes, and giving out samples to people.

As I don't have cows or a big land nor I have the money to purchase those right now, I figured to start with the cheese, in time I will have my own cows, my own land and my own factory to produce not only cheese, but also milk, yogur and cream.

But is too hard to compite with the big companies that dominate the market in Mexico (62% of the market is dominated by 2 companies). Also, the process is too hard because I don't have much yet, and I have to find packagind and distribution systems, that handle perfectly the product all the way in order to not affect the flavour and consistency of the product.

And there are a lot of other cheeses over there, what difference can I make to the world anyway by selling just a differnt type of cheese?

I hope you can give me your opinions and help me to decide
Thank you Mj for creating this great place where the uscripted minds can find their path!

 

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[RazorCut]

Hi Veronica and welcome to the forum.

I like the food truck idea. I have owned a food business in the past but it was a bricks and mortar Pizzeria. Again a one product business (just different toppings).

There are many ways to differentiate yourself in the cheese market. I have quite a bit of experience here as I used to be a sales rep selling specialist cheeses many years ago. I used to sell Dutch, Swiss, French, Italian and English cheeses. There is so many ways of producing cheese with a myriad of ingredients. Hard cheeses, Soft cheeses, green vein, blue vein, goat cheese, ewe milk etc. etc.. Then there are additions like fruits, nuts and spices like cranberries, onions, walnuts, garlic. Then you have the ageing options.

I'm sure with a little experimentation you could come up with at least 6 cheeses no one else is producing in your locality.

 

[Veronica Velez]

Hi Veronica and welcome to the forum.

I like the food truck idea. I have owned a food business in the past but it was a bricks and mortar Pizzeria. Again a one product business (just different toppings).

There are many ways to differentiate yourself in the cheese market. I have quite a bit of experience here as I used to be a sales rep selling specialist cheeses many years ago. I used to sell Dutch, Swiss, French, Italian and English cheeses. There is so many ways of producing cheese with a myriad of ingredients. Hard cheeses, Soft cheeses, green vein, blue vein, goat cheese, ewe milk etc. etc.. Then there are additions like fruits, nuts and spices like cranberries, onions, walnuts, garlic. Then you have the ageing options.

I'm sure with a little experimentation you could come up with at least 6 cheeses no one else is producing in your locality.

Hello Razorcut, thank you very much for your feedback!!, I appreciate it very much <3

 

[MHP368]

I just finished to read unscripted and it gave me a clear view of the rute to take. My boyfriend and I already founded a small business that is ultimately my boyfriend's, but I have been with him all the way long.

From our first call taken in the house, to have a small office in my city's downtown with over 10 employees. I already knew that the road was tuff but MJ DeMarco gave me a much bigger perspective.

As the business is my boyfriend's and he doesn't need me anymore, I want now to follow my path, and I have 2 ideas. I have tried to do the expected value and failure probability that MJ does in the unscripted book, and it seems like the business that can actually give me a homerun is the second I will describe, but I have read from other authors to avoid markets that are overcrowded (as the beauty and health industry). So I am indecisive.

For both businesses I have already worked trying to find the right productocracy, here are the 2 businesses I have been contemplating:

1) Food Truck of shrimp cocktails.

I am from Monterrey, Mexico. And here I have seen over and over food businesses with one single dish that are extremely popular.

There is a taco restaurant with only one taco and is always crowded; there is a tostadas business with several branches around the city that has only one type of tostada; and similarlly there is a shrimp cocktail small place that only sell cocktail shrimp, but is so crowded that you can wait in line up to 30 minutes to get your cocktail, I must add: The service is bad, the hygiene is bad, and still Crowded!

So I have been trying several cocktail sauce recipies on my own, investigating and trying with several ingredients, trying to find the right productocracy. The idea is to have several shrimp cocktail food trucks around town with one warehouse for food preparation, money reception, inventory and to store the food trucks.

In time, the same all around Mexico.

2) Fresh and Asadero cheese from my local town.

Sorry, I said I am from Monterrey, Mexico; Actually, that is where I live, I am actually from Aguascalientes, Mexico; Which is a very small city. I have lived in other cities around Mexico, and I have tasted their milk, cream, cheese and yogurt and is always so bad compared to my hometown.

As the majority of the people in Aguascalientes, my favourite dishes were always contemplating some kind of the above products, because they are so good. In time I realized, I will not find the same flavour anywhere else, because the milk quality and flavour is related to the cows, the enviroment where they live and the food they eat (among other thngs), and there are no better cows, food cow or enviroment than in Aguascalientes.

There are even 2 types of cheese that are only fabricated in my hometown (I don't know if the rest don't know the recipie), and I have seen local brands of cheese and products very profitable all around Mexico.

