We wrote in Elle (in the magazine we work in the beauty department) an article about proper breakfasts. They mentioned cereals, described the advantages of protein products and whole grain bread, did not forget about smoothies. And then, having written the word "granola" (these are oatmeal, baked in honey with nuts and dried fruits, they come in crumbly form and in the form of bars), I look at each other, nodded - it was as if a light had been lit in my head! We took action immediately. We began to look for recipes, study the technology, monitor what is on the Russian market. And they realized that the granola niche is almost empty.
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It took about a month and a half from the abstract idea to the launch. We decided to focus on the geographic topic. Provence, Morocco and, of course, Russia - each of these places has a recognizable flavor. For granola in Russian they chose cranberries, prunes, cinnamon and pine nuts. For Moroccan - figs, dates, walnuts, candied orange fruits, nutmeg and white sesame seeds. For Provencal - pistachios, cherries, dried apricots and vanilla. We baked the first portion and assembled a focus group from among our colleagues. The success was encouraging. Then they asked a familiar designer to draw a logo and a layout of business cards for us, made a beautiful shot with our granola and immediately posted it on all social networks. These photographs became the basis of our website (the main page is held on a large colorful still life, and photographs of different types of granola illustrate the product). We constantly send these pictures to magazines and food festival organizers whenever a product needs to be presented.
We bake while at home, we have a good oven with two baking sheets. If you need to bake a lot, borrow two more. In the near future, we plan to rent the workshop several times a month for large parties. So far, they decided not to attract investments from outside, they limited themselves to their own savings: 60,000 rubles were spent on branding, purchase of ingredients, packaging and participation in the first food fair. Investments require accountability - this limits your freedom. Granola is a very convenient food, its production does not require serious investments.
We accept orders via Instagram or by e-mail and deliver in Moscow ourselves, although soon we will probably have to connect a courier service. The main vehicle for promotion and the main sales platform is social media. This is the modern word of mouth, only the signal speed is much higher. Thanks to Instagram and Facebook, not only friends and acquaintances quickly found out about us, but also random people interested in proper nutrition (helped by the hashtags that we put on our posts). We want to remain a niche, home product for our own people. There is no place for us in retail chains - then the quality and control of production will inevitably fall. But we really want to register in nice, brick-and-mortar Moscow cafes.
When you make your dream come true, you need to try so that it does not turn into a routine. We have two scales - the main job and our startup. It is difficult to balance between them, but so far we have the strength to handle both cases. We bake in the evenings, on weekends. Before choosing one thing, you need to come up with a very confident profit. And one more life hack: your constant work can give an excellent impetus to a startup - contacts, reviews, first customers.
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