Great Ideas for Your Own Pet Business | Pet Food Business Ideas

People love their pets. Our precious animal overlords are even considered members of our family. This puts a premium on any brand that can demonstrate that they love your pet just as much as you do. Extra gravy! So even in an industry where big corps hold the lion's share of profits, there's something you have that they don't. You have genuine love. You have real world insight and that creates an immense opportunity for you to compete with big companies. We're going to show you some entrepreneurs from bloggers to treat moguls who have used their love to earn a tidy profit. Now you can get in there too. The reality is there are more pets than people in America and spending on our pets is approaching 100 billion dollars for the first time. A metric that doesn't even dip during recessions. Yes, you heard that right. Pet food alone accounts for about 40 billion dollars of the pet industry. So for our purposes, we'll start with exploring this niche. Over 75 percent of all pet food sold in the U.S. is made by one of five megacorps. Go ahead, look at the back of the bag of your pet's food. Let's do an informal poll right here in the comments. Who's the distributor? Who's the manufacturer? I bet we're going to see a lot of the same names that are owned by the same main parent companies, unless you already buy local or make your own food, in which case you should comment their name too. But with domination by impersonal brands, this represents a real opportunity. Enter small businesses run by pet owners like us who care. Homemade local operations have the ability to create trust and make big gains by leveraging their own personal insight. These smaller operations can even scale up. They're an easy gateway into the pet food industry. Many states have cottage laws, meaning you can start with making simple recipes in your own home. And as your brand grows, you can invest in more Small businesses like Baradol or Chippin or Catperson, these innovative pet food companies are turning problems into opportunities and creating something entirely different from what global food and beverage brands offer. And it's really working for them. Michael Cody and Logan Honeycutt founded Baradol Pet Treats in 2015, fueled by their desire to give their own beloved rescue dogs healthy treats using minimal ingredients. And they stumbled into an effective and simple recipe for freeze dried treats packaged neatly and waste free in rice paper. They shared it with friends and neighbors and discovered that people would pay more for carefully crafted goods and foods. And one other special thing about this brand, Michael and Logan are avid fishermen and have a pretty big problem in their backyard of the Great Lakes. Invasive carp. As chance would have it, invasive carp species have high levels of omega threes and protein, but lower levels of mercury compared to other fish like salmon. And these two entrepreneurs found that this makes the invasive carp quite useful for things like pet treats. That's a win for pets, for the environment and for small business. As it turns out, the Baradol story bears a striking resemblance to the story of many small pet food and pet treat companies. Everyday people like you and me experimenting in their kitchens and finding solutions for their own pets. The pet treat company Chipin has found huge success tapping into two underrated ancient sources of vitamins and protein, crickets and algae. These two special ingredients also boast far more sustainable ecological footprints. The founder built her own small scale cricket farm with her grad school roommate, Laura. She started baking treats in their kitchen. Cat Person, a 2020 startup fueled by a coalition of real cat parents has exploded in popularity and it's thanks in no small part to one of their founding principles, listing the ingredients on their pet products. It's shocking, I know, but this is one big step the industry needs and it's being led by a small business that genuinely cares. This industry has plenty of room for small businesses to take a bite of these profits while bringing healthy and sustainable options to the table. Don't think that making food is the only option for you though. My neighbor has a pet pig and orders custom made booties so she can walk on their hardwood floors. Almost every pet and every pet owner has their own needs and their own requests and that's why I want you to comment what you do for your pet and what your pet needs. While you're there you should like and subscribe and by info sharing like this we can inspire each other with really unique business ideas or even find really good ones for ourselves. You can even start a service-based business such as a pet nutritionist. Writing recipe books, running a blog and offering meal prep services are still really great ways to tap into this market's needs. Food writer Deborah Robertson was inspired by her cat Dixie to write Cooking for Cats which is now a top 100 bestseller in pet nutrition books. So if you're ready to start off on your own check out truic.com. We have a lot of free guides about specific pet businesses. Seriously, everything you can think of. Pet groomers, pet clothing, pet portraits, pet hotels. We've got you covered from business plan templates, logo generators, to guides on federal compliance. We have it all in there in bite-sized pieces. Your pet food business could make a significant impact just by starting in your community. While they still have tremendous room to grow, people like Cody and Honeycutt or Deborah Robertson are making waves in the pet food industry with creative solutions and a personal touch. Start small and think big. The pets of the world will thank you. Small businesses are the lifeblood of every community. We want you to be passionate and prepared for a lifetime of entrepreneurship. If you're looking for more inspiration, we made some free tools to generate ideas, find a name and form your business. Find free resources and guides at truic.com.