This is what it’s like running a small business in freeze-drying. This episode you get to see me deliver freeze-dried products to a new wholesale customer in Wilder, Idaho. I'll show you the invoicing template I created that's super easy to use, in fact, join my email list and I'll send you the template for FREE! Go here:
Check out more "Day in the Life VLOG videos, here is the video playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8uz0_2xUyEJ5_LEUicpNkLjmiYHeC3Rp
Other ways to connect:
🌐 Website: https://freezedriedbusiness.com
📬 Newsletter: https://freezedriedbusiness.aweb.page/p/e8e06679-2d61-4f8e-99fd-5aa90078f327
If you'd like to chat further, book a live session with me through to discuss your business plans https://freezedriedbusiness.com/contact/
FREE ROI TEMPLATE + FREE TUTORIAL VIDEO: https://freezedriedbusiness.com/spreadsheet
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Freeze Dryers to Purchase
———————————————
- Harvest Right Freeze Dryers - Start with the Large and then upgrade to an XL as you start increasing your customer portfolio. https://affiliates.harvestright.com/1974.html
- StayFresh Freeze Dryer - https://stayfreshfreezedry.com/?sca_ref=3292008.4uBi4MIG3W&sca_source=YouTube. I like the freezing speed and dry times of this machine. It's a little larger than the Harvest Right Medium but you can do 12-13 pounds of food in it which is only a few pounds less than the Harvest Right Large capacity.
- Blue Alpine Freeze Dryer - https://bluealpinefreezedryers.com/thefreezedriedbusiness
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Freeze Drying Supplies
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Start using Freeze Drying Supplies that can help you become more efficient in your business. Click below to access one of the largest varieties in freeze-drying supplies. https://www.freezedryingsupplies.com/?rfsn=7945463.f583545
- Tray Stackers
- Tray Lids
- Parchment Paper
- Other helpful accessories for freeze-drying
Here are other tools I use for my freeze-dried business:
- Taffy - https://amzn.to/3XhBwU7
- Cookie/Ice Cream Scoop (1/2 or 1 tablespoon size) - https://amzn.to/3utyX4H
- 5 Gallon Storage Pails with Gamma Screw Lid - https://amzn.to/3ICnXdT
- Hefty 2.5 Gallon Jumbo Bags - https://amzn.to/3GpQ90P
- Cutco Scissors - https://amzn.to/3vORJ7A
- Knife Sharpener - https://amzn.to/3Vrttml
- Large cutting board - https://amzn.to/3GqhIYN
- Food Scale - https://amzn.to/3FyO9DW
DISCLAIMER: This video description contains affiliate links, meaning I'll receive a small commission if you click on one of the product links but there is nothing charged to you for clicking on the links. By purchasing through these links you help support my channel and allow me to continue making videos. Thank you for the support!
