by Oddwookiee » Thu Feb 28, 2013 4:13 pm
How are you selling? If you have a small community, or a little store, get out and talk to people, see what they're interested in. Look at other producers in your area and see what kind of holes in the market there are. If you have a little store, engage your customers. Tell them you want their ideas, what they're looking for, get into a conversation with them. Finding recipes is all well and good, but if you're making something that your market is alien to, it's going to be a hell of an uphill battle. I starter making boudin on a request a couple years ago and my customers (Pacific NW USA) took a year to really start getting into it.
If you're a little plant, look into a local farmer's market. You may not make much money, but exposure is much more important here. Putting a friendly face to "That Meat Place" is invaluable. My FM booth didn't do much more then break even and put change in my pocket the first year, but it pushed people into my shop that never would have otherwise come here. If you can run it yourself as owner/operator, so much the better. People adore the personal touch.