A guide to starting and running a successful food business from your kitchen

By Bruce McMichael

From producing for pleasure to producing for profit!

With the growing demand for traditional, well-cooked, locally-sourced, homemade food there’s never been a better time to start your own food business. You can sell your products at local food fairs, farmers’ markets, food festivals and online. You can even get the ear of the supermarkets. Meanwhile, with modern technology and social media, it’s never been easier to promote your products.

Produced in partnership with Country Living Magazine, this book will help you to:

– turn your love of food into a thriving small business, with the right idea and a watertight business plan
– create a home-based kitchen that complies with health and safety legislation
– use social media to promote your produce and brand
– become part of a vibrant community selling at farmers’ markets and food festivals across the UK
– sell into shops, pubs and giant supermarket chains

This book is sprinkled with real-life stories of people making money from cooking, baking, blogging and much more besides. You’ll meet soft drink producers, beef burger and sausage makers, chocolate and fudge specialists . . . and more.

All of them started from scratch and are now successfully selling into everywhere from farm shops to supermarkets. With this book you can join them.

Bruce McMichael has worked as a freelance writer, journalist and publisher for over 20 years and is passionate about local food, inspired by local provenance through meeting and learning from the producers and chefs.

Bruce published and edited a local food magazine, Taste Shropshire which included news and reviews of local food producers, restaurant and hotel reviews and local and regional recipes.

As a regular user of local farmers' markets, food fairs and festivals he has spoken with hundreds of individual local producers, and small to medium sized businesses eager to share their experiences of working as a food entrepreneurs.

With a post-graduate degree in marketing, he has gained experience in international book retailing and sales which enable him to travel extensively, visiting many different types of fresh food markets around Europe, the USA and Asia.

Bruce is an experienced public speaker and conference chair and has judged many cooking competitions including 'Curry Chef of the Year' organised by Shropshire Council; a best Fidget Pie challenge run by the famous Ludlow Food Festival and a Best Sausage competition run by the regional food group Heart of England Fine Foods.