297 | Building a Handmade Food & Beverage Brand with Ashleigh Evans, InBooze

Just follow your instincts that seems to be the thread throughout today's podcast episode.

Paper Camp alum, Ashleigh Evans of InBooze, joins me to talk about how she started a handmade, locally sourced food and beverage brand from her home in 2018.

Her company has since expanded into a team working out of a commercial kitchen, warehouse, and a retail space, and they ship products to stores nationwide.

On today's episode, we talk about regulatory requirements for the food and beverage industry, why you need trusted mentors surrounding you as you're building a business, and she shares a fun story about how being included in Oprah's stocking stuffer guide crashed her website.

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Building InBooze

Ashleigh started blogging in 2010, which grew over the years into a community. In 2018, she found herself burning out on what she was doing and wanted to make a pivot. She’d been hosting these Sunday Sips on Snapchat where she was teaching people how to make cocktails.

That sparked an idea of how she could turn the infused booze that she was already making into a product, ultimately launching InBooze.

Making Handmade Infusion Kits

With InBooze creating handmade infusion kits, many don’t realize the amount of work that goes into each kit. While they started with a small dehydrator, Ashleigh now works out of a commercial kitchen where she creates her kits with dehydrated fruits, herbs, and veggies.

The majority of their fruits are locally sourced from farms around her, then dehydrated in their commercial kitchen, and finally packaged for shipping.

Through this laborious process, Ashleigh is also looking for natural products, sourcing organic when she can, but also making sure no pesticides are used. Additionally, her printer for packaging is also local.

Beyond supporting InBooze as a brand when you buy their infusion kits, you’re also supporting local farmers in her area.

Seeing the Vision for Growth

Prior to being in their current space, Ashleigh was working out of a commercial kitchen forty minutes away. She wanted to be closer to home, but also saw the potential for growth. She passed by a 4,000-square-foot building and immediately saw the vision.

A large commercial kitchen, five minutes from home, along with a storefront. It was right there!

They did it! Her husband went full-time in the company, then they added two full-time employees and four part-time employees, along with a photographer that takes their product photos. The employees work in both the kitchen and the storefront, helping with preparing, packaging, and selling!

Navigating Regulations for a Handmade Food & Beverage Brand

There are so many considerations when dealing with food and beverage regulations in the US.

In the beginning, Ashleigh was able to create her products out of a dedicated room in her house as long as she put a label on it, according to Michigan law, then sell it in markets and farmer’s markets. The laws and regulations do vary from state to state.

Ultimately, she wanted to be in a commercial space. Grand Rapids Opportunities for Women hosted a two-month class on how to work in a commercial kitchen and the regulations she needed to consider.

Every type of food has different regulations—thankfully dehydration of fruit and veggies is a simple situation. They can have food inspections anytime, but they are required to get re-licensed every year.

Do Things Imperfectly

As you’re getting ready to launch your business, create a new product, or whatever it is that you want to do, Ashleigh’s advice is to stop waiting for it to be perfect.

After you launch or release something into the world, you will grow in it, it will change, and you can iterate as needed! Done is better than perfect.

Additionally, make sure that you’re surrounding yourself with a supportive community, like our LABS community, that can help you make decisions, whether it’s deciding on those potential changes, requesting advice, or just having the support you need as a business owner.

The Reality Behind Oprah’s Stocking Stuffer List

2020 was a really amazing, yet crazy time for InBooze, as they were featured by not only The Etsy Buyer but were also included in Oprah’s Stocking Stuffer List. Ultimately, her shop wasn’t ready for the influx of orders.

She checked her Etsy shop and everything was sold out, with requests for when she would restock. The shipping date had to be changed to two months in advance while she was working all day, every day. They had to close down their shop at the end of November just to keep up.

The visibility was a huge blessing, yet the stress that came along with not meeting the demands of buyers was tough!

In conclusion,

One of the key messages that I hope you take away from today's episode is that done is better than perfect!

Ashleigh talks about how they got started with what they had at the time. And then they incrementally made changes to their process, their sourcing, their packaging, their team, and more.

This is how strong businesses are built. We iterate as we go, and we apply new knowledge and opportunities as they become available to us.

quick links:

Here is a recap of all the links mentioned in this episode + other helpful links that tie in with the topics covered:

This episode is brought to you by our Email Marketing For Product Makers guide. 49% of our customers want to hear from us on a consistent basis, yet, only a small percentage of product-based business owners are actively sending monthly emails to their customers.

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MEET ASHLEIGH

InBooze was started in 2018 by Ashleigh Evans when she realized people wanted an easier way to enjoy restaurant quality cocktails from home. After seeing all of the funky, sugary ingredients in most at-home cocktail kits, she knew there had to be a better way.

Starting from her home basement kitchen, Ashleigh started dehydrating everything in sight and putting them in tea style pouches to infuse alcohol. 5 months later, InBooze was launched to the public. In 2020, InBooze moved into their current headquarters in Grandville, Michigan, where Ashleigh built a commercial kitchen space in the warehouse. The HQ also features a gift shop and large shipping area for corporate gifting.

With over 30 varieties and seasonal favorites, there is truly something for everyone. InBooze also offers cocktail salts, garnishes and more!

CONNECT WITH ASHLEIGH

WEBSITE: inbooze.com .com | INSTAGRAM: @inboozekits | FACEBOOK: @inbooze

Connect with Katie Hunt

Katie Hunt is a business strategist, podcaster, mentor and mama to four. She helps product based businesses build profitable, sustainable companies through her conferences, courses and coaching programs.

Website: prooftoproduct.com | Instagram: @prooftoproduct