I made my own protein shake. I've been drinking it after I go to the weight room, and man it does taste like crap! I won't reveal the ingredients in it, but with the convenience of a blender, a single shake has 60 grams of protein. I figure I can use the buckley's slogan "Tastes like shi*, but worth it" Just using it by myself, I've gotten a lot bigger.

Where do I start in making money off of it?


-Regards,

find people that are overly obsessed with there weigh, or health .. and will eat/drink anything (even if it IS sh*t)

as always, a good drink never reveals how to make it (for the safety of you, and your customers ... they would like to pretend its not really sh*t), so bottle it up, and sell it at some fairs or something, so people can learn about it

But what if someone takes it and gives it to a large company and makes a bunch of money? SHouldn't I get a patent? I think I should start selling it at my local weight room

tell em theres a sprinkle of viagra in there :P

Does Viagra have any protein?....Does it!?

make sure its ok before you sell ....

and if you are in the US, make sure when you sell it (and on the bottle) you have a disclaimer (and a list of ingredients (read bottles, you see how the ingredients are laid out?), and no large company can remake it without knowing how it was made, or the exact ingredients, how much , etc ,etc

and no, with a patent, other companies can make it, what you want i think is "trade secret" , its what other drink making companies do, basically, all you do is hide the process of making it, and sue anyone trying to remake it exactly

I hear its good for your heart.

Keeping your recipe secret is probably better than a patent. For a pantent you have to publish exactly hows its made and then when the patent runs out anyone can make it.

Patents? Trade secrets? If you're not sure you have a market, then that might be a bit much.

Baby steps. I would first suggest documenting the ingredients and the process of creating this drink on paper. Something physical; something with a reasonably verifiable date. Maybe consider getting it notarized. I doubt the notary would be interested in the drink (having never heard of it), and probably doesn't have a photographic memory even if (s)he is interested. The notarized document can serve as proof that you had the idea in case someone does try to "run off to a bottler" with a sample of your stuff. In fact, it might be a good idea to delay introducing your drink for a little while after getting it notarized. If a bottler were to proceed with making the stuff, then they'll likely have to document when they acquired this new recipe and where they got it from. The longer you wait between getting it notarized and introducing the drink to the public, the stronger your notarized document becomes. If your document says you thought of it two days prior to the bottler's dcumentation, then a judge might consider it a "tie". It's a completely different story if there's a month difference between the dates, or even a year.

Also, if you think the drink is good enough to garner a large enough market to make a bottler interested, then take it to the bottler yourself. Beat these "shady" potential customers of yours to the punch. Again, if you have the recipe documented in a verifiable manner, the bottler turns you down, and then next week starts producing a new drink that seems a bit to similar to yours, then you have the supporting documentation to file a claim against them.

I believe it is highly unlikely that either your customers or the bottler would act that way.

Once you determine there is a market, and there is significant interest to warrant getting a bottler involved, then you should start considering things like patents, trade secrets, and whatever other corporate legalities seem appropriate. At that point, you should probably have the cash to hire an attorney to help guide you through all of that.

As for the actual marketing, again, baby steps. How about having a custom work-out t-shirt made? Put a snazzy logo, name of the product, and your phone number on it. Maybe do one of those "Ask me about X" type of deals. Wear the t-shirt when you go work out. Wear it if you hang out with any workout buddies. If the t-shirt is cheap enough, print up a number of them. Ask your workout place if you can hand them out to clients inside. If not, see if they'll let you hand them out to people on the sidewalk outside. Post an advertisement in the classifieds, or post flyers around your neighborhood.

Thanks a lot guys,

The stuff tastes like crap, but it works. I really like the t-shirt idea though! I can see it now. Picture of it, sleeves, back, and front. On the front. "Tastes like shi*, BUT worth it!"

I'm now on the ladder of entrepreneurship!

Yeah just be sure that if you are in the US you you get approval from the FDA

I don't believe FDA approval is necessary, depending on the ingredients.

Has anyone ever bought/won a cake at a cake walk? Did the seller offer a certificate that said their cake was FDA approved? Has anyone bought anything from a bake sale? Did the FDA approve those cookies or the apple pie that Jane Doe prepared?

If the drink is made from normal, over the counter ingredients, then it's perfectly fine. The FDA is not going to ban a cake, because it's made with flour, eggs, sugar, etc. If, however, randyriver10 has concocted some new, synthesized chemical in his basement to help boost metabolism, then yes, that ought to be checked before mass consumption. In other words, the drink should be fine if its ingredients are all approved already, and things you buy at the grocery store for normal consumption are definitely OK. Beyond non-standard ingredients, the only thing of concern would be the quantity of ingredients. Make sure the drink falls within normal/recommended dosage guidelines for any of the pre-manufactured ingredients. If not, then that's either something to correct, or CLEARLY inform the customer about it.

EDIT:
I'm not a lawyer, so if there's still lingering doubt, get all the info you need from the horse's mouth: FDA Documentation for food-based businesses

If you were really serious about selling this stuff, then go do a quick course on Business & Marketing. Many a millionaire started out just like you.

Marketing is more than advertising. There is product pricing, product packaging, distrobution etc etc.

As someone already in this line of work, all I can say is that all these weight loss / protein shake things taste like flavoured concrete, but hey, its a huge market.

Do check out the legalities of what youre planning.

Good luck
floppy

there has to be something about it that stands out. You have to realize there's tons of protein powders on the market. So something about your product has to stand out from the rest and believe me if it taste horrible people arent going to buy it. Ive made the best gains with whey protein.