Family recipe to food business [Progress Thread]

[darkomind]

Hi all,

I'm reading Escaping the Rat Race and new on this forum. I recently read Yula's Fastlane Journey thread and got inspired to write my own. I will do my best to update this thread every weekend.

I'll structure my thread in three sections:

1. Weekly personal goals: namely sports, and physical and mental health. I do want to do it all for my business but I must not sacrifice my health for it.
2. Business progress: Last week's business progress + Next week's plan: This allows me to track my progress and to treat all Fastlaners in this forum as my accountability partners.
3. Thoughts: A concise, unfiltered paragraph including the main thoughts I had during the week. This can space from satisfaction in getting things done to frustration for being in the Rat Race.

My situation in a nutshell:
I am 28 living in the Netherlands. After working 4-5 years in Marketing, I decided to switch to a data job. I am now doing a traineeship in Data Engineering. I like the field but after reading The Great Rat Race, my eyes opened. I'd better build something of my own. I spent weeks thinking of a business idea aligned to the CENTS framework, and reading through the forums. I realized I have zero entrepreneurship experience, and that I should just jump in the water instead of reading swimming books forever.

My product
A food item based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. There are many obstacles between making it at home and legally selling it, but if it was easy everyone would be doing it.

---

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• 5 workouts: 2x kickboxing, 2x strength training, 1x football
• Eating enough calories and macronutrients to sustain my workouts.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. This involves reading books, articles pertinent to my business, and this forum, everytime I would otherwise scroll social media (for example, commuting to work).
• Being present and performant at my daily job, while protecting my work/life balance to be able to take care of my business.

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week	Next week
Decided on the product to pursue (hardest part) Created documents to track recipe, planning how to get it to the market, listing assets (utensils, ingredients). Bought utensils to prepare the product and made some for friends. Friends tasted the product giving a positive feedback and advised I should sell it.	Buy tools to transport the product Identify new testers (colleagues, more friends and acquaintances, teammates). Create a Google Form to gather feedback. Learn about laws to switch from home-produced to sellable

THOUGHTS

Having a purpose motivated me in every aspect of my life. The excitement of building my business brick after brick makes me more excited and focused at my job, working out, and other general aspects of my life. Realizing I'm stuck in the rat race is painful, but the light at the end of the tunnel gives me hope and drive to continue.

On the other hand, I should focus on "eating the elephant one bite at a time", instead of acting too far in the future like searching up information for scaling my business. I should act short-sighted with the bigger picture in mind.

 

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[Akaushra]

Your thread here, while awesome, didn’t exactly motivate me to click (title is kind of bland, ctrl C ctrl V, etc). What sets your thread apart from others. For me, my thread is a coming of age one, it only lasts until my 13th birthday. @Jrjohnny intrigues with a title that makes you want to hear his story.

In other words, how can you offer something different than the competition?

But great thread, I look forward to seeing your progress.

 

[darkomind]

Your thread here, while awesome, didn’t exactly motivate me to click (title is kind of bland, ctrl C ctrl V, etc). What sets your thread apart from others. For me, my thread is a coming of age one, it only lasts until my 13th birthday. @Jrjohnny intrigues with a title that makes you want to hear his story.

In other words, how can you offer something different than the competition?

But great thread, I look forward to seeing your progress.

Hey Akaushra! Thanks for your feedback, I very much appreciate it.

I updated the title to a catchier one that should gain more attention.

 

[AppleTree]

You have a great looking thread! The only suggestion I want to make it to get feedback on your product as soon as possible. It's best to get feedback before you invest a lot into the business. Better if the feedback is from strangers as they will have the most honest feedback and it will help make your business better.

 

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[darkomind]

You have a great looking thread! The only suggestion I want to make it to get feedback on your product as soon as possible. It's best to get feedback before you invest a lot into the business. Better if the feedback is from strangers as they will have the most honest feedback and it will help make your business better.

Hey AppleTree, thanks for your feedback and suggestion!

I plan to have friends and acquaintances taste it first and complete an anonymous survey with both close and open ended questions.

After that first layer of feedback, I see two options:
- gathering feedback from random people in the street. For example, giving out free samples and asking to scan a qr code linking to the feedback survey.
- gathering feedback from restaurant/bar staff/owners by giving free samples. Also a way to put a foot in their doors.

I estimate these rounds of free sampling in exchange of feedback will cost me a few hundred euros counting kitchenware, ingredients, packaging and transportation.

 

[darkomind]

Hi all,

I'm reading Escaping the Rat Race and new on this forum. I recently read Yula's Fastlane Journey thread and got inspired to write my own. I will do my best to update this thread every weekend.

I'll structure my thread in three sections:

1. Weekly personal goals: namely sports, and physical and mental health. I do want to do it all for my business but I must not sacrifice my health for it.
2. Business progress: Last week's business progress + Next week's plan: This allows me to track my progress and to treat all Fastlaners in this forum as my accountability partners.
3. Thoughts: A concise, unfiltered paragraph including the main thoughts I had during the week. This can space from satisfaction in getting things done to frustration for being in the Rat Race.

My situation in a nutshell:
I am 28 living in the Netherlands. After working 4-5 years in Marketing, I decided to switch to a data job. I am now doing a traineeship in Data Engineering. I like the field but after reading The Great Rat Race, my eyes opened. I'd better build something of my own. I spent weeks thinking of a business idea aligned to the CENTS framework, and reading through the forums. I realized I have zero entrepreneurship experience, and that I should just jump in the water instead of reading swimming books forever.

My product
A food item based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. There are many obstacles between making it at home and legally selling it, but if it was easy everyone would be doing it.

---

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• 5 workouts: 2x kickboxing, 2x strength training, 1x football
• Eating enough calories and macronutrients to sustain my workouts.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. This involves reading books, articles pertinent to my business, and this forum, everytime I would otherwise scroll social media (for example, commuting to work).
• Being present and performant at my daily job, while protecting my work/life balance to be able to take care of my business.

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week	Next week
Decided on the product to pursue (hardest part) Created documents to track recipe, planning how to get it to the market, listing assets (utensils, ingredients). Bought utensils to prepare the product and made some for friends. Friends tasted the product giving a positive feedback and advised I should sell it.	Buy tools to transport the product Identify new testers (colleagues, more friends and acquaintances, teammates). Create a Google Form to gather feedback. Learn about laws to switch from home-produced to sellable

THOUGHTS

Having a purpose motivated me in every aspect of my life. The excitement of building my business brick after brick makes me more excited and focused at my job, working out, and other general aspects of my life. Realizing I'm stuck in the rat race is painful, but the light at the end of the tunnel gives me hope and drive to continue.

On the other hand, I should focus on "eating the elephant one bite at a time", instead of acting too far in the future like searching up information for scaling my business. I should act short-sighted with the bigger picture in mind.

WEEK 2

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• Complete 5 workouts: 2 kickboxing, and 1 football. 3/5 this week. I skipped strength training
• Eat healthy and enough. Can't complain here. I cook healthy dinners for two and save half for the next day's lunch. 5/5.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. I had a few moments scrolling IG and watching lame YT videos. I give myself a 2/5 for this. Having a checklist of resources to consume for my business (e.g. regulatory compliance) will give me something to replace mindless scrolling with
• Being present and performant at my daily job: I'll give myself a 3/5 this week. I struggled to focus in the past two days.

