Starting Up Costs

[ozbuck]

Hey Guys,

Hope youre all traveling well on the fastlane!

Ive got some ideas that I would love to hear your insights to. A bit of a background...

I was thinking a little while ago how the delicacy of cheese is quite intimidating and the varieties and qualities in cheeses are quite unknown by everyday folk. ...just like wine.

I then stumbled upon the story of Gary Vaynerchuk who owns winelibrary.com and how he used social media to create an absolute storm... he has nearly a million twitter followers. Through his online wine tv show a lot of people found he dispelled the mysteries of wine so that they became educated and experienced and passionate about drinking a glass of it... and of course, buying $100's of wine from him.

I'm thinking the same can be done in the Cheese niche.

I live in Australia and I would only focus on selling to people living here and in New Zealand. This unfortunately reduces my scaling to total population of 30 million. ...maybe 12 million of those are 18 years or older.

Why only Australia and NZ? For postage reasons. Posting cheese overseas from Australia to Europe or USA wouldn't be safe I dont think. Maybe in the future I could build warehouses in other countries to cater for the citizens of those countries.

Cheese intake in Australia has been increasing steadily over the last 5 years. More artisan cheese makers are popping up over the country and aussie cheeses are starting to become well renowned internationally... just like australian wine has become highly regarded internationally.

There are not many online cheese suppliers here in Australia. There is only a couple of online stores that specialize in cheese sales. The main outlets for selling cheese are in person locations such as local Deli's, markets, farmers markets, etc.

I do not have loads of prior experience with Cheese though I have a huge passion for REAL food and I am willing to learn everything I need to know about cheese if I was seriously going to commit to this business idea.

So, Im wondering if any of you might some thoughts, questions, ideas, etc. that could further my understanding of what would be involved in starting up a proposition like this? e.g How much would it cost to start up an online cheese store? ...

Any thoughts on whats involved in starting an online video show? eg.challenges, opportunities, etc?

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The problem I see that can arise from this biz idea is that if I am the face of the company (online tv show on cheese) then it may cause a problem with the "time" aspect of CENTS.


Would love to hear any thoughts. Cheers.

Oz

 

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[ozbuck]

Any thoughts anyone?

 

[Speedsta]

I also live in Australia and I love cheese! I have thought of something similar in the past, but you can only follow up so many ideas and my own project is just starting to gain a bit of momentum. How are you planning to make money?

In NZ their are lots and lots of laws around bringing food into the country, including unpasterised cheeses. If you supply European cheeses that are unpasterised they may be difficult to import into the country. I know a few years ago a wealthy guy was really challenging this law in NZ due to his love of cheese, I am not sure how things turned out.

 

[ozbuck]

Hey Speedsta,

Thanks for the reply.

I would plan to make money mainly through online sales of cheese. However, unfortunately, I'm guessing the start up costs for creating my own online retail cheese store would be costly (e.g. buying and importing cheese in advance so its ready to be shipped out to customers immediately, having a warehouse to store the cheese that meets the specific needs of cheese-storing,etc.)

I'm not sure how I would get around this.

The business would be mainly targeting the younger, more casual cheese connoisseur over the exceptionally informed cheese aficionado... The upmarket/affluent suburban customers. Social media marketing, relationship marketing, and a huge interest in the specific niche (cheese). Using video blogs, daily newsletters, 'cheese/s of the month' club, a public forum, f'book, twitter, etc. could all be used to build and sustain an audience that could become returning customers.

On top of that, in-person events could also be something that could happen too.

Off the top of my head, if I was to make $5 from every 250g cheese sale made and I was able to gather the buying of 20,000 customers over a year's period that's around $100,000... I would be banking on not just one sale from each customer but returning sales... the creating a 'cheese community' would be key to generating returning customers. Four cheese sales per customer equals ($20 x 20,000) $400,000 profit.

That 20,000 customer number is just off the top of my head. This number can surely be increased through the power of the internet.

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Yes the laws of unpastuerized cheese are quite strict in Oz and NZ. Only some european hard and semi-hard cheeses unpasteurized cheeses have been approved for sales and consumption. Actually NZ does produce a small number of its own Unpasteurized cheeses and Australia has just started doing this too.

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Interestingly, I was at a high-end wine bar the other day. I bought 50g of a french cheese for $18. Thats $360/kg. Unbelievable!

 

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[johnp]

This is a cheesy thread



haha sorry I had to...

 

[ozbuck]

This is a cheesy thread



haha sorry I had to...

Haha

Hopefully I can get some more advice and feedback on my cheesy thread

 

[Speedsta]

I didnt realise that they had started making unpasturised cheeses over here, I just knew about the importing of European cheese issue. Do you have any recommendations for newer NZ or OZ cheeses?

 

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[ozbuck]

Bruny Island has an unpasteurised cheese called "C2"... really nice. Not sure about the NZ cheeses though.

Theres a great goats cheese (chevre) made by Holy Goats in Victoria. Not unpasteurised but made from high quality organic milk.

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Do you have any thoughts on the business idea?