What I Wished I Knew Before Starting My Food Business Series

#82 If you started your food business without a clear read on your margins, your ingredient list, or how many SKUs you actually need — you're not alone. Jacinta revisits a listener-submitted clip from Betsy, a gluten-free food founder, recorded as part of a series asking food founders what they wish they'd known before starting. Betsy's answer centers on margins, the challenge of ingredient-heavy gluten-free formulations, and how many SKUs a brand actually needs. Jacinta walks through why margins tend to shrink once you're already committed to a retailer, how multifunctional ingredients can help you simplify a gluten-free formulation without losing what customers love about the product, and how to think through SKU rationalization — including a real example from a private-label client who had to discontinue underperforming SKUs after launch. 💡 In This Episode You'll Learn Why margins should be locked down before saying yes to a retailer, not after Why margins naturally shrink over time — and how to plan for it from day one The challenge of gluten-free formulation: replacing wheat's bulking and structural role often means stacking many ingredients How to evaluate whether an ingredient is doing double duty — and when it's worth paying more for a multifunctional one to protect your product's "gold standard" attributes (texture, mouthfeel, etc.) How to figure out how many SKUs you actually need, and how to spot when one SKU is cannibalizing another A real client example: a private-label brand that launched with four SKUs, cut it to three, and is now consolidating further to focus marketing on the top performer Why revisiting your SKU lineup and margins regularly — not just at launch — is critical as you scale from small batch to large batch 🎧 Episodes Mentioned Episode 69 — Margins and why they always trend downward Episode 71 — Multifunctional ingredients and maximizing your product's potential Episode 73 — How many SKUs you really need 📖 Coming Soon: Book Jacinta announced she's writing a book as part of the ETS Method framework, built to help you scale your food product. She'll be calling for founding/first readers to review the first chapter — details and sign-up link coming soon. 📣 READY TO SCALE? ➡️ Loved this episode? Leave a review and share it with a food founder who needs to hear <h2 class="text-text-