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week

Next week

Buy tools to transport the product: I decided to postpone this to when I actually need to transport the product. It doesn't make sense to put the cart before the horse. Identify new testers: (colleagues, more friends and acquaintances, teammates). I Created a Google Form to gather feedback. ChatGPT is helpful with this. Created a checklist for regulatory compliance. I must start tackling this checklist asap Asked for permission to my employer to work on my business off working hours. Experimented with a new base for my dessert. Started a spreadsheet to calculate portion price.

Order small food packages to take single-portion testers to restaurants. I don't plan on using them next weekend as I'll be on holiday but they're good to have, also for experimenting with portioning. Check municipality conditions to start food business from my home Get permission from employer to A) work on my business and B) test my product at the office during the next all hands meeting (~30 people). Get permission from gym owner to bring dessert to a gym event (probably during Christmas). Buy large trays to bake the base in batches the following week

THOUGHTS
The Roast my idea thread gave me new hope and motivation. I'll just go with this product and aim for the best outcome. The more I learn about founding a food business, the more excited I get. I feel better in other aspects of my life too, I have a purpose.

I see a big mountain to climb, each step a problem to solve. This gives me a motivating sense of urgency.

Thinking big (opening a franchising) is constantly in my mind. I tend to cope with short term unaction with long term planning. I should change this.

 

[FastNAwesome]

Welcome to the forum and best of luck on your path to fastlan!

Lots of good advice in this and other thread.
Will just add what I didn't see mentioned:

Do your calculation, crunch the numbers.
Because there needs to be enough margin for your clients.
Where I'm from (may be different where you at), that would be like 50%, but no less than 30%.

And then obviously, also you need to earn.

What I'd do is chat to some of your potential customers upfront to get some feel for expectations and requirements, and how it all goes overall.

If one prospect's grumpy, ask another one, then another one.
Soon enough you'll find someone actually helpful and maybe even your future customer.

 

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[darkomind]

Welcome to the forum and best of luck on your path to fastlan!

Lots of good advice in this and other thread.
Will just add what I didn't see mentioned:

Do your calculation, crunch the numbers.
Because there needs to be enough margin for your clients.
Where I'm from (may be different where you at), that would be like 50%, but no less than 30%.

And then obviously, also you need to earn.

What I'd do is chat to some of your potential customers upfront to get some feel for expectations and requirements, and how it all goes overall.

If one prospect's grumpy, ask another one, then another one.
Soon enough you'll find someone actually helpful and maybe even your future customer.

Thank you!

You're right, numbers are what must make sense at the end of the day. I'm learning business finance and accounting online and creating spreadsheets to do some upfront calculations.

One of the aspects that play in my favor is that if I make a batch of let's say 20 portions, a restaurant can decide to serve smaller slices and sell 25 out of it. This given the demand is high enough to finish the whole batch before it expires. It's up to them to decide how big a portion is.

 

[FastNAwesome]

You're right, numbers are what must make sense at the end of the day. I'm learning business finance and accounting online and creating spreadsheets to do some upfront calculations.

Cool!

One thing to not overlook - employee(s) salary.

Even if you're doing all the work now.
How the numbers would look if work was done by full-time employee(s).
Meaning, if expenses included their gross salary.

 

[darkomind]

WEEK 3

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• Complete 5 workouts: 1 kickboxing, and 1 strength training. 2/5 this week because I'm going to Portugal for three days with my colleagues.
• Eat healthy and enough. I cook healthy dinners for two and save half for the next day's lunch. I upgraded my experimenting with spices and flavors. 5/5.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. Better than last week, but still not good enough. I started two new books (Scaling up and The Food Business Toolkit for Entrepreneurs)
• Being present and performant at my daily job: I'll give myself a 5/5 this week. I was focused and managed to solve many problems. The problemologist mindset is getting more and more prominent in my way of approaching things.

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week

Next week

Involved my partner in building my business. She's a marketer, taking care of identifying prospects and finding ways to add value that goes beyond the product. She's also taking care of a way to leave my contact to the prospects. Ordered 50 disposable food containers. It's just a start. I plan on making samples, putting them in a portable fridge and go door to door. Contacted two commercial kitchens, visited one. I'm far from being able to afford it, I am just exploring to get an idea. They cost 4000€ per month here. There seems to be an option to share costs with another food entrepreneur. If there's demand, I'll go for it. But its financially risky. Started crunching numbers. The first step was to calculate the Escape Number. Seeing that in front of me shook me from head to toe. Employer is ok with me working on my business, as long as it doesn't interfere with working hours. I can make it work.

Complete the calculations. I must be more precise than I was last week. Finding an accounting template online can help me get started. Talk to another food entrepreneur to share the commercial kitchen with. Complete the list of prospect (this is with my partner) Find extra value skews to add to my pitch. If not immediately realizable, at least planning them in the future. Donations to a good cause? Sustainable production?

THOUGHTS
Involving my partner helped. She's quite motivated to be part of it.

I love having a dream and spend my free time chasing it. I'm trying to pass this feeling to her. A couple of months ago, I would've watched some meaningless Netflix show on a 3hours flight. Today, I learned about food microbiology, pasteurization, and claims on labels (for example, "gluten free" or "natural" or "high protein"). Building this business is my new hobby. Chasing that escape number is my new hobby.

I have a huge, expanding to-do list. It's challenging to put things in the right order. Crunching numbers and finding customers must come first now.

WEEK 2

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• Complete 5 workouts: 2 kickboxing, and 1 football. 3/5 this week. I skipped strength training
• Eat healthy and enough. Can't complain here. I cook healthy dinners for two and save half for the next day's lunch. 5/5.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. I had a few moments scrolling IG and watching lame YT videos. I give myself a 2/5 for this. Having a checklist of resources to consume for my business (e.g. regulatory compliance) will give me something to replace mindless scrolling with
• Being present and performant at my daily job: I'll give myself a 3/5 this week. I struggled to focus in the past two days.

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week

Next week

Buy tools to transport the product: I decided to postpone this to when I actually need to transport the product. It doesn't make sense to put the cart before the horse. Identify new testers: (colleagues, more friends and acquaintances, teammates). I Created a Google Form to gather feedback. ChatGPT is helpful with this. Created a checklist for regulatory compliance. I must start tackling this checklist asap Asked for permission to my employer to work on my business off working hours. Experimented with a new base for my dessert. Started a spreadsheet to calculate portion price.

Order small food packages to take single-portion testers to restaurants. I don't plan on using them next weekend as I'll be on holiday but they're good to have, also for experimenting with portioning. Check municipality conditions to start food business from my home Get permission from employer to A) work on my business and B) test my product at the office during the next all hands meeting (~30 people). Get permission from gym owner to bring dessert to a gym event (probably during Christmas). Buy large trays to bake the base in batches the following week

THOUGHTS
The Roast my idea thread gave me new hope and motivation. I'll just go with this product and aim for the best outcome. The more I learn about founding a food business, the more excited I get. I feel better in other aspects of my life too, I have a purpose.

I see a big mountain to climb, each step a problem to solve. This gives me a motivating sense of urgency.

Thinking big (opening a franchising) is constantly in my mind. I tend to cope with short term unaction with long term planning. I should change this.

 

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[Nostalgia]

WEEK 3

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• Complete 5 workouts: 1 kickboxing, and 1 strength training. 2/5 this week because I'm going to Portugal for three days with my colleagues.
• Eat healthy and enough. I cook healthy dinners for two and save half for the next day's lunch. I upgraded my experimenting with spices and flavors. 5/5.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. Better than last week, but still not good enough. I started two new books (Scaling up and The Food Business Toolkit for Entrepreneurs)
• Being present and performant at my daily job: I'll give myself a 5/5 this week. I was focused and managed to solve many problems. The problemologist mindset is getting more and more prominent in my way of approaching things.

