Keeping up appearances...

[Xavier_Onassis]

She's had the business for eight years. Given her start up cost was under 1000 pesos, it's way above the curve. It's a lot of work, and she has a long term business with over 80 clients. What's nice is it doesn't look like easy money, because she only makes a few bucks per storefront per week, but it does add up.

If your business plan is to buy spices in bulk, repackage them and sell them wholesale to stores, that seems like a pretty logical business. The important part is being good with numbers and developing a good relationship with the retailers. But I don't see how you could patent or copyright that anywhere.
She is at a great advantage if she is good at accounting and public relations.

My observation is that Dominicans do not seem to have much of a head for business. In Barahona, the majority of the enterprising businesses are owned and run by "los turcos", ie Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians and such.
There is an unimpressive Pollo Rico place and a Pizza joint. Los chinos have a corner on all other chicken-related dining places.

Dominicans run colmados, some beer joints, some restaurants with overpriced mediocre fare. There is a good pizzeria. Hygiene is questionable in most places. The idea of supplying soap, towels and toilet paper to customers seems to be unthinkable.

 

[PeterInBrat]

She sells basic spices sold in any colmado.

Oregano, whole and ground
Anise seed
Star anise
Cinnamon, ground and by the stick
Baking soda and powder
Pink Dominican salt.
Black pepper, whole and ground
Several others spices I'm not familiar with

When I figure out how to do shipping inside the country, I might start selliny hard to find spices by mail order, like higher quality pepper, Montreal Steak Seasoning, and Old Bay.

 

[PeterInBrat]

Even the US, many microbusinesses don't keep books or have a seperate bank account for their businesses. My GF spends at least five hours a week buying spices because she has never had enough working capital to buy a full week's inventory on one trip. I recently found out the cinnamon she buys is imported to SD, then wholesaled to her supplier. If we can buy direct "off the docks", we can prob cut our cost in half, even withbus and taxi fares.

There are FIVE colmados within two blocks of where I live. But to get six basic items the other day, I had to go to all of them, because they were all out of the things I needed, and even then, none had the common bread I wanted. No one has working capital or a minimum inventory. They only buy AFTER they run out of an item.

 

[wuarhat]

This is a terrific success story!! ... It is amazing how a smart plan and hard work leads to such luck!!

I think it was Gary Player that said, "The more I practice the luckier I get."

 

[Expat13]

She sells basic spices sold in any colmado.

Oregano, whole and ground
Anise seed
Star anise
Cinnamon, ground and by the stick
Baking soda and powder
Pink Dominican salt.
Black pepper, whole and ground
Several others spices I'm not familiar with

When I figure out how to do shipping inside the country, I might start selliny hard to find spices by mail order, like higher quality pepper, Montreal Steak Seasoning, and Old Bay.

This is a good start thankyou. but dont stop, how is she marketing to her customers, where are they, and what are her sell prices for each spice listed above?

 

[PeterInBrat]

She wholesales every spice for 2.5 pesos then they retail for 5 pesos. She adjusts the amount to fit the price. Give she pays 20 pesos a pound for baking powder and can make about 100 bolsitas with that, her gross is 250 and net is around 220 after the cost of plastic. She can bang that out in about 20 minutes. That's her best mark up. Cinnamon stick is more labor and less profit, but it's 10%-20% of her sales.

Most spice vendors wholesale at 5 pesos to retail for 10; the main difference is in the lables. She can bang out far more because ppl know what cinnamon looks like, so only lables baking soda and baking powder with a pen. Some vendors have printed lables, which is more inventory to deal wit

I bought 2000 pesos of spices before noon yesterday. It's all been processed and being delivered now.

 

[Tamborista]

Have you considered a "Spice App", everybody has a smart phone, she could be the new Amazon Spice Girl in Higuey, you never know, perhaps you can add a few zeros to her bottom line, and she will be shopping for a new jeepeta next year instead of a moto, just make sure she keeps the beat up Camry for delivery!

 

[PeterInBrat]

Anyone ever use this? This is from a big store; her product isn't labled..


I think 20 pesos for about double the amount she sells.

 

[PeterInBrat]

What she would do before was start with 500 pesos, turn it into 1500 pesos, then turn that into 4500 pesos. But aftet her own expenses and hsndvouts, she'd end up with 500 to start the next week. She's been limited by working capital, not demand.


What she could do is bag up 300 bolsitas, mark it up by 50%, then find someone else to sell in a new territory.

 

[Tamborista]

What she would do before was start with 500 pesos, turn it into 1500 pesos, then turn that into 4500 pesos. But aftet her own expenses and hsndvouts, she'd end up with 500 to start the next week. She's been limited by working capital, not demand.


What she could do is bag up 300 bolsitas, mark it up by 50%, then find someone else to sell in a new territory.

This sounds like a perfect "Shark Tank" project.
How scale-able is this?

 

[the gorgon]

This sounds like a perfect "Shark Tank" project.
How scale-able is this?

in the DR, not so much...

 

[PeterInBrat]

It can be franchised. She could focus on repacking, then sell for a smaller markup in bundles of 1000 bolsitas. There's 100,000 ppl in Hig?ey and her product retails at half the price of the vendors who sell in more professional packing. I think she has her hands full for now. I brought 15,000 staples with me three weeks ago and they're almost gone. Another 2000 pesos in spices bought yesterday being processed today..About eight kilos sold five grams at a time.

 

[PeterInBrat]

More like the show The Profit. I'm taking an existing business, looking for bottlenecks to fix, and adding in my own money for working capital. I'm trying to have a light touch.

 

[AlterEgo]

Has she ever considered making her own mixes, like "Italian Seasoning", etc??

Here are a couple of mixes she might consider:

 

[Celt202]

It's quite simple. You must copyright your intellectual property after an updated legal branding, but preceding any outstanding patent while in accordance with existing matching and verified trademark. It's all on the application.

On a Thursday accompanied by your grandparents.