In my case I was on a mission to meet Mary Waldner of Mary’s Gone Crackers, someone whose factory in Gridley, CA I’d wanted to visit since the first time I munched on her gluten-free black pepper crackers while on a roadtrip (and had no idea where Gridley was). I honestly didn’t actually think I’d one day be sitting in Mary’s rural office–in a cozy pre-fab building–eating uber crunchy Curry Stick Twigs for breakfast.

Oh sure, the world has thousands of rural businesses and food businesses based on freshly harvested produce, logically situated by the farms. Yet, Mary and her husband dale Dale did not grow up in the countryside. Not at all. They moved here from the Bay Area after putting a stake in the ground to pursue this food business, near their organic rice suppliers. They now love the “country” life.

Touring with Mary through the production facility made me think a lot about the use of “hand made” and small batch. I’ve visited factories my whole life, from Wonder Bread, to General Mills, and the good old Hershey walk-through factory in Oakdale, CA that closed. Much as in I Love Lucy’s time, many food types require hand labor, and many are nearly fully automated including ultra cool mechanisms to discard “bad” batches.

When you see a factory like Mary’s first hand, you realize how even if a company seems “big” it really may run like a small bakery. This is partly due to how simple and natural the ingredients used to make Mary’s products are: organic quinoa, rice, and others. The herb crackers have full pieces of rosemary.

From a smaller facility in Chico, the company moved to this larger warehouse where they set up production, taking employees who had started out as helpers and seeing them move up to managing production. It’s nice to see the heart that goes into healthy products and how locating in a semi-rural location can allow for growth at a more affordable price while building up a regional economy.

Smart Lessons for Food Entrepreneurs

• Stick to your intuition even if your circle says no or has ideas that don’t seem right to you. The company is expanding into different sorts of products (I’m addicted to the ginger cookies) rather than extending the same product lines to the moon.
• Source the best ingredients. You can see on the packages the company can make every desirable health claim that makes the products ideal for every sort of eater.
• Plan your production smartly. With such unique products the team knew they would run production themselves rather than setting up with co-packers to manufacture for them.
• Solve a need. It was just luck that Mary and Dale started at the beginning of the gluten free boom. However their excellent products that appeal to all snackers are what makes them so successful.
• Keep improving and be nimble. The spirit of invention and continual process improvement is critical to reduce costs and to be able to expand with demand.
• Clearly define your founders’ roles. Mary is product. Dale is operations. (“If it weren’t for Dale, I’d probably still be making these in my kitchen,” Mary told me with a smile.)

Come to think of it, these principles apply for any entrepreneur!

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In the heart of Los Angeles lies a small family business that’s spawning a world of both small and big businesses: YouBars. They are what’s called a “co-packer,” which is a contract manufacturer who handles the production of food products–whether you have a recipe or want them to start from scratch.

YouBars works with individuals and food entrepreneurs launch natural energy / protein / meal replacement bars as well as trail mixes and other healthy, customizable products, at minimal effort. How hot are they? Just this month, the company expanded from their one-person apartment-sized space near the CBS studios to an 8,000 square food facility in downtown Los Angeles (hooray for the local economy!).

Working with a contract manufacturer like YouBars makes it easy for anyone with a plan to create and market a product with no food skills or production facility. I recently chatted with YouBars founder Anthony Flynn to learn the steps to launch a line of bars. It all starts with strategy: What kind of product are you looking to develop?

How You’ll Make the Next Great Energy Bar

To start your business, you’ll need to get licensed as a “business.” A major nugget though: They can add you to their insurance policy which is an extremely affordable way to get liability coverage.

1) They help formulate a recipe. You’d tell them if you want it raw, organic, the nutrition facts you’d like to have such as if it’s high protein or low sodium. They’ll recommend a bar size too, such as if you’re targeting a 100 calorie bar or 9 grams of protein. They approve it or make adjustments. Then do a sampling and ask their friends for feedback.

2) You get an initial price. Then based on the ingredients and packaging they’ll come up with a final estimate for your energy bars.

3) They work with a few different packaging companies and can get packaging from one unit (very expensive) to a million packages (the definition of “economies of scale”). It takes about a month to have the packaging made.

Then production!

Voila you have your own line of snack bars to sell on your Facebook, gyms, restaurants, dieticians, and stores. “You see all sorts of creative things, such as using bars as business cards or wedding favors,” says founder Anthony Flynn.

Of course you taste the formulas before anything is finalized.

How Fulfillment Works

Say you order 10,000 bars. You can pull from that purchase order in smaller quantities and get the bulk discount. They can dropship for you, either to stores like Whole Foods or for orders that come in on your website. They have great shipping rates and can handle your website as well as customer service.

For some customers only when they get an order do they make it. So there’s no inventory or shelf-life issues.

Successes

Customers around the world look to YouBars to help develop, launch, and manage their energy bar and meal bar companies. You’ll find YouBars in the Middle East munched on by soldiers, throughout Europe and Asia.

You won’t find the YouBars brand on your store shelves. They exist to help food entrepreneurs and consumers bring their energy bar visions to life.

We sampled some bars on a visit. Ranging from a halvah-like cashew bar to traditional granola bars, we loved the variety. My mind is reeling with ideas. Is yours?

Save 5% on your energy bar or other custom mix order with my PROMO CODE: YourBarBusiness

Graber Olives are one of the few canned olives I’ve had worth a “gourmet” price.

Seek these finger-eating good olives out or order online if you enjoy rich creamy olive flavor. I needn’t say more: This family business, based in Ontario, California, has been alive and picking since the 1800s.