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week

Next week

Involved my partner in building my business. She's a marketer, taking care of identifying prospects and finding ways to add value that goes beyond the product. She's also taking care of a way to leave my contact to the prospects. Ordered 50 disposable food containers. It's just a start. I plan on making samples, putting them in a portable fridge and go door to door. Contacted two commercial kitchens, visited one. I'm far from being able to afford it, I am just exploring to get an idea. They cost 4000€ per month here. There seems to be an option to share costs with another food entrepreneur. If there's demand, I'll go for it. But its financially risky. Started crunching numbers. The first step was to calculate the Escape Number. Seeing that in front of me shook me from head to toe. Employer is ok with me working on my business, as long as it doesn't interfere with working hours. I can make it work.

Complete the calculations. I must be more precise than I was last week. Finding an accounting template online can help me get started. Talk to another food entrepreneur to share the commercial kitchen with. Complete the list of prospect (this is with my partner) Find extra value skews to add to my pitch. If not immediately realizable, at least planning them in the future. Donations to a good cause? Sustainable production?

THOUGHTS
Involving my partner helped. She's quite motivated to be part of it.

I love having a dream and spend my free time chasing it. I'm trying to pass this feeling to her. A couple of months ago, I would've watched some meaningless Netflix show on a 3hours flight. Today, I learned about food microbiology, pasteurization, and claims on labels (for example, "gluten free" or "natural" or "high protein"). Building this business is my new hobby. Chasing that escape number is my new hobby.

I have a huge, expanding to-do list. It's challenging to put things in the right order. Crunching numbers and finding customers must come first now.

Following this thread keenly - let's make it happen!

 

[darkomind]

Following this thread keenly - let's make it happen!

Thanks! Comments like yours motivate me to keep pushing.

Cool!

One thing to not overlook - employee(s) salary.

Even if you're doing all the work now.
How the numbers would look if work was done by full-time employee(s).
Meaning, if expenses included their gross salary.

Whoa, I haven't considered this. I am not thinking about employees but I understand hiring will happen if I want to scale. I can't take care of everything by myself forever. I must find data on wages of fulltime employees, including extra hiring expenses.

 

[darkomind]

WEEK 4 (changed the layout for readability)

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week's highlights

I tested my product at my office. Between 20 and 25 people tried it, and half of them filled in my Google Form. The sentiment seems to be high, and the Google Form answers contain feedback on the product as well as the price they would pay for it at a restaurant. I built a financial projection spreadsheet to track costs related to equipment, production for testing, and overall startup costs. All this using the Sheets app on my phone while commuting to my job. Getting started is more expensive that I expected, but if there's high demand it's worth it. My partner completed the list of prospects, classifying them by priority according to their menu offer. She did a great job honestly, I'm glad she's with me in this. I got two batch orders from friends. They both have their families visiting for Christmas. I won't charge them like I would charge restaurants, but it felt good to have demand based on a picture. Moreover, I could consider selling batches to individual consumers instead of B2B only. Ordered some equipment to speed up production. Making a batch on Thursday took us two hours. We should try and become faster than that without sacrificing quality.

Next week's plans

I'll be visiting my home country for my mom's birthday. I won't have as much time to work on my business, but I could get some good ideas. Complete the Finances spreadsheet with forecasted startup costs for the coming months. Contact tier one restaurants to plan a meeting with chefs/manager to get them to taste my product. I can do that during my vacation, or waiting at the airport gate. Talk to another food entrepreneur to share the commercial kitchen with. It's planned for Tuesday as things stand.

THOUGHTS
I'm holding back the bigger investments for the moment I'll be sure there's demand. For now, All investments are dedicated to testing and gathering feedback.

I should be more daring and confident. On Friday morning, walking to the office with my cooling bag, I felt I was doing something wrong. I feared judgment for testing the product at work. I felt the rumors on me working on my business on company time while working from home. It turned out everyone loved it. These rumors were in my head. It was my insecurity speaking.

I could very much use a cargo bike for the first deliveries. I never needed a car here in the Netherlands and was considering getting one to deliver my product. A cargo bike would reduce costs by a lot. My employer started a system of allowances to lease bikes, I might be able to leverage on that.

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• Complete 5 workouts: 2/5, 1 kickboxing and 1 football. I had to slow down this week due to inflammation of the patellar tendon on both knees.
• Eat healthy and enough. I give myself 5/5 again. The only junk food I eat is dark chocolate and the ingredients of my product, mainly not to waste them. It's always scooping up what's left in the trays. My treat is bananas with peanut butter and honey. It's healthy, delicious, and gives me energy preworkout.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. Large progress here. I finished The Food Business Toolkit for Entrepreneurs and worked on my financial spreadsheet from the Google Sheets mobile app while commuting to work. I need to purchase one of the
• Being present and performant at my daily job: I'll give myself a 4/5 this week. I struggled with motivation on Wednesday, probably because I didn't move enough on Monday and Tuesday. From my kickboxing workout on Wednesday evening, my mood improved. I hope my patellar tendon inflammation will pass soon.

WEEK 3

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• Complete 5 workouts: 1 kickboxing, and 1 strength training. 2/5 this week because I'm going to Portugal for three days with my colleagues.
• Eat healthy and enough. I cook healthy dinners for two and save half for the next day's lunch. I upgraded my experimenting with spices and flavors. 5/5.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. Better than last week, but still not good enough. I started two new books (Scaling up and The Food Business Toolkit for Entrepreneurs)
• Being present and performant at my daily job: I'll give myself a 5/5 this week. I was focused and managed to solve many problems. The problemologist mindset is getting more and more prominent in my way of approaching things.

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week

Next week

Involved my partner in building my business. She's a marketer, taking care of identifying prospects and finding ways to add value that goes beyond the product. She's also taking care of a way to leave my contact to the prospects. Ordered 50 disposable food containers. It's just a start. I plan on making samples, putting them in a portable fridge and go door to door. Contacted two commercial kitchens, visited one. I'm far from being able to afford it, I am just exploring to get an idea. They cost 4000€ per month here. There seems to be an option to share costs with another food entrepreneur. If there's demand, I'll go for it. But its financially risky. Started crunching numbers. The first step was to calculate the Escape Number. Seeing that in front of me shook me from head to toe. Employer is ok with me working on my business, as long as it doesn't interfere with working hours. I can make it work.

Complete the calculations. I must be more precise than I was last week. Finding an accounting template online can help me get started. Talk to another food entrepreneur to share the commercial kitchen with. Complete the list of prospect (this is with my partner) Find extra value skews to add to my pitch. If not immediately realizable, at least planning them in the future. Donations to a good cause? Sustainable production?

THOUGHTS
Involving my partner helped. She's quite motivated to be part of it.

I love having a dream and spend my free time chasing it. I'm trying to pass this feeling to her. A couple of months ago, I would've watched some meaningless Netflix show on a 3hours flight. Today, I learned about food microbiology, pasteurization, and claims on labels (for example, "gluten free" or "natural" or "high protein"). Building this business is my new hobby. Chasing that escape number is my new hobby.

I have a huge, expanding to-do list. It's challenging to put things in the right order. Crunching numbers and finding customers must come first now.

 

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[Jrjohnny]

Great job, dude.

First things first:

This seems like promising progress, and I’m surprised I haven’t seen this thread before.

