Built a Hot Sauce Business on Weekends... HOW?!

Kevin Cummings is not just another person with a side hustle. He’s an entrepreneur who’s able to bring in six figures from his small business while continuing to work a full-time job. Kevin is the founder of Murder Hornet Hot Sauce, and he gives us the inside scoop on how he took a simple idea from his kitchen and turned it into a full-blown hot sauce business. The really wild part though? He doesn’t have any kind of background in sauce making.

During the pandemic, Kevin occupied his time by playing with different ingredients for a hot sauce recipe in his house. With the extra time on his hands, he quickly recognized his new hobby could quickly turn into a fun business opportunity.

In this episode, watch us make this unique sauce from scratch, discover high-level branding tips, and learn a major secret into achieving an 80% conversion rate at the markets.

Resources:

Timestamps:
00:00 - START
00:52 - How it began
02:48 - Roasting peppers
03:28 - Co-packer experience
04:17 - Startup costs
04:44 - Starting small
05:20 - Freshly ground pepper
05:37 - Revenue
06:48 - Biggest startup challenges
07:35 - Mixing it all up
09:49 - Fan blitz
11:58 - Biggest retail order
13:31 - Comparing margins
14:16 - Monthly overhead
15:05 - Production costs
16:31 - Importance of branding
17:40 - Farmers market
18:30 - Cost of entry
19:14 - Selling on markets
19:42 - Sourcing ingredients
20:48 - Best-seller
21:18 - Advice to beginners
22:08 - Key ingredient
22:40 - Outro

#hotsauce #hotsaucerecipe #hotsaucebusiness

[Crypto.Vantage]

00:01 Growing a hot sauce business while working full-time
01:58 Creating a hot sauce brand inspired by murder hornets
05:42 Growth from year one to present
07:38 Hot sauce production process and business operations
11:31 Started hot sauce business on weekends
13:29 Margins in retail and other sources differ.
17:10 Strong branding attracts customers
18:37 Starting a hot sauce business at farmers markets
21:47 Persistence is key in entrepreneurship
Crafted by Merlin AI.

[shawno]

Numbers don't make any sense. MSRP $13.50-$14.00, 50% taken by retailers, COGS $2.50-$4.00 (17%-30%), 1$ per (5%-7%) for production space (not sure if that is included in the COGS), so roughly 87%-72% total cost to produce. Then claims to have a 30%-40% profit margin? Plus, there are a lot more costs to operate a business outside of the pure production costs and seller royalties.

[eshu]

I love your straight questions and the guy answered is very generous both of you deserve 👍👍

[AaronaTheVirgoComedy]

There it is again. It takes a community of warmth to make good things grow❤️

[NewGuy-yhog]

Pouring boiling hot sauce into a plastic bucket, and then to a plastic bottle to fill a glass bottle eventually?

[sdsGujral]

The branding of the sauce is just next level 😎😎

[grandhigh]

For all the haters down there... he is using a co-packing company and he still in the early stages of start up. This shit doesn't happen over night it takes time to build a quality brand that consumers trust and will show support for. The condiment industry is a 30.64 billion dollar a year industry, so there is plenty of room for growth, and worrying about the actual breakdowns of gains and losses. When you get to a point of the returns affording you to build a production plant to supply your own product is when the numbers really count, until then you have to pay dues by doing everything possible yourself, pounding pavement, cold calling, farmers markets, food events, etc.

[simonc]

My favourite detail in this. The custom shrink wrap.

[jeandesisnards]

Absolutely love this channel. This was a great insight into hot sauces and Kevin is a champ. Fan from Durban, South Africa

[ArjunRaime]

I love the story and hustle. Only concern is the immense use of plastic containers for roasted peppers then the step before filling plastic bottles the white plastic paint buckets. I’d never buy knowing plastic may enter into the sauce.

[hamburger--fries]

What is the brand of Co-packer used in this video? Tks

[cccc]

i usually fast forward the ads, but id say it's so fun to watch this time around 😅

[nativeeats]

This is wild how close this is to our business Native Eats sauces both owners of our company have day jobs 4 -10’s Mon-Thursday and we got our ball rolling during Covid too we came up with a home delivery of our sauces and we where able to get into all the state parks gift shops in our state (West Virginia) that’s 39 gift shops and now we are in every organic market in West Virginia as well! We are right on the cusp to go national with a major retailer. Awesome story and can’t wait to make our own very soon!❤🔥

[qristomaich]

WOW that branding is just on another LEVEL

[B.E.C.K.]

The Liquid Death branding concept of hot sauce.

[TheSensei]

I couldn't come up with a better name for a hot sauce brand if I wanted, this was right on spot!

[VirtousStoic]

❤epic work, will buy a bottle much ❤ best wishes

[SidewaysInTraffic]

With 4 flavors, I was surprised he didn't know the ingredients of his product. Nice insight on the extra cost of the cap wrap.

[manuelllanas]

this is exactly the blueprint that I need for my salsa company. I only managed to get as far as making the logo and nutrition label. I am stuck at the point of going to my local farmers market and setting up a stall.

[shoydaru]

Just had atomic wings from Wingstop. They skimped me on the sauce today, no heat at all. Wish I had some of this