Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
I have a food product at my local business that I want to take beyond the local sphere. How do I take it to the market?Provided you've already met all the health and legal regulations for selling food products, you can go full speed ahead via catalog, website, or direct sales to specialty stores. Are you already on supermarket shelves in your local area? If so, you may be able to use that as a stepping stone to stores in additional markets. As you may know, supermarket shelves are among the most hotly sought-after real estate you can imagine. Major brands fight for every inch, and if you're not already selling well in local stores it could be quite challenging to get onto supermarket shelves in stores outside your area. So I suggest you try selling directly to specialty grocers, rather than supermarkets. You can also market through established catalogs that sell your type of food product. Essentially you would be wholesaling to the catalogers. It would be considerably less costly for you to go this route than to develop your own catalog. Another option is to sell online following the example of some of the more successful sites, such as www.winecountrygiftbaskets.com.