I will definitely keep following.

Thank you @Akaushra, for the ping but some how I didn’t get notified.

I’m a little concerned of how you’re physically pushing yourself. It seems to be a bit much,

If I could give a tip, don’t aim to do everything 100%, instead of aiming to go to the gym 5x a week before you can consistently hit 3x, try aiming for 3x and once you hit that go more.

You have to have a strong foundation.

I’m ready for this first sale! Keep plowing through, stuff will get tough. You can’t rely on motivation.

“The bridge between what you are and what you want to become is discipline.”

 

[MTF]

So nice to see a proper progress thread rather than recent bullshit excuse fests. I love how you tested your idea at your workplace and even collected feedback with Google Forms.

@ZCP this guy is definitely worth all the support. He may turn out to be a successful no-excuse version of Eric the cheesecake dude

Just curious, is your dessert vegan or does it contain eggs or dairy?

Also, I'll post this here instead of your roast my idea thread. You wrote there:

I wonder if I should pursue a digital product instead. More margin, easier to replicate, less expenses (I just read the @uhhfeef tread about coding using GPT4).

F*ck no. The grass is always greener on the other side but man, I wish I had something real going on like you instead of digital products. I mean, digital products have changed my life but it's not as easy as you think it is. They don't have any inherent value other than what you try to communicate through marketing.

For example, let's say I have a product teaching you how to code with AI. There's zero value in this by itself because there's a ton of stuff available for free.

Meanwhile, if you have a dessert, everyone sees the value of the dessert. Nobody expects to get it for free and there's no free alternative. It's not like you can get free dessert somewhere else so why pay for one.

And the beautiful thing about desserts (or any good food) is that you can have loyal customers who will keep buying it for years. People love desserts. Epic desserts, like any good food, make people happy and create some beautiful memories.

For example, this year I discovered some really good vegan protein bars. I started buying them directly from the manufacturer. I've spent almost $500 since June on their products and will likely keep buying them for years as I haven't found any good alternatives.

So I'm probably worth at least $1000 a year to them. Good luck selling $1000 in digital products each year to the same person.

 

[darkomind]

Great job, dude.

First things first:

This seems like promising progress, and I’m surprised I haven’t seen this thread before.

I will definitely keep following.

Thank you @Akaushra, for the ping but some how I didn’t get notified.

I’m a little concerned of how you’re physically pushing yourself. It seems to be a bit much,

If I could give a tip, don’t aim to do everything 100%, instead of aiming to go to the gym 5x a week before you can consistently hit 3x, try aiming for 3x and once you hit that go more.

You have to have a strong foundation.

I’m ready for this first sale! Keep plowing through, stuff will get tough. You can’t rely on motivation.

“The bridge between what you are and what you want to become is discipline.”

Thanks man, I appreciated your reply.

You're right, I shouldn't push too hard. The tendon problem is my body telling me to slow down. If you look back you can see. Moreover, if I aim for 5 and achieve 3, it feels like a constant failure. Giving these signals, I suspect that 5 was overkill to begin with. If I get seriously injured I risk approaching a streak of 0/5...

Being less than one month in, my motivation and excitement are sky-high. As things get harder, it will be more difficult to maintain. I should set small wins, milestones to keep the motivation going.

I'm glad you'll keep following my thread, I see you post meaningful replies under Fastlaners' posts and threads here on TFF.

 

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[BizyDad]

Moreover, if I aim for 5 and achieve 3, it feels like a constant failure

This is an excellent analogy for business. Business owners constantly have a task list that doesn't ever get finished.

This was a huge mental struggle for me early on. I felt like a failure no matter how much success we saw.

Start seeing three out of five as a good day, or a good week. I started thinking in terms of baseball. If you fail 7 out of 10 times consistently for over 15 years, you're in the Hall of Fame.

 

[Jrjohnny]

Thanks man, I appreciated your reply.

You're right, I shouldn't push too hard. The tendon problem is my body telling me to slow down. If you look back you can see. Moreover, if I aim for 5 and achieve 3, it feels like a constant failure. Giving these signals, I suspect that 5 was overkill to begin with. If I get seriously injured I risk approaching a streak of 0/5...

Being less than one month in, my motivation and excitement are sky-high. As things get harder, it will be more difficult to maintain. I should set small wins, milestones to keep the motivation going.

You shouldn’t get your motivation from small achievements, you will eventually go numb.

You should learn to get motivation and satisfaction from putting in work. That way you body learns that even when nothing shows for your work, you keep going.

I'm glad you'll keep following my thread, I see you post meaningful replies under Fastlaners' posts and threads here on TFF.

Thank you man. I Respect you. And remember, head up high.

 

[darkomind]

Thank you for your your 2-in1 reply, appreciated!

So nice to see a proper progress thread rather than recent bullshit excuse fests.

I love how you tested your idea at your workplace and even collected feedback with Google Forms.

I had excuses for too long. They all revolved around the concept of "One day I'll start my business, I just need to find THE idea". After reading UNSCRIPTED - the Great Rat Race Escape I had a more clear framework in mind, that helped me identify my Specialized Unit to develop and distribute.
Keeping this thread alive helps me cut excuses and keep progressing.

@ZCP this guy is definitely worth all the support. He may turn out to be a successful no-excuse version of Eric the cheesecake dude

Just curious, is your dessert vegan or does it contain eggs or dairy?

In its original form it contains both dairy and eggs. I thought of specializing on this product making it accessible to most, aka removing the barriers of dietary restrictions. By this I mean creating vegan, gluten-free, and halal versions. I can work with suppliers for the gluten-free and halal versions, while I can find vegan substitutes for eggs and dairy.

Also, I'll post this here instead of your roast my idea thread. You wrote there:

F*ck no. The grass is always greener on the other side but man, I wish I had something real going on like you instead of digital products. I mean, digital products have changed my life but it's not as easy as you think it is. They don't have any inherent value other than what you try to communicate through marketing.

For example, let's say I have a product teaching you how to code with AI. There's zero value in this by itself because there's a ton of stuff available for free.

Meanwhile, if you have a dessert, everyone sees the value of the dessert. Nobody expects to get it for free and there's no free alternative. It's not like you can get free dessert somewhere else so why pay for one.

And the beautiful thing about desserts (or any good food) is that you can have loyal customers who will keep buying it for years. People love desserts. Epic desserts, like any good food, make people happy and create some beautiful memories.

For example, this year I discovered some really good vegan protein bars. I started buying them directly from the manufacturer. I've spent almost $500 since June on their products and will likely keep buying them for years as I haven't found any good alternatives.

So I'm probably worth at least $1000 a year to them. Good luck selling $1000 in digital products each year to the same person.

The grass is always greener on the other side. This is so true.
The value of my dessert is intrinsic in the dessert itself. Restaurants/Bars will see an extra menu item to profit from, while B2C customers will have their tasty moment and the memories that come with it.

Replies from that Roast my idea post helped me trim off doubts and insecurities.

This is an excellent analogy for business. Business owners constantly have a task list that doesn't ever get finished.

This was a huge mental struggle for me early on. I felt like a failure no matter how much success we saw.

Start seeing three out of five as a good day, or a good week. I started thinking in terms of baseball. If you fail 7 out of 10 times consistently for over 15 years, you're in the Hall of Fame.

Yes! I must find the right balance. I shouldn't see lowering my goals as a lack of ambition, more like a way to adjust looking at the bigger picture. Thanks for your reply!

 

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[darkomind]

WEEK 5 Thread out on a Thursday instead of Saturday as I'll be visiting my family in my home country.