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0:00
this is an episode of the day in the
0:01
life of a freeze-dried business owner my
0:03
name is David and I run a business
0:05
called freeze dried Depot in boyy Idaho
0:07
I also Host this YouTube channel called
0:10
the freeze dry business and so if you're
0:11
interested in freeze drying if you're
0:13
interested in knowing what people are
0:15
doing running a business using their
0:17
freeze dryer subscribe to this Channel
0:19
right now um and you'll be notified of
0:21
different videos that I produce about
0:23
running a freeze Drive business but
0:25
today we're going to be doing a point of
0:28
view type of video a vlog about what I'm
0:31
doing today in my free strip business
0:32
and fortunately for you I am delivering
0:35
a new wholesale order to a new client in
0:39
Wilder Idaho it's about an hour from
0:41
where I live in boisee and so what I'm
0:43
going to share with you is just a little
0:45
bit about what I go through in my
0:47
process when I get a new client and um
0:52
the the client actually contacted me
0:53
through my website freezey
0:55
depot.com back in the fall and they were
0:58
wanting me to freeze dry some of their
1:00
fruit because they have um a big farm
1:04
and I didn't have the capacity at the
1:07
time because is during the holiday
1:09
season and it gets really busy so I kind
1:12
of postponed that they also we also kind
1:15
of just lost track it wasn't a bad
1:17
relationship or anything but they
1:19
contacted me about a month ago and said
1:21
hey we're still interested and we're
1:23
ramping up for kind of our season for
1:25
people to come to the farm and to their
1:27
Ranch uh to to pick their own types of
1:30
fruits and things like that they also
1:32
were interested in continuing the
1:34
conversation about freeze drying their
1:36
fruit for them to do a more of a private
1:38
label it's something that I put off
1:40
quite a bit in my business because I
1:41
really don't know how to private label
1:44
something but I'm less intimidated by it
1:47
now and I I've done it for two different
1:50
people now so far in 2024 and I'm going
1:54
to try it with this individual as well
1:56
because they have um different types of
1:59
uh plums and peaches and cherries and
2:02
they would just like me to freeze dry
2:04
this for them as a service and then they
2:07
will private label them themselves so
2:09
we're going to talk about that with them
2:10
today I'll share with you what that
2:12
conversation entails and kind of what
2:15
came out with it and then we'll kind of
2:16
continue the conversation to to to tell
2:19
you about you know what what that
2:21
business and that contract might look
2:23
like but I want to share with you
2:25
actually what I'm going to be doing on
2:27
the computer to create this invoice for
2:28
them so you can kind of better
2:30
understand what this is all about so all
2:32
right when I started my freeze drying
2:34
business I wanted to create a template
2:35
to make it really easy for me to create
2:37
an invoice for all the people that I was
2:40
going to be doing either Consignment
2:41
with or wholesale and you really don't
2:43
have to recreate the wheel there's other
2:46
templates out there online for you but
2:48
if you want to use this one or you want
2:50
something that's just something that I
2:52
use because you watch this channel a lot
2:54
and you watch my videos I'm happy to
2:56
share that with you and I'll include
2:58
that on my website through my email
2:59
email subscriber list at free drive.com
3:03
so if you want this template I'll
3:05
provide that for you through being on my
3:08
email list so go to Freez
3:10
drive.com uh subscribe to my email
3:12
newsletter and I'll also send you this
3:14
as well as I've got a spreadsheet
3:16
template um for how to calculate your
3:19
profit margin so I can send you those
3:20
things but getting back to this I wanted
3:22
to share my screen just so you knew you
3:25
know as of this morning before I go and
3:28
deliver this to my new wholes client um
3:31
this is really what it is so what you're
3:33
seeing here is I've got my my name of my
3:36
business I've also got my address I've
3:38
also got my website I've also got their
3:41
name and their address and then I also
3:43
put the attention to to whoever I'm
3:46
working with for my wholesale person so
3:48
I blocked these out just because I'd
3:50
like to keep my addresses and my clients
3:53
kind of private except for the name so
3:54
you can look up the shed at car ranes if
3:56
you want to but uh we've got our issue
3:59
