Stories by Bimbola Oyesola
Investment in Popcorn business is a money spinner any day as popcorn production is one of the very lucrative businesses that one can start with little money and make it big with proper planning and good marketing.
It is a product that appeals to lots of people, especially little children. It’s the best food for young lovers who want to stroll around, the best snacks when watching favourite TV show. Popcorn is everyone’s favourite and this is the reason why investment in it is a gold mine.
As an investor in this business, you will be creating employment for lots of other people as you can always see people selling the product on the road and some other places.
It is usually sold for N100 and people are buying it in hundreds of thousands everyday. It is almost selling faster than pure water maybe due to the convenient packaging.
Popcorn business is also easy to start because the materials involved in the production are not costly, very affordable and with little efforts. The product sells fast too because people just enjoy eating popcorn for many reasons.
Equally, the profit potential is quite good.. For example, if an entrepreneur produces 10,000 packets monthly and sell to the retailers at the price of (maybe) N70, the retailers will sell for N100 and make profit of N30 each.
Market analysis shows that the cost of producing a pack is not more that N40, that means as an investor, one will be making profit of N30 on each packet. With this projection, 10,000 packs will be 10,000 x N30 = N300,000 profit in a month!
However before starting the business, it’s important to conduct a feasibility study. This popcorn business might look simple and easy to start, but planning well ahead of the business will ensure its profitability. So answering the following questions is very vital: What type of popcorn business should I do? How will I reach my potential customers? Who will I supply to? Should I sell to the final consumer? Where will I stay to make my sales?
The more questions you can ask yourself, the better because it will give you a detailed overview of what you are going into.
Besides the feasibility, below are other vital steps you may need to consider :
Register with CAC
After you’ve conducted your feasibility study, the next step is to choose a business name. It could be your nickname, or a strange abstract word with no meaning. Whichever one you’re going for, make sure it’s memorable and can be branded. Then ensure to register with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to protect your brand. There are many popcorn brands out there, so chose a name that will set your product apart from the lots in the market.
Once you have gotten a business name, brand it in a unique way. You can do this by hiring a professional graphic artist to work on the label, with your business name boldly written.
It is also important to make necessary investigation on other governmental requirements that may be necessary for the business.
Equipment
Popcorn Machine – Known as popcorn maker. You will need bigger popcorn machine since you will be producing in larger quantity. Look for nice one in the market and buy two or more depending on how many hands you need in the business. It is advisable to employ hands for effective production and distribution.
Get the type of popcorn frying machine that is normally used by the eateries. Go for the type that produce salt and sugar popcorn at the same time; ET-POP6A-D or Funpop 8 oz. The price range is between N65,000 – N80,000. It’s bigger and process faster than the regular one.
If your area doesn’t have electricity, buy the type of popcorn maker that uses gas cylinder and electricity so that you can switch to both power sources. For those who want to start small, you can get a cheaper one, as prices for popcorn maker starts from N20,000. This can also be negotiated.
This is used to seal the mouth of the package. This machine is electrical and will warrant handling the machine and sealing it manually. It’s very easy to operate. You just position the popcorn filled nylon on the machine and pressed the ‘handle like’ controller on the nylon edge and it will be sealed by the hot rim. It looks more like a laminating machine, only that the structure and purpose is different. This machine can cost over N15,000.
Branded package
To stay ahead of competitors in this business, your strongest selling point should be your brand. Make sure your package is well branded. It’s not enough to just write your business name and phone number on the pack, but you need to create attractive brand for your product.
Take a clue from the eateries and see how their packages are professionally branded with good and quality designed pictures and graphics, complete with professional logo. That’s what sells in business — all popcorn are the same but your packaging could make yours different in the eyes of consumers.
It doesn’t cost much to get a professional branding for your business, employ a professional graphic designers to do it for you. Then use the design for your popcorn and other items like the popcorn wrappers if you are using wrapping papers.
Corn
Your major raw material in this business is corn. Buy enough bags of corn depending on the quantity you wants to produce. You can get as many bags of corn as you want in top markets across the country. For corn to pop, There should be certain amount of moisture within the corn, so that when heated makes it pop from the inside out, when a corn don’t get popped from inside out, it’s called a dud, which means there was not enough moisture in that corn. Look for sweet corn that contain enough moisture.
It’s advisable you meet someone who’s already in this business to give you a little tip. If possible, help you purchase your first bag of corn.
Sugar, Salt, Butter
These are the primary ingredients you’ll need to make your popcorn taste great. You can easily get them from any shop around. Note: You need to get additional training however on how to mix the sugar, butter, and salt and the desired quantity. You will also need to learn how to pop the corn.
Marketing Tips
The next stage after production is now getting the product to the market:
You may sell through the street hawkers, they sell the product faster and in large quantity.
Talk to Supermarkets and shop owners, you will be surprised of the positive response you will get if your branding is attractive enough. You can also sell at special events, like school inter house sports or other special events in schools or for those organising children events.
Once you have these requirements in place, you are good to go in your business and starts making good money for yourselves.
Advertising
There are many ways to advertise and further make your popcorn business known. You can choose to run an advert online or offline, depending on your target. You can even create awareness through your business cards, flyers, Facebook adverts, Instagrams classified adverts on newspaper, television channels, radio station etc.
Meanwhile, there are other 101 ways to sell your popcorn and make cool cash within a month. Consider the following ways;
– In carts
This is no doubt the easiest method to sell your popcorn. You can set up your cart anywhere that you’re sure people will buy. Anybody can do this business, including a student who’s looking for another way to survive on campus. In fact, doing this popcorn business in a school environment is destined to succeed.
– Store
This is what depicts a serious popcorn seller who have big dreams. Having your own shop or store is a huge milestone. In this case, you don’t need to run this business alone. Employ more staffs because this will increase production thereby bringing in more profits. This should be done in other to cover up major expenses like store rent, insurance, maintenance, repairs etc. The more people you have working for you, the faster you grow as an entrepreneur.