The frozen food industry is booming. It is an excellent time to consider starting your own business and taking your life into your own hands. There are many supportive suppliers already in place, such as frozen food packaging for small business, to help you get started.

Choose a Target Consumer

Identifying your target consumer is the first step to any good business plan. Doing this helps determine your product, price point, image and marketing. Start by thinking about why someone might buy frozen food:

• Better nutritional quality and freshness than other processed foods
• Quick and convenient preparation at meal times
• Great for long-term storage

The millennial demographic dominates the frozen food market, making up 48% of core consumers. Additionally, more than 50% of millennials identify frozen food as equal to or better than fresh food. Frozen food sales have been rising exponentially over the past few years with no signs of stopping.

You should also be thinking about whether you’ll be providing prepared meals or standalone products, like vegetables, or both. You can even tailor your offerings to the region you are distributing to. For example, dishes like red beans and rice will sell better in the south than in the midwest.

Build a Company Image That Is Trustworthy

On the crowded shelves of the frozen food aisle, catching the customer’s eye is key. You want your product to stand out and be recognizable as a quality choice. This is primarily done via packaging. Your logo, tagline, font and color choices can also convey your company values. Healthy, fresh and environmentally responsible brands are especially desirable in the frozen food market.

Flexible packaging is becoming a popular preference among consumers. It is easy to open, lightweight and saves more room in your freezer. It comes in two varieties, pre-formed pouches and roll stock. What is roll stock packaging? It is a laminated film that is formed, filled and then sealed around your product. This type of packaging is best for one-time use products, that don’t need to be opened and closed multiple times. Conversely, pre-formed pouches are great for re-sealable packaging.

Deliver Consistent Quality

A no-brainer in any business is to have a good product. When it comes to food products, the packaging is hugely important for maintaining quality. Long-term storage is a large part of the appeal of frozen food, so you will want to choose packaging that will ensure food is properly sealed and protected on a longer timeline.

Mylar is a type of polyurethane that cuts air transfer down to almost nothing. It can be used as a coating, a plastic sheet or a thin film. It can be combined with aluminum sheets for added protection. Food grade mylar bags are a gold standard for long-term food storage. You can even get custom mylar bags with logo made up, so you don’t have to sacrifice your company image for utility.

Once you’ve got the three “P”s– product, plan and packaging– of your future frozen food business down, the rest is pie. Find yourself a dynamic and reliable third-party packaging company to take some of the burdens off of yourself during your entrepreneurial endeavors.