date so here is when the invoice is
4:01
issued and then we've also got all the
4:03
products down here now I blocked out
4:06
what my unit cost is because I'm you
4:08
know you can set up whatever type of
4:10
discount you want for your clients to
4:12
have based on your wholesale prices but
4:14
I am going to share with you here you
4:15
know this is all the different products
4:17
that I offer or they've selected in
4:20
their wholesale order sheet um and so
4:24
they've got all different types of ice
4:25
cream I've got different candies as you
4:27
can see and different types of fruits
4:29
here's the quantity um this would be
4:31
where you put your unit cost so this is
4:34
the price that they get um when they
4:36
purchase and then also this is the
4:38
suggested retail because in wholesale
4:41
you might have a suggested MSRP
4:43
something that you're going to see in
4:44
the shelf for pricing that's kind of
4:47
your opportunity to tell them this is
4:50
what the going rate is for this
4:52
particular type of freeze giant product
4:55
but it's also something that can be
4:56
suggested so you can just say hey you
4:58
can price it up more
5:00
because you're buying from me wholesale
5:02
but you can also structure the contract
5:04
to say no you will list the prices at
5:07
this if you want to purchase from me um
5:10
so that way you don't have various
5:12
different prices all over the different
5:14
stores that you're going to have
5:15
wholesale at so anyway very basic
5:19
product description quantity that
5:21
they're purchasing what's the cost to
5:23
them and then what's the suggested
5:24
retail for that product down here I've
5:26
also got you know hey how are you going
5:28
to pay for this you can either pay and
5:30
send a check to me or you can do via
5:33
Paypal um if you have any questions you
5:35
can also contact me so that's basically
5:37
it for the wholesale sheet and so what
5:41
we're going to do is we're going to
5:42
print this
5:45
off all right so now that we've got that
5:47
all printed off I'm going to go
5:48
downstairs and just show you what I've
5:50
loaded up in the truck and then we'll
5:52
head out and head to Wilder Idaho all
5:53
right here's my truck and sorry it's got
5:56
a lot of different kids bikes and stuff
5:58
back here but the these are the three
6:00
different orders of boxes that I've got
6:02
and I've got my
6:04
wholesale invoice for them so I I'll be
6:07
giving this to them and then also I've
6:09
got all the different products in here
6:11
so maybe let's just pull one of these
6:13
out and I'll share with
6:15
you what this all looks like okay so
6:18
this is the fruit box so I'm just going
6:19
to open this for now just so I can show
6:22
share with you what's in here a great
6:25
way to get boxes like this for free by
6:27
the way is just search for your
6:30
connections and your friends and family
6:32
see if people work at you know a UPS
6:35
Store see if people work at
6:36
manufacturing facilities anything like
6:38
that that basically they've got a lot of
6:40
different products that get shipped to
6:42
them and they're looking to kind of
6:44
discard all their boxes this is a great
6:46
way for you to to remove that you don't
6:48
have to go over the top at at at the
6:50
point that you're maybe smaller just
6:53
like me I don't need to go buy custom
6:55
boxes uh with my logo things like that I
6:58
did that in the past and it just ended
7:00
up costing me more money and I also
7:03
asked a bunch of my wholesale clients
7:06
you know hey what does it really matter
7:08
what I'm packaging them and most of them
7:09
are just like no like as long as I know
7:11
that they're freeze-dried products in
7:13
here I'm going to put them in an area
7:15
that I know that I'm going to go get
7:17
more restock if I need it so uh once I
7:20
got that Clarity from multiple of my uh
7:23
wholesale clients then I just basically
7:26
deliver with boxes that uh don't have my
7:29
logo on them now if I had larger clients
7:33
uh larger clients that have bigger
7:36
Brands and I wanted to represent myself
7:39
a little bit more professional
7:40
especially if they were new and I wanted
7:42
to be a little bit more higher quality
7:44
or I'm trying to grow my brand Then I
7:47
then getting custom boxes might be the
7:49
thing but not for me not for right now
7:52
when you're packaging up all of these
7:54
it's again it's just the small things
7:57
that will really make yourself different
7:58
and unique
8:00
uh in your own business and so you want
8:02
to kind of see what your own type of
8:05
tailor of your business is going to be