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week's highlights

I am visiting my family this weekend. This is why I'm publishing the update earlier than usual. Talked to a fellow food entrepreneur. She started her business 4 months ago and is now making a living for herself and her 3yo child selling cakes to restaurants in Amsterdam. She gave me many good ideas to get started in a clever way (more under THOUGHTS below). She's also got contacts for a 300 sqm (> 3000 sqft) kitchen we could share with many other food entrepreneurs at a competitive price. This means 3000 EUR in total. Up to the week before, I could only find 3000 EUR for 20 sqm excluding bills and equipment. Changed the direction of my pitching strategy. At first, I wanted to walk into bars/restaurant and give them samples. Talking to the other entrereneur on Tuesday, she gave the (objectively better) idea of creating flyers with photos and prices instead. I will then walk into restaurants and give a 20 seconds pitch ending with leaving the flyer. If they show interest and reach out to me, I can then offer samples. This can save me money and time I would've spent on making and giving away samples. Refined my Financials spreadsheet. I now have sheets for Inventory, Production, Testing, Orders. Priced the two orders! The customers are two of my football teammates that wanted a dessert for Christmas. I charged them per batch, multiplying 3.50 EUR (What I considered a fair price) by the number of portions. They both agreed, I'm not sure if I should charge other indvidual business customers more. I will need to do more sales before adjusting the price. Asked landlord permission to start a business from home. I'm still renting and it's a clause of my contract. Obtained permission from my employer to work on side activities: Also boring but legally binding. Completed a competitor analysis This was with my partner. We gained a lot of insights on the products competitor sell, how they price them and how they market them to their customers. We can learn a lot and make it better.

Next week's plans

Make a testing batch for my partner's colleagues (Sending the Google Sheets form for feedback) Make a testing batch for my friend's bday (Sending Google Sheets form) Sign up for a HACCP course Make a plan to follow all laws and regulations (this is with my partner) Do a product photoshoot for the flyer. I know people that can work on a professionally designed flyer. We'll need to include good photos that showcase our product Pitch designers for the flyer. Recalculate price Including assets depreciation, overhead costs. All this keeping growth and break-even costs in mind.

THOUGHTS
I must find more entrepreneur on my same journey. Talking with the other food entrepreneur on Tuesday give me a whole new list of insights and refined my perspective. How to pitch, where to find the best boxes for transportation, and the possibility of drastically reducing the projected costs of renting a commercial kitchen.

I find excitement in seeing how all this becomes possible. I now aim to reduce my working hours with my first employer within 6 months. Reducing doesn't mean quitting but having a safe fundament to pay my bills while freeing up a day a week for my business.

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• Complete 5 workouts: 0/5, I'm giving my knees some rest. The patellar tendons were still sore over the weekend.
• Eat healthy and enough. I'm visiting my hometown this week, for my mom's 60th bday. My caloric intake for this week will be disproportionately higher than my physical activity.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. I had some falls with YouTube shorts. Luckily the YouTube algorithm isn't as hypnotizing as Instagram/TikTok (which I uninstalled). I spend more time on TFF and on the government website to read about taxation and regulations for businesses.
• Being present and performant at my daily job: 2/5. Looking at my progress on the business side lowers my motivation at my job. I'm convinced I'll quit in a few months to be fully on my business, full time. I'm being optimist out of excitement. Despite my confidence in my business, I must keep my 9-5.

WEEK 4 (changed the layout for readability)

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week's highlights

I tested my product at my office. Between 20 and 25 people tried it, and half of them filled in my Google Form. The sentiment seems to be high, and the Google Form answers contain feedback on the product as well as the price they would pay for it at a restaurant. I built a financial projection spreadsheet to track costs related to equipment, production for testing, and overall startup costs. All this using the Sheets app on my phone while commuting to my job. Getting started is more expensive that I expected, but if there's high demand it's worth it. My partner completed the list of prospects, classifying them by priority according to their menu offer. She did a great job honestly, I'm glad she's with me in this. I got two batch orders from friends. They both have their families visiting for Christmas. I won't charge them like I would charge restaurants, but it felt good to have demand based on a picture. Moreover, I could consider selling batches to individual consumers instead of B2B only. Ordered some equipment to speed up production. Making a batch on Thursday took us two hours. We should try and become faster than that without sacrificing quality.

Next week's plans

I'll be visiting my home country for my mom's birthday. I won't have as much time to work on my business, but I could get some good ideas. Complete the Finances spreadsheet with forecasted startup costs for the coming months. Contact tier one restaurants to plan a meeting with chefs/manager to get them to taste my product. I can do that during my vacation, or waiting at the airport gate. Talk to another food entrepreneur to share the commercial kitchen with. It's planned for Tuesday as things stand.

THOUGHTS
I'm holding back the bigger investments for the moment I'll be sure there's demand. For now, All investments are dedicated to testing and gathering feedback.

I should be more daring and confident. On Friday morning, walking to the office with my cooling bag, I felt I was doing something wrong. I feared judgment for testing the product at work. I felt the rumors on me working on my business on company time while working from home. It turned out everyone loved it. These rumors were in my head. It was my insecurity speaking.

I could very much use a cargo bike for the first deliveries. I never needed a car here in the Netherlands and was considering getting one to deliver my product. A cargo bike would reduce costs by a lot. My employer started a system of allowances to lease bikes, I might be able to leverage on that.

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• Complete 5 workouts: 2/5, 1 kickboxing and 1 football. I had to slow down this week due to inflammation of the patellar tendon on both knees.
• Eat healthy and enough. I give myself 5/5 again. The only junk food I eat is dark chocolate and the ingredients of my product, mainly not to waste them. It's always scooping up what's left in the trays. My treat is bananas with peanut butter and honey. It's healthy, delicious, and gives me energy preworkout.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. Large progress here. I finished The Food Business Toolkit for Entrepreneurs and worked on my financial spreadsheet from the Google Sheets mobile app while commuting to work. I need to purchase one of the
• Being present and performant at my daily job: I'll give myself a 4/5 this week. I struggled with motivation on Wednesday, probably because I didn't move enough on Monday and Tuesday. From my kickboxing workout on Wednesday evening, my mood improved. I hope my patellar tendon inflammation will pass soon.

 

[darkomind]

WEEK 6 (Week 5 below if you missed it)

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week's highlights

Made a testing batch for my partner's colleagues. We're getting faster at making it. I optimize the steps to reduce the down time. The 20 people batch got us 12 survey responses. Make a testing batch for my friend's bday Collecting feedback helps us improve the product before pitching the restaurants, as well as getting us an idea of how much time it takes to make. We made a batch in unde 1 hour yesterday, and tonight we'll bring it to a birthday party to get more feedback. Find a HACCP course. I found a course priced at 70 EUR, it looks legit. I aim to complete it tomorrow. It's good knowledge and a good to have when convincing customers to trust you. Make a plan to follow all laws and regulations (this is with my partner). We'll need to pass the HACCP first. Do a product photoshoot for the flyer. We took a couple of pitctures with a professional camera. We're still missing pictures of the section (e.g. with a slice taken out). Pitch designers for the flyer. I talked to a couple designers but they want more than we can afford, for now. Recalculate price Pricing is harder than I expected. I know restaurants have the biggest margin on desserts. I also know I'll reduce the production costs once I have a business and won't pay VAT (or at least get it returned).

