Is this a good plan for starting a fudge business?

There are zero fudge shops where I live so there may be an opportunity here. I love cooking/baking/fudge/candy making. Fudge has relatively low overhead costs, ingredients are cheap (butter, sugars, cream, chocolate, flavorings)

Just trying to wrap my head around a strategy to start and grow this business. This is the plan I have so far:

1) Take a chocolate making course to get the basics of chocolate/sugar down. This knowledge will help troubleshoot problems in the future. It's a short course, not too expensive.

2) Time to make some fudge. Invest in equipment but only small scale (i.e. to use in my own kitchen). NAIL the recipes. Practice making small batches of fudge until it's as good as or better than the fudge sold in professional fudge shops. Focus on perfecting 4-5 different kinds of fudge. Goal: orgasmic fudge, undeniably good, addicting.

3) Start giving samples to friends and family. Free of charge, only ask for feedback.

4) If feedback sucks, keep trying to perfect the recipes. If feedback is good, start an Instagram account and a Facebook page, take some professional well lit photos of the fudge and post them online.

5) In the meantime, reach out to small business, catering companies and any other small venue that may have an interest in buying fudge. Give them free samples. Start building some connections in the industry.

6) Build website.

7) Try to find bigger venues to sell fudge, like wedding halls, corporate offices, restaurants, etc.

8) Try to do as much work as I can by myself, only hire someone if there is steady income and workload is too much to handle.

9) Keep hustling, making fudge, growing the business, getting more clients, maybe add another 3-5 flavors to the menu.

Is this in the right direction?

My goals are to only spend money on ingredients and equipment as needed but to not skimp on quality, to create an amazing product that people will truly love and to eventually expand the menu beyond fudge and add chocolate salted caramels, brittle, toffee, etc.

Then, eventually, to finally open a physical store and sell this candy along with coffee, wine and beer. But that is a very distant goal.

Another possibility is to make fudge with CBD/THC, to take edibles to another level, but that too won't happen until later on and only if things go well and I sell consistently.

Am I missing anything here?

Any tips?

EDIT: Forgot to add, between step #3 and #4 I would pick a name, logo, work on branding, design the boxes, etc. Start small at first. I have a background in art and design so I could do some of this myself and save some $.

Submitted October 22, 2018 at 12:10PM by TwerkusMaximus https://ift.tt/2CuTpsl