Barbecue sauce. Whether it's gourmet barbecue sauce, hot barbecue sauce or sweet barbecue sauce, it invokes feelings of a sultry summer, lots of flavor and a little blues. Maybe that is why so many people are drawn to creating their own sauce and trying to make it a business.
Barbecue sauce producers will tell you: in barbecue, as in business, risks are high, success is low and the work is hard, but barbecue lovers aren't afraid of the nitty gritty. This will just light a fire under you to:
1. Define your BBQ sauce recipe.
2. Build the perfect grill.
3. Prepare your barbecue sauce to go to market.
4. Make your sauce look great and stand out.
5. Learn how to market to local stores and restaurants with help from your home state.
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Perfect and complete your barbecue sauce recipe
At the end of every barbecue, you've been congratulated on a delicious meal. Now, you've decided it's time to make it official and reveal your genius to the world. Be sure you can deliver the amazing barbecue that you are promising when you kick off your barbecue sauce business. Take your lead from other barbecue sauce companies.
I recommend: If you need to experiment with different sauces, look at
BBQRecipeSecrets.com. When they say "the secret is in the sauce," they're not kidding. The
Arizona BBQ Association will help you build a permanent or portable pit.
Prepare your kitchen or get help bottling your barbecue sauce
Your local university extension office can tell you what you need to do to set up your own catering kitchen. Cacklacky Jack of Cacklacky Condiment Company barbecue fame shared this insight with the Arizona BBQ Association: "I am assuming you don't own your own 'inspected facility.' To start out with you should probably be looking for a contract bottler. These guys are called 'co-packers' in food biz lingo." For that, Jack recommends your local extension office too.
I recommend: This
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) interactive map will get you to the closest university extension office. If you are determined to set up your own home kitchen, look at
Shop 4 Barbecue Supplies. Also, the fact sheets and .pdf downloads from
Public Health Seattle & King County will let you know what you are in for, including setting up a kitchen separate from your home kitchen. Be sure to contact the Health Department in your particular city to make sure you're following the laws in your community.
Bottle, label and market your barbecue sauce
With the thousands of barbecue sauce brands on the market, you will want yours to stand out. Your sauce started off as a unique idea and you don't want it to get lost in the crowd. Use these tools to put your stamp on your one-of-a-kind product.
I recommend: ebottles.com has standard barbecue or other unique looks. If you can afford a local graphic designer, get one. Your one-on-one time will help your unique brand. If that is too pricey, check out great alternatives like
The Logo Loft to brand your sauce. Start at home when it comes to your marketing. Your
State Department of Agriculture will help you market your product. Check out innovative programs like
AgriMissouri and then look for your state's equivalent.
Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
- Remember, your barbecue sauce label will have lots of information like ingredients, nutrition and origin. Programs like AgriMissouri are also helping smaller producers get bar codes. So be sure to check with the equivalent entity in your state and save room on your label for all information.
The official source of Creating and Selling a New Barbeque Sauce is
the Barbecue Sauce page at Business.com
Related Resources from Business.com
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