What it costs to start

Start from the costs that are not optional, because they arrive before any revenue does.

The regulated costs

A process authority evaluation for each product. Better Process Control School or equivalent training for whoever supervises production. Facility registration. Business registration and insurance.

These are a real barrier and they are also a real moat: they are why the shelf is not infinitely crowded, and why a producer who has done them properly is in a different position from one who has not.

The production costs

Kitchen access, whether that is a rented commercial kitchen by the hour or a licensed space of your own. A pH meter and buffers, which is the one instrument you cannot substitute. A pot you can heat evenly, a blender that actually blends, a bottling bucket with a gate valve, and a scale.

Lab testing, at minimum for the process authority submission and probably annually after.

The packaging costs

Bottles, caps, liners, reducers, shrink bands, labels and cases, all bought in case quantities rather than singly. At first-run volumes this is a surprisingly large fraction of the cost of a bottle, and it is the number that improves most as you scale.

Label artwork, and a print run. Reprints are the most avoidable cost in this category and are usually caused by a labeling requirement discovered late.

What people leave out

Their own time, which makes a business look viable that is actually buying you a job below minimum wage. Market stall fees. Freight, which for glass is heavy. Free samples, which at a festival can be a meaningful share of a batch. And the bottles lost to a crooked label or a cross-threaded cap.

Work out the cost per bottle from a measured yield rather than from the recipe, because the recipe does not know what stayed in the pot.

References