I want to convince my mom to start a pickle business

So my mom has been a journalist for the national broadcasting corporation for a long, long time, and has had a pretty fascinating career. She's even written some books and made a lot of great documentaries, but, with Stephen Harper cutting funding and the internet generally replacing older forms of media, journalism seems to be a dying profession. They have my mom doing boring stuff like training interns and looking at Twitter feeds. It seems like all that former journalists do these days is retweet things in an endless loop. She doesn't seem so happy and is always talking about retiring in the next couple years.

But my mom makes the crunchiest, most perfectly spiced, most delicious pickles I've ever came in contact with. They're super crunchy on the outside, but the inside yields to your teeth and releases it's flavourful juices. They're spicy, but not too spicy and, generally, have everything you could ever want in a pickle. Ever since my mom started making pickles, I've had people ask me to "borrow" jars of pickles incessantly. Everyone wants these pickles. Everyone. So I've been thinking I should convince my mom to rent a small storefront, quit her job, and start a pickling business. She could sell people pickles from the store, work one or two days a week making large batches and even sell people pickle subscriptions.

I think she would make a lot of money. It's hard to find a perfect pickle these days. The ones you buy in the store are either soft and chewy or taste artificially crunchy. I know any pickle lover would pay top dollar for these pickles.

 

Pickles are good. You can send me some.

 

you don't understand how good these pickles are. They're like the panacea

 

Just wondering who your mom is.

Why don't YOU start the business. She can help you. You run it. Work at it. Once it's going maybe she can come work with you.

I live in Philly. They always talk about how The Eagles drink pickle juice when playing.

Why not sell Pickles and Pickle Juice.

 

I'm not the one who knows how to make the perfect pickles, that's my mom.

 

Pickle juice sounds not tasty at all. Don't they sell beer at such a game?

 

What you need is a pickle trial run. Something that'll let her see there's profit in pickles before diving in.

 

It wouldn't be professional sports without Beer.

 

So why do they choose pickle juice instead?

 

It's hard to quit a paying job to start a business.

That's why you have to start the business for her.

 

There was a discussion somewhere on HF about starting a business. Someome directed the topic started to http://www.score.org/. It has lots of resources.

 

Takes more than one person to run a business.

Mom makes the pickles and you take the product to the people.
Maybe consign them to a farmer's market.
Or hit the street festival scene (fall fairs, syrup festivals or rodeos depending on where you are) .

Local fall fair is where I got hooked on pickles on a stick.

 

^ Score is a good resource. He's in Canada though, eh, so I think that Score is only for the US.

My guess is that there may be a similar resource in Canada, as well as some equivalent to the SBA. You can still look at the SBA website for some basic info about starting a business.

It seems like the core issue is whether mom really wants to start a pickle business or not.

You could encourage her, I suppose. New businesses have about an 80% failure rate within the first five years, so it's probably not the best bet if she is depending on it for income.

She might be able to start small and work her way up.

If she decides that she wants to try it, making a good business plan and finding a good business mentor are important elements.

 

Canadian Small Business

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/csbfp-pfpec.nsf/eng/Home

 

If you are in Ontario, there's a good deal of small business help you can get via Goodwill and partnered small business groups.

 

It doesn't seem like it would take much of an original investment to start a pickle biz. A gang of cucumbers , some pressure cookers and a location. ( Hello, Mr Fed. How're you today?)As MH said--try it at the Farmers Market--and Flea Markets--small neighborhood stores. Different flavors would be cool. I have canned pickles before and there's nothing like home made. Location for making them, if it's like here, will be important. My son makes killer hot sauce, but in order to market it, he has to make it in a bona-fide restaurant or a room that has been inspected by the relevant department, in the home.

My ex made Irish (something) bread and put it in health food stores and food co-ops. Her hubby tiled a small room for ease of cleaning and the inspector cleared it. I think labeling is very important also. Gives the image one wants. For example= Daves Insanity Sauce. Grampas Kick Ass--(forget what the product was). You know what you're getting. Anyway--good luck---pickles are good mmmmmkay.