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Make Pets Your Business: Start Your Own Dog Bakery

Friday, December 08, 2006

What is a Dog Bakery?
People are becoming more health conscious, not only for themselves, but for their pets as well. A great way to tap into this consciousness is to start a dog bakery offering healthy treats to these lucky pooches. Commercial dog biscuits contain a ton of additives and chemicals, while home baked treats eliminate all this unnecessary stuff and they taste great.

You can transform your kitchen into your bakery and find most ingredients in your local grocery store. This means low production costs with a good profit margin. You can package your baked goods quite simply with paper bags and make your own labels at home.

Before you dive right in, make sure you check out the legalities of preparing and selling food in your area. The laws will vary from area to area.

Dog Bakery Supplies & Equipment

-Do you have a kitchen with an oven?
-Dog treat and biscuit recipes ~ there are many books available on the subject
-Cookie cutters ~ find cute dog bone shapes and other unique cutters
-Packaging ~ You can go as simple as brown paper bags with a nice computer-printed label with all your contact information. If you're shipping your biscuits, you may want to choose some more sturdier packaging. Check your local dollar store for inexpensive tins and boxes. If you have a knack for sewing, how about a sealable plastic bag placed into an attractive fabric bag with a drawstring?

Dog Baker Skills & Attributes
If you don't like dogs, you shouldn't waste your time. A love of pets and what you're doing is essential.
An interest in baking.
Sales skills - these biscuits aren't going to sell themselves.
Ability to meet deadlines - people will be making orders and you need to be able to fill them in a timely manner.

Dog Bakery Product Prices
Check out your competition for appropriate pricing. If you sell wholesale to stores try not to undercut their retail price when selling to retail customers.

Get Your Business off the Ground
Visit the following businesses to see if they would like to sell your product.

-veterinarian
-pet store
-kennel
-doggy daycare

If they aren't interested in selling, ask if you can leave samples with your menus. The great thing about having low production costs is that samples aren't going to break the bank.

Also, don't forget to give your samples to your friends with pets ~ but make sure they take a menu too!

Book a table at a local pet event.

Try organizing a fundraising event with your local SPCA or animal organization. The idea is that people purchase your products and the organization receives a portion or all of the profits. Again, be sure to have menus and business cards on hand, so that people can make future orders from you in the future.

posted by I Am A WAHM @ 3:49 AM

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