Next week's plans

Analyze the survey result I aim for at least 30 respondents. I should get there before the end of the weekend. It'll then be time to stop the testing with colleagues and friends and focus on finding B2B customers. Design flyer This will be with my partner. On the flyer I'll show the product, batch sizes with their prices, my contacts (no social media for now). Get logo finalized. I need a logo to put on the flyers. I will consider a bigger rebranding effort at a later stage (with more budget). Get quota to printers for flyers. I aim to print 200 flyers to begin with. The restaurants and bars in our market analysis are less than 100 but I'm sure there's plenty of places we haven't considered. Talk to a food scientist This is better done at an earlier stage. I want to make sure that my recipe is safe and stable.

THOUGHTS
I must find customers. I spent the last few weeks testing and learning, now the main goal is getting the flyers and start pitching. From there, I'll know whether it'll make sense to make further investments and scale.

I've made progress every week, but at the same time I would like to progress faster. Especially when I'm feeling stuck at work. My hunger to establish myself as an entrepreneur is keeping my head busy. I should just slow down, enjoy the present moment, and keep progressing towards my goal. I believe in myself and I know I have the intelligence to make my system work. I know I am humble enough to admit when I don't know something and to put in the work to learn.

On a side note, I'm looking forward to my holiday in the US in January, visiting friends that live in NM. First time in the US for me. I know that resting my brain and seeing new places will be beneficial and help me sustain a busy lifestyle.

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• Complete 5 workouts: 2/5, 1 kickboxing,1 football. I'm back at it, and I feel better than before. My tendinitis seems to be better after I started applying ice and wrapping my kneews with knee braces.
• Eat healthy and enough. 5/5 Back on track. I don't track calories, just make sure I eat enough quality food to maintain good energy. I started supplementing bee pollen and man, I feel so much energy! It's helpful now with the season change.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. 4/5 I started reading The Lean Startup last week and I'm at 20% of it. For the rest, Reddit and some YT Shorts time. Deleting the IG and TikTok apps help incredibly. It's incredible to realize how my happiness lowers when scrolling through stories.
• Being present and performant at my daily job: 3/5. I had ups and downs the past week. I went from feeling I was wasting my time at the office to feeling a new excitement and being proactive. I do feel stuck in the rat race but I cannot waste tmie thinking what I could be doing. "How you do anything is how you do everything".

WEEK 5 Thread out on a Thursday instead of Saturday as I'll be visiting my family in my home country.

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week's highlights

I am visiting my family this weekend. This is why I'm publishing the update earlier than usual. Talked to a fellow food entrepreneur. She started her business 4 months ago and is now making a living for herself and her 3yo child selling cakes to restaurants in Amsterdam. She gave me many good ideas to get started in a clever way (more under THOUGHTS below). She's also got contacts for a 300 sqm (> 3000 sqft) kitchen we could share with many other food entrepreneurs at a competitive price. This means 3000 EUR in total. Up to the week before, I could only find 3000 EUR for 20 sqm excluding bills and equipment. Changed the direction of my pitching strategy. At first, I wanted to walk into bars/restaurant and give them samples. Talking to the other entrereneur on Tuesday, she gave the (objectively better) idea of creating flyers with photos and prices instead. I will then walk into restaurants and give a 20 seconds pitch ending with leaving the flyer. If they show interest and reach out to me, I can then offer samples. This can save me money and time I would've spent on making and giving away samples. Refined my Financials spreadsheet. I now have sheets for Inventory, Production, Testing, Orders. Priced the two orders! The customers are two of my football teammates that wanted a dessert for Christmas. I charged them per batch, multiplying 3.50 EUR (What I considered a fair price) by the number of portions. They both agreed, I'm not sure if I should charge other indvidual business customers more. I will need to do more sales before adjusting the price. Asked landlord permission to start a business from home. I'm still renting and it's a clause of my contract. Obtained permission from my employer to work on side activities: Also boring but legally binding. Completed a competitor analysis This was with my partner. We gained a lot of insights on the products competitor sell, how they price them and how they market them to their customers. We can learn a lot and make it better.

Next week's plans

Make a testing batch for my partner's colleagues (Sending the Google Sheets form for feedback) Make a testing batch for my friend's bday (Sending Google Sheets form) Sign up for a HACCP course Make a plan to follow all laws and regulations (this is with my partner) Do a product photoshoot for the flyer. I know people that can work on a professionally designed flyer. We'll need to include good photos that showcase our product Pitch designers for the flyer. Recalculate price Including assets depreciation, overhead costs. All this keeping growth and break-even costs in mind.

THOUGHTS
I must find more entrepreneur on my same journey. Talking with the other food entrepreneur on Tuesday give me a whole new list of insights and refined my perspective. How to pitch, where to find the best boxes for transportation, and the possibility of drastically reducing the projected costs of renting a commercial kitchen.

I find excitement in seeing how all this becomes possible. I now aim to reduce my working hours with my first employer within 6 months. Reducing doesn't mean quitting but having a safe fundament to pay my bills while freeing up a day a week for my business.

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• Complete 5 workouts: 0/5, I'm giving my knees some rest. The patellar tendons were still sore over the weekend.
• Eat healthy and enough. I'm visiting my hometown this week, for my mom's 60th bday. My caloric intake for this week will be disproportionately higher than my physical activity.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. I had some falls with YouTube shorts. Luckily the YouTube algorithm isn't as hypnotizing as Instagram/TikTok (which I uninstalled). I spend more time on TFF and on the government website to read about taxation and regulations for businesses.
• Being present and performant at my daily job: 2/5. Looking at my progress on the business side lowers my motivation at my job. I'm convinced I'll quit in a few months to be fully on my business, full time. I'm being optimist out of excitement. Despite my confidence in my business, I must keep my 9-5.

 

[darkomind]

WEEK 7

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week
I talked to two customers. Apparently, one of the two works in event planning. It can be a good connection to catering businesses. On Thursday, I purchased some boxes to carry the product. The retail price was higher than I expected. I hope to make it work.

Next week
Mon: Email printing shops in the area. Tue: Bookkeeping. 1 h HACCP course. Wed: 2h HACCP course. Thu: Plan delivery. 1h HACCP course. Fri: Shop for ingredients. Sat: Make one large batch, store. Sun: Deliver. Celebrate the first sale.

THOUGHTS
I added weekdays to the business progress update to improve planning. Instead of presenting a general list of tasks, I'll add them to the planner.

I am looking forward to the winter break. 10 days to get my thoughts together and plan strategically. But also 10 days to rest and spend some quality time.

This week I couldn't work too much on my business. I was busy with some company events. I had a great time, but I had to sacrifice my progress. The coming two weeks are going to be different.

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• Complete 5 workouts: 2/5, 1x kickboxing,1x football. Another small injury on Friday after a bad impact that overstretched my knee. I hope it'll recover soon.
• Eat healthy and enough. 3/5. Sometimes I think whether I should start eating instant ramen to save time and money. I would be sacrificing my health, tho. Perhaps I should find a good balance to maintain.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. 4/5 I'm at 35% with the Lean Startup. I bought a book on taxes and accounting. I hope I'll learn something valuable by reading it.
• Being present and performant at my daily job: 3/5. It's been a hard week at work, I had some team building events that I enjoyed. The training phase is coming to an end, and I started working on some internal projects. I feel involved.