I have taken courses and participated in expos on how to fabricate those types of cheeses, I have tried several ways to find the right productocracy tasting different types of milk and processes, and giving out samples to people.

As I don't have cows or a big land nor I have the money to purchase those right now, I figured to start with the cheese, in time I will have my own cows, my own land and my own factory to produce not only cheese, but also milk, yogur and cream.

But is too hard to compite with the big companies that dominate the market in Mexico (62% of the market is dominated by 2 companies). Also, the process is too hard because I don't have much yet, and I have to find packagind and distribution systems, that handle perfectly the product all the way in order to not affect the flavour and consistency of the product.

And there are a lot of other cheeses over there, what difference can I make to the world anyway by selling just a differnt type of cheese?

I hope you can give me your opinions and help me to decide
Thank you Mj for creating this great place where the uscripted minds can find their path!

The food truck idea seems better , it scales and everything.

With the cheese youd have to spend on marketing and such , you have to spend time and money "teaching" the market the product.

 

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[minivanman]

If you go with the shrimp cocktail, do yourself a favor.... go right now to Aqua Star. Get their number and call them. Ask for a sample of their 21/25. Aqua Star is the best frozen shrimp on the market (ask any well known chef in America). And as any seafood professional knows, frozen shrimp is better than fresh. Even if you don't like their shrimp, what ever brand you use, don't buy it from a local distributor, call the company and get it sent straight to you at wholesale prices and see if you can save money that way.

I hate seafood but unfortunately, I know more about seafood than most

 

[Kid]

Welcome to the forum Veronica

The truck idea seems more feasible
so why don't you start with it, earn some money
and use them to produce cheese and yogurt you
wrote about.

 

[Kak]

I am going to be a contrarian about the food truck idea... I know the industry is growing in popularity.

To me it sounds like a lot of time serving food and not a lot of time building a scalable business... Add to that the risk that ANY business undergoes and a limited upside... I PERSONALLY would pass on it, but to each their own. It sounds like a job to me.

Now something like serving food truck proprietors? THAT is the kind of thing I see some opportunity in. Give them a place to set up shop and charge them to be there? Make the actual food trucks?

Now for the cheese? I like that a little better... But there is no need to have cows or land for them... You don't need to own the entire supply chain before you become a cheese brand. Why not just buy the raw materials needed to make the cheese from someone that already owns the cows? You can vertically integrate later in order to help the profitability.

Where I am going with this... There is a big market for specialty cheeses to upscale suburbanites in the USA. Off brand that no one has ever heard of is probably a positive at that point. Probably something to RESEARCH a bit more... I am not suggesting you jump in right now and start spending money.

As you can probably tell... I am not a big fan of saturated markets. There is PLENTY of not saturated opportunity out there.

 

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[Kid]

Now something like serving food truck proprietors? THAT is the kind of thing I see some opportunity in. Give them a place to set up shop and charge them to be there? Make the actual food trucks?

So this is getting interesting.

Fastlane in short: Sell to people who want to run a food truck business.
Own trucks with cooking equipment. Change banners on the truck for new business.

Now, why?

The thing is that, as far as i can see, the new restaurants have high rate of failure.
There is one real estate on my street that had 3 different restaurants opened in the span of 18 months

Also, having white-label (so to speak) food trucks is like having "mobile" real estate.

Could anyone chime in with more expertise?

 

[minivanman]

Rent them daily, weekly monthly yearly. MUCH, MUCH higher daily.

I don't know about Mexico but here in America it is HELL to get an ice cream truck approved..... you should check this out for your area in Mexico. If you can get it approved, I see a great franchise opportunity (if y'all have franchises there).

 

[Walter Hay]

Rent them daily, weekly monthly yearly. MUCH, MUCH higher daily.

I don't know about Mexico but here in America it is HELL to get an ice cream truck approved..... you should check this out for your area in Mexico. If you can get it approved, I see a great franchise opportunity (if y'all have franchises there).

Such a business is ideal for franchising, and if you @Veronica Velez have even a faint idea that you might operate as a franchise in Mexico, you must use a trademark, preferably registered.

It would also be a good idea to register the same mark in the USA. Mexico requires registration, even if registered in the US.

Franchise law in Mexico is generally easier to comply with than the law in the USA. In particular, the definition of a franchise in Mexico is much simpler.

I know it is early days, but it is better to be prepared. You would need to get legal advice in whichever country you intend setting up a franchise, but I am aware of two important factions relating to franchising in Mexico:
1. Insist on only selling franchises to buyers that set up a Mexican registered company prior to purchasing a franchise. This is to remove risk of there being a "labor relationship."
2. Agency or distribution systems will usually be treated as franchises in Mexico, so simply renting the trucks could be seen to be a franchise. I would avoid agencies or distributorships.

Walter

 

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