Office Space Expenses

$0

$7,000

Employee & Freelancer Expenses

$151

$352

Website Costs

$223

$7,215

Business Formation Fees

$5,600

$20,400

Equipment & Supply Expenses

$63

$200

Inventory Expenses

$350

$14,750

Software Expenses

$162

$3,094

Advertising & Marketing Costs

$0

$2,800

Total Startup Costs

$6,549

$55,811

@BrandiVBlazin

https://twitter.com/BrandiVBlazin?lang=en

35

FoodTec Solutions

foodtecsolutions.com

40,131

KeHE Distributors

kehe.com

59,755

FoodBev Media

foodbev.com

108,992

Muscle Foods USA

musclefoodsusa.com

237,328

World Central Kitchen

wck.org

256,861

N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

ncagr.gov

298,675

What Chefs Want!

whatchefswant.com

333,278

Four Seasons

fsproduce.com

362,683

Performance Food Group

pfgc.com

410,972

Smithfield Foods

smithfieldfoods.com

425,048

Flexibility

You can put as much time into the business as you'd like. If you like the work and have some initial experience, you can start small and manage all aspects of the business on your own.

Scalable

With businesses and processes changing daily, there will always be demand for new features, products and services for your business. Additionally, there are several different business models and pricing tiers you can implement that will allow you to reach all types of customers.

Meaningful business connections

You never know who you will meet as a food distribution business. This could be the start of an incredible business opportunity!

High customer retention rates

Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer.

High margins

The gross margins for your food distribution business are typically around 60%, which is considerably high and allows you to grow your business and manage costs easily.

Control of workload

With starting a food distribution business, you have the unique ability to choose how little or how much you want to work. You also have the freedom to decide which projects you want to work on, and can turn down the ones that do not interest you.

Motivation of employees

If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees.

High employee turnover

In the food distribution business, employee turnover is often high, which can be quite costly and time consuming for your business. It's important to try and avoid this as much as possible by offering competitive pay, benefits, and a positive work environment.

High overhead expenses

With starting a food distribution business, there are overhead expenses that come with selling a physical product. You will want to make sure you strategically budget for these overhead costs. We discuss this more in the startup costs section below.

Work can be repetitive

You may find creating the same product over and over repetitive and tiresome. One way of avoiding this is to diversify product lines and revenue streams - this will keep things interesting!

Time commitment

With starting a food distribution business, all responsibilities and decisions are in your hands. Although this is not necessarily a negative thing, work life can take over at times. This can place a strain on friends and family and add to the pressure of launching a new business.

Difficult to build trust with your customer

With starting a food distribution business, there can be minimal face-to-face interaction, which means it can be a lot more difficult to establish trust with your customers. You'll need to go the extra mile with your customer to grab their attention and business.