Need a little help starting a Supp company

NoahsArk

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My partner an I have 30k to invest into a company, we're looking for wholesalers for ingredients.
We're trying to be an All American made company...
if it's possible
Also, if you have any advice to give please do spill the beans.
We want are products to be able to target men and women, from pre workout to protein.
I know alot of it is marketing but any eductational info you have would be really appreciated
 
Rad83

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GNC filed for bankruptcy today, might close 1200 stores! ...Hopefully you put out hardcore/niche products that they wouldn’t carry anyway 🤷‍♂️
 
LeanEngineer

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GNC filed for bankruptcy today, might close 1200 stores! ...Hopefully you put out hardcore/niche products that they wouldn’t carry anyway 🤷‍♂️
I saw that on the news that they are filing for bankruptcy. Doesn't effect me since I haven't order from them in years. Curious if this will increase sales in online supp companies...
 
xR1pp3Rx

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most people starting out will contract Hightech to make and label their supps. they can even help formulate items. there are others like them out there but HT actually makes supps in the this market so they seem like a good option for many.
 
aaronuconn

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Look into NutraCap and their turnkey services
 

N2ofusion

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It’s a very saturated market. I don’t really see what the advantage you’ll bring if you’re just using existing ingredient suppliers and existing packaging / filling services.

You won’t have the margins massive companies like Muscletech and cellucor get. It’s impossible to get costs that low without your own supply chain.
 
HIT4ME

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Why do you want to start your own supplement company? $30K won't go far, but with financing you could get some good things going.

Proteins and pre-workout are not where I would start.
 
Cheeky Monkey

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It's a tough market...especially in today's climate of body shaming, fat appreciation, etc. Being fit is now seen as toxic and threatening. You have to find a niche to fill....maybe you could add a social cause to your supplements. Like, every supplement purchased, a part of the money goes to a social cause or you could design or make supplements culturally or racially sensitive. I know it sounds ridiculous but I bet if your supplement brand name was "F*ck da police", you'll generate a lot of interest and possible buyers....as sad as that may be.
 
Darkhorse192

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Every time someone says they want to start a company or make a product, everyone comes out and says the market is saturated and you are going to fail blah blah blah. But that has not stopped every asshole on the planet from doing it anyway. Jesus, spend 10 minutes on stack3d. It is just a bunch of product releases from companies no one has ever heard of.

No ****..it will be like "Alien butt plug labz dropping two new mouth-watering proteins in fruity cereal and chocolate." Cool another company no one has ever heard of coming out with two flavors of protein that everyone on the planet has done. Guess the market is not saturated enough.

the point, it has not stopped anyone from doing this. If you truly want to do it, do it.

What I would do is a network with some of the guys that have built successful companies from the ground up like Ben Hartman, Doug Miller etc. See if you can pay them for their time and have a consultation phone call with them. Don't ask them how to do it, but certain things like what mistakes have they made, what did they wish they knew going int etc. If you display to them that you have your **** together and are serious and passionate about this, they will be more inclined to point you in the right direction.
 
nostrum420

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Oof... preworkout and protein... why should people buy yours?
 
HIT4ME

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Every time someone says they want to start a company or make a product, everyone comes out and says the market is saturated and you are going to fail blah blah blah. But that has not stopped every asshole on the planet from doing it anyway. Jesus, spend 10 minutes on stack3d. It is just a bunch of product releases from companies no one has ever heard of.

No ****..it will be like "Alien butt plug labz dropping two new mouth-watering proteins in fruity cereal and chocolate." Cool another company no one has ever heard of coming out with two flavors of protein that everyone on the planet has done. Guess the market is not saturated enough.

the point, it has not stopped anyone from doing this. If you truly want to do it, do it.