WEEK 6 (Week 5 below if you missed it)

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week's highlights

Made a testing batch for my partner's colleagues. We're getting faster at making it. I optimize the steps to reduce the down time. The 20 people batch got us 12 survey responses. Make a testing batch for my friend's bday Collecting feedback helps us improve the product before pitching the restaurants, as well as getting us an idea of how much time it takes to make. We made a batch in unde 1 hour yesterday, and tonight we'll bring it to a birthday party to get more feedback. Find a HACCP course. I found a course priced at 70 EUR, it looks legit. I aim to complete it tomorrow. It's good knowledge and a good to have when convincing customers to trust you. Make a plan to follow all laws and regulations (this is with my partner). We'll need to pass the HACCP first. Do a product photoshoot for the flyer. We took a couple of pitctures with a professional camera. We're still missing pictures of the section (e.g. with a slice taken out). Pitch designers for the flyer. I talked to a couple designers but they want more than we can afford, for now. Recalculate price Pricing is harder than I expected. I know restaurants have the biggest margin on desserts. I also know I'll reduce the production costs once I have a business and won't pay VAT (or at least get it returned).

Next week's plans

Analyze the survey result I aim for at least 30 respondents. I should get there before the end of the weekend. It'll then be time to stop the testing with colleagues and friends and focus on finding B2B customers. Design flyer This will be with my partner. On the flyer I'll show the product, batch sizes with their prices, my contacts (no social media for now). Get logo finalized. I need a logo to put on the flyers. I will consider a bigger rebranding effort at a later stage (with more budget). Get quota to printers for flyers. I aim to print 200 flyers to begin with. The restaurants and bars in our market analysis are less than 100 but I'm sure there's plenty of places we haven't considered. Talk to a food scientist This is better done at an earlier stage. I want to make sure that my recipe is safe and stable.

THOUGHTS
I must find customers. I spent the last few weeks testing and learning, now the main goal is getting the flyers and start pitching. From there, I'll know whether it'll make sense to make further investments and scale.

I've made progress every week, but at the same time I would like to progress faster. Especially when I'm feeling stuck at work. My hunger to establish myself as an entrepreneur is keeping my head busy. I should just slow down, enjoy the present moment, and keep progressing towards my goal. I believe in myself and I know I have the intelligence to make my system work. I know I am humble enough to admit when I don't know something and to put in the work to learn.

On a side note, I'm looking forward to my holiday in the US in January, visiting friends that live in NM. First time in the US for me. I know that resting my brain and seeing new places will be beneficial and help me sustain a busy lifestyle.

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• Complete 5 workouts: 2/5, 1 kickboxing,1 football. I'm back at it, and I feel better than before. My tendinitis seems to be better after I started applying ice and wrapping my kneews with knee braces.
• Eat healthy and enough. 5/5 Back on track. I don't track calories, just make sure I eat enough quality food to maintain good energy. I started supplementing bee pollen and man, I feel so much energy! It's helpful now with the season change.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. 4/5 I started reading The Lean Startup last week and I'm at 20% of it. For the rest, Reddit and some YT Shorts time. Deleting the IG and TikTok apps help incredibly. It's incredible to realize how my happiness lowers when scrolling through stories.
• Being present and performant at my daily job: 3/5. I had ups and downs the past week. I went from feeling I was wasting my time at the office to feeling a new excitement and being proactive. I do feel stuck in the rat race but I cannot waste tmie thinking what I could be doing. "How you do anything is how you do everything".

 

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[darkomind]

WEEK 7
I'll be off from work for 10 days! It's my chance to clear the fog and put my ducks in a row. I want to print flyers before I can start pitching to restaurants, but the logo is still WIP with the deisgner. Everything slows down during the winter holidays. Not me!

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week

Delivered two orders! I now patiently wait for the feedback of my first customers. Completed 1/3 of the HACCP course. I tend to work clean in my kitchen, but I must be cleaner. Changed production strategy. My product by nautre falls apart easily if it's not held together by its container. If I make large batches, restaurants will need to cut portions and put them on plates. It's not convenient for them. For this reason, I'll make it in mono portions. Starting with disposable plastic containers, I'll then switch to cellulose, tetrapak, or even glass (implementing a discount-when-returned policy). Created a sheet with parameters (portions, portion cost, cost of each ingredients) to price my product. I also did some housekeeping of my monstrous spreadhseet. It's now tidier and more insightful Tweaked the company name after talking to some locals. The designer will change the logo accordingly

Next week

Plan logistics and specify pros and cons: This means, for example, specifying: - The touchpoints for the orders (Website? Instagram page?) - Buying the ingredients (Supermarket now, wholesalers once I become a company) - How do I collect payments, and where does money go? (Business bank account) - Speed up production (better machinery instead of my arm), - Improve storage (do I need another fridge?) - Manage deliveries (Electric bike? A small car? Uber? Public Transport?). Delivery wise, bear in mind I live in a small city in the Netherlands. I can walk and cycle everywhere. Estimate how much I would need to pay for the different scenarios in point 1. Complete HACCP course. Research food chemists/scientist.

THOUGHTS
Working on my business from the morning, like I did today, feels completely different compared to doing so after a working day. I am more focused and better at problem solving.

I am happy to have these 10 days off work to dedicate to my business with a clear mind. It's really time to get set up for success and optimize my system.

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• Complete 5 workouts: 0/5, Last week's injury is worse than expected. I fear I torn my ligament.
• Eat healthy and enough. 3/5. Good enough, given that's Christmas and the availability of sweets is triplicated.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. 3/5. Caught myself on Reddit and Instagram more than I wanted. I guess it was a way to cope with the end of year stress.
• Being present and performant at my daily job: 5/5. I am a certified Analytics Engineer. I had a great End of Year review on Friday. My boss values my qualities and asked to please let management know if I get a job offer somewhere. We also discussed my business and he said that if that's my dream, we can make it work (for example by giving me a part-time contract). It's not time to reduce my hours yet, but it's great to know. How you do anything is how you do everything.

WEEK 7

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week
I talked to two customers. Apparently, one of the two works in event planning. It can be a good connection to catering businesses. On Thursday, I purchased some boxes to carry the product. The retail price was higher than I expected. I hope to make it work.

Next week
Mon: Email printing shops in the area. Tue: Bookkeeping. 1 h HACCP course. Wed: 2h HACCP course. Thu: Plan delivery. 1h HACCP course. Fri: Shop for ingredients. Sat: Make one large batch, store. Sun: Deliver. Celebrate the first sale.

THOUGHTS
I added weekdays to the business progress update to improve planning. Instead of presenting a general list of tasks, I'll add them to the planner.

I am looking forward to the winter break. 10 days to get my thoughts together and plan strategically. But also 10 days to rest and spend some quality time.

This week I couldn't work too much on my business. I was busy with some company events. I had a great time, but I had to sacrifice my progress. The coming two weeks are going to be different.

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• Complete 5 workouts: 2/5, 1x kickboxing,1x football. Another small injury on Friday after a bad impact that overstretched my knee. I hope it'll recover soon.
• Eat healthy and enough. 3/5. Sometimes I think whether I should start eating instant ramen to save time and money. I would be sacrificing my health, tho. Perhaps I should find a good balance to maintain.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. 4/5 I'm at 35% with the Lean Startup. I bought a book on taxes and accounting. I hope I'll learn something valuable by reading it.
• Being present and performant at my daily job: 3/5. It's been a hard week at work, I had some team building events that I enjoyed. The training phase is coming to an end, and I started working on some internal projects. I feel involved.

