Lev Burstein Capstone

I started a hot sauce company called Hot Sauce for Heat based on my emerging interest in social impact through entrepreneurship. I chose this name for the business because a portion of the proceeds from the sale of my hot sauce pays the heating bills of people who can not afford heat in the winter in my hometown of Philadelphia. In our city, there are approximately 19,000 households that struggle to pay their annual heating bills. My mission is to reduce that number each year and one day get it to 0. I began selling my hot sauce at farmers’ markets and street fairs in different neighborhoods across the city. Originally Hot Sauce For Heat was just hot sauce I made in a blender at home with my father, an experiment to see what we could create that would be better than what we could find at that time. Over time people became very excited about my company and way too many orders (for our capacity at that point) were placed quickly which made it challenging to keep pace. Because of this, we made the choice to use a co-packer to exponential the pace and quantity of my outputs. Fast forward 5 years, and I am bringing back my company for my capstone by selling bottles to my peers.

Evidence: https://hotsauceforheat.com/

Bibliography:

Greer, Quinn. “The Journey of Getting My Hot Sauce into Stores.” Craft Hot Sauce, Craft Hot Sauce, 4 Feb. 2020, https://crafthotsauce.com/blogs/blog/how-to-sell-certified-hot-sauces-to-stores. I find this source useful because it teaches me to sell my hot sauce in stores. I have always wanted to sell in stores and resruaraunts but I don’t really know how to get to that point. This website can and will get me in that direction. I like how detailed the article is overall. “How to Sell Hot Sauce Online.” Shopify, https://www.shopify.com/success-stories/hotmaple-foods. Selling online would be a gold mine for me but shipping just simply costs too much in these times. This website will help me learn more about the nitty and gritty details of shippin online and it will hopefully stear me into the right direction. I also do know that shopify is a great website and is reputable. “How to Bottle and Sell Your Own Sauce.” WebstaurantStore, https://www.webstaurantstore.com/article/676/how-to-bottle-and-sell-your-own-sauces.html.
How to bottle hot sauce for shipping. This shows me how to not only bottle my sauce (which I already know) but to ship it out to people. I have a few article that cover this topic but I feel that it is crucial to have a balanced perspective and an array of different opinions put out to me so I can decide/know how exactly to do this. “How to Sell Anything to Any Audience.” Mailchimp, https://mailchimp.com/resources/how-to-sell/. How to sell someone something. The skill of selling someone something is not only helpful got my capstone but it is one of the best skills to have as an entrepreneur. For my capstone though I will have to make sales and this website can be somewhat of a handbook for me if I ever need help with this specific skill. Forsey, Caroline. “What Is Marketing, and What’s Its Purpose?” HubSpot Blog, HubSpot, 24 Jan. 2022, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-marketing. What is marketing. Marketing is a crucial part of selling things. I am quite unfamiliar with what marketing is so this article will show me that. It also shows different kinds of marketing and what they are used for. I can figure out which one is the best for me through trial and error. “8 Steps to Marketing Your Business.” Small Business Development Corporation, https://www.smallbusiness.wa.gov.au/marketing/8-steps-to-marketing. How to do marketing. This will walk me through the steps of marketing. I can use this as a handbook in a way. Throughout the process of my marketing I can refer back to this article to see the next steps or just for guidance in a broader sense. “Farmers Markets.” Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, https://www.agriculture.pa.gov/consumer_protection/FoodSafety/Retail%20Food/Pages/Farmers-Markets.aspx.
How to get into a farmers market. This is one of the biggest challenges I am facing for my capstone and it will be a re-accuring problem. I need to get into markets to sell bottles and make good profit. This article will help me with the first steps of that. “The Cheapest Way to Ship Liquids and Beverages.” Shipping School, 21 Nov. 2020, https://www.shippingschool.com/the-cheapest-way-to-ship-liquids-and-beverages/. Cheaper ways to ship liquids. This is another huge problem that I have encountered. When i sell my bottles online I lose money, while bumping the prices up due to expensive shipping. This article starts to help me on way to liit the costs of shipping Cressida, by. “Reduce Your Shipping Costs with Flexitanks: Sia Flexitanks.” SIA Flexitanks | Flexitank Manufacturer and Supplier, 2 Feb. 2022, https://siaflexitanks.com/news/reduce-your-shipping-costs-with-flexitanks.
Here is another website that is about reducing shipping costs for liquids. Once again this is a huge problem for me. If I can get the shipping cheap enough to where the profit margins are beneficial then this capstone will do amazing because I won’t necessarily have to go to a bunch of farmers markets. Decker, Allie. “The Ultimate Guide to Entrepreneurship.” HubSpot Blog, HubSpot, 21 Dec. 2021, https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial guidance. My capstone is entrepreneurial, so throughout my process I thought it would be worth while to learn more about entrepreneurship. This website teaches me about entrepreneurship and steps/tips to be a better one. This is not only helpful for this capstone but for my whole life.