8:07
like and when I say tailor meaning
8:09
what's the differentiator sometimes it's
8:11
the small things for example I like to
8:14
arrange all my products so it's kind of
8:16
laid out like this so that I have a very
8:20
clean look of all of my products laid
8:22
out in the boxes like this I've met
8:25
people that throw their product straight
8:26
into the box and it just looks like you
8:29
just took all the product and dumped it
8:31
in there to me that's just not
8:33
professional so it's the small things
8:35
that are really going to make your
8:36
clients buy from you again it's also a
8:39
good opportunity for you to say how do I
8:41
want to be represented in my business
8:43
what do I care about myself everyone's
8:45
different I'm just telling you what my
8:47
perspective is and what I would advise
8:49
you doing if you want to have repeat
8:50
clients all right enough about the
8:51
wholesale boxes I know I can ramble a
8:53
little bit hey if you're liking this
8:55
video if you like the point of view kind
8:57
of Vlog series and that type of form
8:59
format could you give this video a
9:00
thumbs up right now that way I know when
9:02
I look back I could say Hey you know
9:04
enough of these likes indicate that I
9:06
should be doing more of this so that's
9:08
what those likes are like and also if
9:10
you have any comments about what you'd
9:11
like to see from a vlog perspective
9:14
comment in the video description now
9:15
let's get going to Wilder Idaho and I'll
9:17
talk to you in the car about other
9:18
things related to my freeze drying
9:20
business all right we are in the car now
9:22
we're headed out to Wilder Idaho now
9:23
normally I kind of meet my customers
9:26
halfway or it's at least close proximity
9:29
Maybe within Max 30 minutes but this is
9:31
about an hour away but this particular
9:33
new client you know she needed this
9:36
before the weekend and it's Thursday now
9:38
so I wanted to make sure I delivered it
9:40
to her so that uh I'd have a good
9:42
impression and you know next time you
9:45
know we can we can look at that now when
9:47
it comes to wholesale and making local
9:50
deliveries or shipping um deliveries by
9:54
the way you can charge for that if you
9:55
want to but if it's worth you to just
9:58
kind of include that in your service
10:00
then you just don't charge for it uh you
10:03
can as a business write that off uh in
10:06
terms of mileage so that's another
10:09
benefit to having an LLC or some type of
10:12
business entity for your freeze dring
10:14
business if you don't have one is that
10:17
you can use different things to write
10:19
off uh different things that you're
10:20
doing in your business and that includes
10:23
using your own personal vehicle you can
10:25
write off the mileage for specific work
10:27
related uh task things like that now you
10:31
can have a work vehicle as well if you
10:32
want to um you have to use that vehicle
10:36
fit more than 50% of the time in your
10:40
business compared to your personal life
10:42
now you want to make sure you check with
10:44
your accountant on that to make sure
10:47
that you know I'm this isn't financial
10:48
advice on my side but this is something
10:50
that I've talked with my accountant
10:52
about and so you have to drive a vehicle
10:55
more than 50% for business purposes to
10:58
be able to ride on
10:59
the the actual car the payments or
11:03
whatever type of method you're using for
11:05
your accounting of that vehicle but if
11:07
you're just using your personal vehicle
11:10
then go ahead and write off the mileage
11:13
and actually the US government did
11:15
increase that I believe it's close to 65
11:18
or 67 cents per mile and so this
11:22
particular track for me is about 50 mil
11:25
which you know that's 25 bucks roughly
11:28
uh that going to be able to write off uh
11:31
on this trip so uh every little bit
11:34
counts right now when it comes to
11:37
shipping let's say you didn't want to
11:39
deliver and you have more out ofate
11:41
wholesale clients and you're just
11:42
starting out you're wondering hey you
11:45
know how do I get this to them do I
11:46
charge them for shipping yes you do
11:48
charge them for shipping um that's part
11:50
of them buying wholesale and that's also
11:53
why maybe you're going to give them a
11:55
decent discount for purchasing your
11:57
products wholesale is that because
11:59
they're going to pay for shipping uh
12:02
you're going to give them you know 30
12:05
40% off
12:07
um now some people are going to ask for
12:10
a flat fee for shipping so they can just
12:12
