To make a successful business these days requires you to be smart at both ends of the equation; to know where to find the best deals for the materials and products you use, and equally to be able to turn a good profit on the finished product. It can be tricky to balance this equation – after all, if you “flipped” a house using cheap materials, you couldn’t realistically expect to sell it on at a high price. It’s essential to know what you are looking for, how to find the best price for it, and then how to make it worth something at the selling end.
One way to ensure the quality control and the profit margins are not in constant competition is to take full control of the process from start to finish. This means, as far as possible, sourcing as few ingredients as possible from elsewhere, managing the entire process so that you’re not paying high overheads, and then selling an item whose quality you can 100% vouchsafe. So how do you master the start-to-finish business?
Make sure you have the space and facilities
Let’s say for example that you want to grow your own tomatoes on a farm and turn them into delicious spaghetti sauce which you then sell on as an artisanal delicacy. So far, so good, especially if you’re also growing garlic, chilli peppers and other ingredients. You will need to spend some money on containers, but you can label the jars yourself. The question is, do you have the space to run a production line-style kitchen? Also, can you be sure that your facilities are up to standard from a hygiene point of view? The logistics of the process need to be considered, and anything that is not up to muster should be addressed before you proceed.
Accept where you will need to spend money
There will be some parts of the process where you are, quite simply, the best person for the job. There will be other parts where, perhaps, you could spend some money and get someone more experienced, but it would destroy your profit margin, so you’re more than good enough. There will be some areas, however, where you need to eschew the DIY ethic, for instance: if you specialize in CBD and sell ready-to-use products, then you might need to outsource the preroll packaging design and manufacture to experts. Going start-to-finish isn’t about never outsourcing, it’s about bringing more of the process in-house to keep costs low.
Be fastidious on quality control
One of the key selling points of a business that manages its production from end to end, is the fact that it can have eyes everywhere and give things the “personal” touch. That does mean that you cannot ever blame anyone else for faults in production – so you’ll need to be extremely hands-on. As time goes on, you’ll be able to streamline processes more, and this will be less of a time pressure. But until then, there’s no short-cutting it. You’ll simply need to be on top of the process from start to finish.
