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Owning a Freeze-Drying Business VLOG Ep. 06 - Selling Wholesale
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May 16, 2025
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 ——————————————— 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 —————————————
View Video Transcript
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]
#Business Operations
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#Wholesalers & Liquidators