What I would do is a network with some of the guys that have built successful companies from the ground up like Ben Hartman, Doug Miller etc. See if you can pay them for their time and have a consultation phone call with them. Don't ask them how to do it, but certain things like what mistakes have they made, what did they wish they knew going int etc. If you display to them that you have your **** together and are serious and passionate about this, they will be more inclined to point you in the right direction.
This has a lot of truth to it. But just because someone got a product made and got on stacked doesn't mean they have a viable, profitable business plan. But if you get focus on an actual plan then the above advice is good. People will always doubt you. You will likely fail. But if you don't risk failure, you will never know success.

Consulting with others that know, and paying a small fee for their time can be great.

What I will say is that most people think they are going to start a unique supplement company that makes better supplements then what is out there. But there is no marker for that. The majority of sales in this industry are to teenagers and people under 30. They don't have the funds or willingness to pay for everything under the sun.
 
AdelV

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Most of the successful companies don't have amazing formulations, but they certainly hit the spot with marketing.

Companies rise & fall, that's the truth.

I've seen companies start on eBay, now larger than other companies who were already huge.

If 30k isn't enough, do what countless others have done in the past to fund themselves and that's basically sell grey area supplements. How many even on AM were selling peptides, or prohormones/sarms?

Best of luck :)
 
GQdaLEGEND

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Oof... preworkout and protein... why should people buy yours?
you put an attractive label & some photo shopped images that it was on shark tank .. it will sell lol
 
nostrum420

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you put an attractive label & some photo shopped images that it was on shark tank .. it will sell lol
Cool. I'm gonna start a cheese company and try to compete with Sargento. I just gotta think of some really sweet marketing.
 
Darkhorse192

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If you already have a large social media presence then you can be successful. That seems to the best way to have success with these kinds of things...supps, apparel, etc. Everyone that has been successful in the last few years built a 100K+ youtube following and then once you have that fan base built, your products sell just because people want to support you.

i.e. KC Mitchell, Seth Feroce, Fouad Abiad

The other thing is, if you create a great product with great ingredients at the right doses, you have to charge above a certain threshold in order to actually make a profit. Then you price out most people that would but it anyway. Even look at Morphogen. He makes great stuff, but even people here who love the concept of his products, complain the prices are too high. He is not "overpriced" but he just has to set a certain bar in order to clear a profit because the good stuff isn't cheap to make.

you can probably get away with pushing a shitier product and still selling well if you have that aforementioned fan base. But, even if you do that, you have to be the kind of person that is cool with knowingly making a crap product and pushing it, knowing your fans will buy it just because you say so. Sure a lot of people do this, but I would personally feel like an asshole doing this.
 

N2ofusion

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I just feel people look at margins and think it’s easy money. Yeah, do as you please, just don’t see what the payback on that $30k is
 
Olympus Labs

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I can help out with this. Hit me up we have everything from supply chain to manufacturing covered making sure your best interests are secured
 
Jiigzz

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My partner an I have 30k to invest into a company, we're looking for wholesalers for ingredients.
We're trying to be an All American made company...
if it's possible
Also, if you have any advice to give please do spill the beans.
We want are products to be able to target men and women, from pre workout to protein.
I know alot of it is marketing but any eductational info you have would be really appreciated
What do you mean by All American Made? I'm a huge proponent of supporting local business, however creating a supplement company and being viable on this concept can be quite a challenge - especially if that means only buying locally sourced ingredients.

Realistically, most ingredients are supplied from China or other areas within Asia. Any ingredient that you can find local has either been previously imported, or will generally be more expensive per gram. In some industries this can still be viable (particularly if you focus on that in your marketing), but as the supplement industry is already quite competitive, often it is the cheapest alternative that wins.

A good question to ask yourself is "why will people buy me over X". All American Made is a selling point, so if you find a viable way to make that work then that's a good start.
 
Jiigzz

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I can help out with this. Hit me up we have everything from supply chain to manufacturing covered making sure your best interests are secured
I missed this!

How awesome. Definitely need to reach out to OL, OP. If anyone can help, it's these guys.
 

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