have a set rate so once you find out
12:15
kind of how much your product is going
12:18
to cost to ship when you're shipping
12:19
freeze-dried product especially you're
12:22
freeze drying uh like you're shipping um
12:24
things that lose weight you know it can
12:26
be fairly in uh inexpensive but if
12:28
you're shipping candy especially
12:31
Skittles it doesn't lose that much
12:33
weight so uh you're going to be shipping
12:35
you know 100 lb roughly of Skittles if
12:38
you're going to ship a 100 pounds of
12:40
freeze drat Skittles right so with with
12:43
uh with shipping though try to figure
12:45
out what your general rate is after the
12:49
first or second type of shipment and
12:51
then you can set a flat rate and kind of
12:53
eat maybe the one or two bucks so maybe
12:56
make it an even 20 bucks or an even $30
12:59
to ship a minimum of let's say 50 units
13:02
something like that so anyway I'm I'm
13:05
driving right now down kind of through
13:07
our just inner city area and then um I'm
13:12
going to get on the freeway and and I'm
13:14
not going to do any type of video for
13:16
freeway stuff just to be safe but we'll
13:19
head out to Wilder Idaho and then I'll
13:22
shoot some video once we get there all
13:25
right I made it to Garrett ranches which
13:27
is here in Wilder Idaho
13:29
it took about an hour's drive from the
13:31
house but we're finally here now I just
13:32
got done talking with the owner of the
13:35
shed which used to be the packing place
13:39
for all their different produce that
13:41
they would sell here on the Orchard and
13:43
the farm so she said this is almost into
13:47
four generations right now and there's
13:48
the fifth one which is all the the
13:50
grandkids now that are in high school
13:52
and things like that but this is a five
13:54
generation farm and back in the 1930s
13:59
and they've continued to have this
14:01
really cool looking shed which I'll show
14:03
you but they sell all their produce that
14:05
they get throughout the summer so it's
14:07
June right now so the cherries are going
14:08
to come in season really quickly and so
14:10
they're going to have those all for
14:12
everyone to come into this shed right
14:15
here and be able to take all the produce
14:18
that they want so it's their own little
14:19
Farm Stand and they've got a local a
14:22
local area where they're having
14:23
different local uh you know craft and
14:26
food people just like myself self prodct
14:29
as well so that's what she's going to be
14:31
selling my product for and why she
14:33
bought on wholesale so this is the fun
14:35
part about owning a business owning a
14:37
small business and trying to get sales
14:40
for your business is you're just trying
14:43
to expose yourself to different people
14:45
who are looking to feature local
14:47
businesses you don't have to be the top
14:50
tier freeze dried candy or freeze-dried
14:53
fruit maker you can just make it however
14:56
you want and grow wherever you want and
14:59
personally for me I I really like this
15:01
YouTube channel so I continue to make
15:03
content and that's what I really like in
15:05
my passion but I also like being a part
15:07
of the freeze drying space for all of
15:09
you as well and I think that if I didn't
15:11
have that then I really wouldn't be
15:12
exposed to what's going on uh in the
15:15
marketplace so that's why I like still
15:16
having freeze dry Depot I like visiting
15:20
and having local people see my product
15:23
see what I'm proud of making and so
15:25
that's what we're doing this whole point
15:27
of view for you for so that's what it's
15:29
all about right so let's go ahead and
15:31
take a look at the inside of the shed at
15:34
Garrett
15:55
ranches all right so right around here
15:57
is where they're going to put all the
15:59
produce so they're first going to be
16:00
getting their cherries In Bloom and in
16:03
Harvest and so they're going to put all
16:05
the cherries here for people to come in
16:07
from these different doors and be able
16:09
to come in and get all their produce and
16:11
they've got peaches and they've got
16:13
different types of peaches that they
16:15
sell one of their top selling peaches is
16:17
the doughnut Peach which uh is really
16:20
sweet and so they said that that's one
16:23
of their top sellers but anyway as you
16:24
can see here this super cool Packing
16:27
Shed that's here in
16:31
Wilder Idaho and kind of see how
16:33
throughout different Generations that
16:36
people would come in here and get
16:38
produce and be able to have a market
16:42
here when they were in the local area
16:44