 

[darkomind]

WEEK 8+9

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last two weeks

Delivered my first three orders and received excellent feedback on the product Completed the HACCP course. The HACCP certification is a requirement from many restaurants and commercial kitchens Found glass, sustainable containers. Created balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement sheets based on this video. Got the logo finalized and the flyer developed. Decided on the type of company (as a legal entity) to register to the Chamber of Commerce Visited a shared commercial kitchen in my city. Talked with suppliers of vehicles. I'd likely start delivering on my bike. I will then invest on an electric bike, or an electric tuktuk.

Next week
Talk to a food scientist. Register the company at the chamber of commerce. Print flyers for pitching. Pitch the first restaurants.

THOUGHTS
The logo design took longer than I expected. I have a good product but still no fixed customers.

I find myself daydreaming to change my lifestyle and dedicate all my working time on my business, but I can't yet. I must be patient.

It's not even to get rich anymore. It's more about making a living out of something I built myself.

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS
Updated from last year

• Complete 3 workouts: 1/3. My knee is better, I played football last night.
• Learn something new: I learned from a Muslim friend that I can target Muslim customers as my product is Halal.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. 3/5.
• Be present at my daily job: 3/5. Not too busy in these days. I had boring working day where I couldn't work on my business. The managing director, however, asked me about my business and even gave some advice (he happens to be from the same city I live in).

WEEK 7
I'll be off from work for 10 days! It's my chance to clear the fog and put my ducks in a row. I want to print flyers before I can start pitching to restaurants, but the logo is still WIP with the deisgner. Everything slows down during the winter holidays. Not me!

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last week

Delivered two orders! I now patiently wait for the feedback of my first customers. Completed 1/3 of the HACCP course. I tend to work clean in my kitchen, but I must be cleaner. Changed production strategy. My product by nautre falls apart easily if it's not held together by its container. If I make large batches, restaurants will need to cut portions and put them on plates. It's not convenient for them. For this reason, I'll make it in mono portions. Starting with disposable plastic containers, I'll then switch to cellulose, tetrapak, or even glass (implementing a discount-when-returned policy). Created a sheet with parameters (portions, portion cost, cost of each ingredients) to price my product. I also did some housekeeping of my monstrous spreadhseet. It's now tidier and more insightful Tweaked the company name after talking to some locals. The designer will change the logo accordingly

Next week

Plan logistics and specify pros and cons: This means, for example, specifying: - The touchpoints for the orders (Website? Instagram page?) - Buying the ingredients (Supermarket now, wholesalers once I become a company) - How do I collect payments, and where does money go? (Business bank account) - Speed up production (better machinery instead of my arm), - Improve storage (do I need another fridge?) - Manage deliveries (Electric bike? A small car? Uber? Public Transport?). Delivery wise, bear in mind I live in a small city in the Netherlands. I can walk and cycle everywhere. Estimate how much I would need to pay for the different scenarios in point 1. Complete HACCP course. Research food chemists/scientist.

THOUGHTS
Working on my business from the morning, like I did today, feels completely different compared to doing so after a working day. I am more focused and better at problem solving.

I am happy to have these 10 days off work to dedicate to my business with a clear mind. It's really time to get set up for success and optimize my system.

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS

• Complete 5 workouts: 0/5, Last week's injury is worse than expected. I fear I torn my ligament.
• Eat healthy and enough. 3/5. Good enough, given that's Christmas and the availability of sweets is triplicated.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. 3/5. Caught myself on Reddit and Instagram more than I wanted. I guess it was a way to cope with the end of year stress.
• Being present and performant at my daily job: 5/5. I am a certified Analytics Engineer. I had a great End of Year review on Friday. My boss values my qualities and asked to please let management know if I get a job offer somewhere. We also discussed my business and he said that if that's my dream, we can make it work (for example by giving me a part-time contract). It's not time to reduce my hours yet, but it's great to know. How you do anything is how you do everything.

 

[Nostalgia]

WEEK 8+9

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last two weeks

Delivered my first three orders and received excellent feedback on the product Completed the HACCP course. The HACCP certification is a requirement from many restaurants and commercial kitchens Found glass, sustainable containers. Created balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement sheets based on this video. Got the logo finalized and the flyer developed. Decided on the type of company (as a legal entity) to register to the Chamber of Commerce Visited a shared commercial kitchen in my city. Talked with suppliers of vehicles. I'd likely start delivering on my bike. I will then invest on an electric bike, or an electric tuktuk.

Next week
Talk to a food scientist. Register the company at the chamber of commerce. Print flyers for pitching. Pitch the first restaurants.

THOUGHTS
The logo design took longer than I expected. I have a good product but still no fixed customers.

I find myself daydreaming to change my lifestyle and dedicate all my working time on my business, but I can't yet. I must be patient.

It's not even to get rich anymore. It's more about making a living out of something I built myself.

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS
Updated from last year

• Complete 3 workouts: 1/3. My knee is better, I played football last night.
• Learn something new: I learned from a Muslim friend that I can target Muslim customers as my product is Halal.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. 3/5.
• Be present at my daily job: 3/5. Not too busy in these days. I had boring working day where I couldn't work on my business. The managing director, however, asked me about my business and even gave some advice (he happens to be from the same city I live in).

Update!!

 

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[darkomind]

UPDATE AFTER MONTHS OF SILENCE

After a few attempts at pivoting my strategy, I decided to stop pursuing this business idea. Some health problems prevented me from producing and delivering my product for some time. During recovery, I realized it was time to move on.

Learnings:

• I should focus on a bigger purpose rather than just profit. I need to create something that attracts customers rather than push my product to them.
• I need to plan for the short term, and write down the long term ideas. I spent too much time working on developments that weren't shortening the road to my first customer.
• I need to work on a product I truly believe in. In this case, I know my dessert is tasty but it's not aligned to an important value of mine: eating healthy. I don't want to make people unhealthy.

What now?
I'm already pursuing a different business idea. I'll create another progress update thread for that. I need a lower capital to start, and it's more aligned to the CENTS framework. I aim to solve a problem I faced myself in the past years and that many people in my situation face. I focus now on bringing value rather than pulling money to my pockets.

WEEK 8+9

My product
A dessert based on a family recipe from my country of origin. It's popular where I live but I never found a version as good as the one my family makes. Roast my idea here.

---

BUSINESS PROGRESS

Last two weeks

Delivered my first three orders and received excellent feedback on the product Completed the HACCP course. The HACCP certification is a requirement from many restaurants and commercial kitchens Found glass, sustainable containers. Created balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement sheets based on this video. Got the logo finalized and the flyer developed. Decided on the type of company (as a legal entity) to register to the Chamber of Commerce Visited a shared commercial kitchen in my city. Talked with suppliers of vehicles. I'd likely start delivering on my bike. I will then invest on an electric bike, or an electric tuktuk.

Next week
Talk to a food scientist. Register the company at the chamber of commerce. Print flyers for pitching. Pitch the first restaurants.

THOUGHTS
The logo design took longer than I expected. I have a good product but still no fixed customers.

I find myself daydreaming to change my lifestyle and dedicate all my working time on my business, but I can't yet. I must be patient.

It's not even to get rich anymore. It's more about making a living out of something I built myself.

WEEKLY PERSONAL GOALS
Updated from last year

• Complete 3 workouts: 1/3. My knee is better, I played football last night.
• Learn something new: I learned from a Muslim friend that I can target Muslim customers as my product is Halal.
• Replace mindless content consumption with reading. 3/5.
• Be present at my daily job: 3/5. Not too busy in these days. I had boring working day where I couldn't work on my business. The managing director, however, asked me about my business and even gave some advice (he happens to be from the same city I live in).