This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey there, what's up? Welcome, thanks for tuning in to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. So excited you're here. We have an amazing community of people all over the world who are trying to create freedom through the form of money-making projects.
Whether they want to quit their job, whether they love their job, they just like the idea of having some extra money, or they just like to do different things. That's what Side Hustle School is all about. Again, our focus is on money-making projects, okay? Not just fun projects, but money-making projects. Nothing wrong with fun projects that don't make money, but that's for another program.
Now today, I've got a caller who wants to sell her delicious and nutritious hot chocolate. That's right, delicious and nutritious, sounds amazing, but there's a twist, okay? Not a twist in the hot chocolate, a twist in the question. She doesn't want to create a big company. Instead, she'd love to sell the recipe.
She wants to sell the recipe and move on. She'll explain it more in her question. Is this a feasible goal? Like, is this possible? Can you just come up with a recipe, sell the recipe, not worry about the rest of the business?
What does she need to know and perhaps do next? Detailed question and my answer coming up in just 30 seconds. [Music]
Hi, this is Mary from Louisville, Kentucky, and I've been listening to the show for a few months now. I really enjoy hearing all the different creative ways others have started a side hustle for themselves. My question is about large-scale production of a food product.
I'm a registered dietician in my day job. I also really enjoy warm drinks, including hot chocolate. For personal use, I have developed an instant hot chocolate mix out of ingredients that are more nutritious than what is sold in the typical store-bought mixes. From working with my clients, I think others would like this product as well. However, I'm not really interested in the time and effort it would take to produce this on a large scale myself.
I'm wondering, is selling this recipe to a larger company a viable option? And if so, how can I get in contact with the right person? Thanks, and I'm looking forward to hearing from you. [Music]
Mary, thank you for the question. Thanks for the call.
I would love to try some of this hot chocolate. Next time I'm in Louisville, Kentucky, or perhaps somewhere else, we'll see. It sounds delicious and healthy. I also think here, like I'll give you my real answer, of course, unfiltered, but it's always good to get advice from other people too. So in this case, perhaps a second opinion might be good.
Now that said, you know, I say that because I actually have a real opinion here. I think it's tough to sell the recipe without any demonstration of demand. That's kind of what it comes down to. Like, you know, is it viable? Well, it's viable in the sense that anything is possible.
Like I'm sure there are stories of this happening, but I think it's much more likely that it doesn't happen that way because companies that would have the expertise to market and sell such a product, they tend to already have ways of making or acquiring their own recipes. So I think, you know, even though I'm sure Mary's hot chocolate is delicious, most of those kinds of companies, they would only be interested if it was further along as an actual product. You know, they want to see, as I said, market demand, and then, you know, they specialize in, you know, maybe taking it to the next level or scaling it to use Mary's word. I always want you to go into situations with your eyes open to just kind of understand, you know, what's normal or realistic. And maybe one more thought here.
You know, okay, Mary is not interested in the time and effort it would take to produce this on a large scale, fair enough. But what about a small to medium scale? Like, ignoring the question of scale, like, let's just take that out of it. How do you feel about developing it as a product at all? You know, because if it was a product and, you know, you had created some branding around it, it was selling somewhere, then I think it's at least easier to go down the road of, you know, trying to market the recipe and now the product itself to a company for some kind of acquisition.
So if that possibility is exciting to you, great. You know, now you've got some things to work on. If not, well, maybe that information is valuable too. Mary, thanks again for your question. Thanks for tuning in.
If you've got a question, listeners, sidehustleschool.com/questions right there on the website. I will continue to feature them throughout the year. I love knowing what you're up to. I love passing along updates as well. So keep me posted.
I'll bring it back to the community. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