for different farms and supporting each
16:46
other and they're still doing that today
16:48
so they do some wedding venues in here
16:51
they do other things but look at this
16:52
kind of porch area where they'd have she
16:55
said that they'd have different types of
16:56
vendors and markets and different
16:59
uh produce stands all along this area
17:01
for people to drive up and be able to
17:03
get the produce and then you walk into
17:05
the actual shed area all right so one of
17:07
the things that I do for my wholesale
17:09
clients because I'm small is I allow for
17:12
there to be a pickup of different
17:15
products that aren't selling because for
17:17
me my reputation is important to me and
17:19
so if certain candies ice cream flavors
17:22
different types of fruits aren't selling
17:25
then I'm just going to replace it at no
17:27
charge to them even though they've paid
17:29
for it ahead of time in their wholesale
17:31
purchase I'm going to give them you know
17:33
a chance to just kind of swap it out for
17:35
something that is selling because I'm
17:37
small that's easy for me to do if you're
17:39
larger you probably have a pickup rate
17:41
where you're like hey you know basically
17:44
I'll I'll I'll pick up whatever hasn't
17:47
been selling at let's say 50% so you
17:51
they still had to pay 50% of the total
17:55
cost when they purchased but you get a
17:57
little bit uh of of some change back
18:00
even though it didn't sell um so you can
18:02
work it the way you want to when you're
18:03
selling wholesale but for me I'm still
18:06
relatively small and I like keeping it
18:07
that way so I don't really offer any
18:10
type of charge for uh a takeback so I
18:13
just swap it out the second thing that I
18:15
wanted to accomplish today was to talk
18:16
about freeze drying produce for her
18:19
because as you can see behind me there's
18:22
a bunch of fruit trees and so she's
18:24
going to have an excess of different
18:26
types of fruits that she's going to want
18:28
to harvest and preserve and one of the
18:32
things that she was interested in was
18:33
freeze drying that and she's done some
18:35
canning before but uh after talking with
18:38
her you know I think what we're going to
18:40
do is do some test runs this season so
18:44
I'm going to do a run for her for like
18:46
$5 a tray uh in my freeze dryer and I'm
18:51
going to she's going to pay for me to
18:53
deit the cherries and then I'll freeze
18:56
it and then freeze dry it maybe cut them
18:58
in half so that she can see what the end
19:00
product is then I'm going to do some
19:03
peaches for her some other variations of
19:05
peaches and that way she gets to see
19:08
what the freeze-dried in product is for
19:11
the products that she has that she
19:13
harvests and in that way in September
19:16
when all the Harvest is done then we can
19:18
have a discussion on what next year
19:20
might look like where I can help her do
19:23
this more at scale now that might mean
19:25
that I have a contract in place where it
19:27
makes sense for me to invest in a freeze
19:29
dryer like the HRC 100 from Harvest
19:31
Right Where I can do up to 100 pounds of
19:33
product it might make sense for me to
19:35
then know when I need to hire more staff
19:38
seasonally to be able to pit the
19:40
cherries and cut them in half and do
19:43
that all in this like two we period that
19:45
cherries are running um same thing with
19:48
peaches so it just kind of one for me
19:51
I've typically done candy I haven't
19:53
typically done fruit that's more for
19:55
white label uh meaning someone else is
19:57
going to put their label of their brand
19:59
on it and so now after talking with
20:02
her you know I think what we're going to
20:04
do is just do a test run in my
20:06
commercial kitchen she knows that it's
20:08
food safe she knows that I'm doing
20:09
things properly with all the different
20:11
fruits that she's got but we get to have
20:14
that discussion at the end to figure out
20:16
what's the best foot forward when she
20:18
has hundreds of pounds of produce that
20:21
she needs to get off of her hands and
20:23
and and prepped and everything like that
20:25
so they don't spoil so that's what we're
20:26
going to do come uh come this this
20:29
season so I'm really excited about that
20:31
hey that concludes my day in the life of
20:33
me in my freeze drying business if you
20:35
want to see more of the Day in the Life
20:36
episodes they're coming up in the next
20:38
couple thumbnails after this so I'll see
20:40
you there
20:44
[Music]
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