Business Idea/Process Report

[Guyfieri5]

My First Decent Idea Out of 20:

Just a quick overview of my industry, Food and Beverage Sanitation, to contextualize:

I work for a food and beverage chemical company. Chemical companies supply food and beverage plants with chemicals and the sanitation program that employs the chemicals in order to effectively clean the plant. Over the last couple of decades, food plants have relied more and more on chemical vendors, not only for chemical allocation equipment and chemicals but for expertise. With stricter regulations, the changing preferences of customers toward healthier eating, and advancements in technology, the industry is being disrupted a big way. These changes not only have affected the kinds of foods produced but the processes involved in getting this food on your plate safely. The sanitation practices of today in many cases look nothing like the ones acceptable just five years ago.

The problem with providing expertise and service as a chemical provider:

In the food and beverage chemical business, chemical providers have historically provided expertise on food safety and sanitation. However, as chemicals themselves have become heavily commoditized, these companies no longer enjoy huge margins and surplus cash to spend on representatives with high levels of expertise. Many big named chemical companies have settled on fresh college graduates with little experience that simply push chemicals and offer little service. This is a huge issue because that expertise and service is needed now more than ever.

A sanitation program is a complex and important piece that many food and beverage companies overlook. Add to that the fact that in recent years, chemical companies have backed away from working with organizations to maintain an effective program. Together this has resulted in recalls, various micro hits, e coli outbreaks, etc. Look at the news cycle for a few weeks and you will see hundreds of stories regarding the various outbreaks in food plants. Having been in some of these plants, I can safely say it is because of a lack of food safety training, equipment maintenance training, etc., that this occurs.

The Solution

An idea I am exploring is to develop a business that provides pre-recorded training that educates on food safety and equipment maintenance, visits plants in need to help discover and identify problems, and provides other tools and resources to build and maintain a healthy sanitation program. We would partner with food and beverage plants in order to improve their sanitation practices.

While this service certainly exists, it is not an entrenched market. Believe me when I say many plants neglect their sanitation programs and are in desperate need of experts. There is plenty of work to go around in this field. These experts are difficult to find. When a food and beverage plant needs expertise they call upon retired industry experts who have their own consulting businesses. A common saying among my coworkers is that most of the knowledge and expertise is dying with these older guys and no one is sweeping in to fill their shoes. I am one of the youngest food safety experts in the industry.

CENTS:

Command: I would not rely on a single vendor, food and beverage company, etc. There isn’t a single company that could wipe us out with a policy change.
Entry: This will take years to develop and execute. It is going to take specialized knowledge that has taken years of studying and working in the industry to develop. I will have to utilize my contacts who will fill in the gap of any knowledge I may not have. Also, there are many licenses and certificates I will have to collect. I will also add that I will utilize public speaking skills, video recording skills, advanced knowledge of excel, and skills I may not even have developed yet. Put simply, it is impossible to start this business as a basement-dwelling dweeb with a laptop and a cell phone.
Need: Expertise and information in food and beverage sanitation is in extremely high demand (for those of you who are young like me looking for a place to make money please help us lol).
Time: While the initial startup and investigation phase with each food and beverage account would need time and labor, afterward the sanitation program would run itself with a little TLC here and there. Think of my company as the Gordan Ramsey that goes in to reveal a bunch of dire issues, provide pre-recorded training, and solutions to clean things up, and get things on track.
Scalability: The training would be prerecorded and sanitation programs, once set, will need an adjustment a few times a year. I would focus on providing an overall infrastructure that would take care of monitoring, safety scans, equipment checks, and reporting -- all crucial pieces of a good program. The plants themselves would utilize the training and advice to take it upon themselves to maintain the program my company set forth. Along the way, my company would continue to provide expertise, solutions, and continuous monitoring/improvement via technology/data collection and occasional in-person visits.

By no means is this the final form of my idea. I am heavily engaged in market research to determine just how this service would operate and whether it is feasible/totally scalable. The last thing I want to do is create another job for myself. As I hash this out, I will update with revisions. Please feel free to tear this apart if you are knowledgeable of the industry. I am open to any and all relevant feedback. I will continue to post my progress here for all to follow.

If you've read this far, thank you!

 

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