Startup Central

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Are you looking to start a chocolate business? Want to talk to others who've been there or done that - or have you been there and done it and want to share with others? This is the place to discuss it.

Location: Worldwide
Members: 476
Latest Activity: 22 hours ago

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Startup Central - Sponsored by Savage Bros

Since 1855 Savage Bros. has manufactured confectionery machinery. Their chocolate and candy making equipment are recognized worldwide for long lived quality and reliability. From these 19th century roots in the industry, Savage Bros. strives to meet its customers’ equipment needs with well designed and manufactured machinery. They specialize in taking new and growing businesses to the next level by streamlining their production process.

Quality chocolate is one of Savage Bros' passions, thus they offer a wide array of chocolate processing equipment for the artisan chocolatier — from chocolate melters and temperers to single mold filling workstations with depositors and built-in vibrators. And more!

Do you make great chocolates? Know everything there is to know about tempering chocolate and cooking the perfect caramel? Able to turn out thousands of finished chocolates without blinking any eye?

Does the thought of using Quickbooks or writing a business plan sends you screaming into the walk-in begging for mercy?

This group is for you. When you join, please introduce yourself to the group in a comment on this page. Yes, I know you have a profile page, but it would be great to have you add a few words about you and your business in the context of this group. If you have a website, feel free to post a link to it. Please don't post a link to your profile page, people can just click on your profile photo to visit that.

PS. Below is the full picture I used for the Group photo. It's a chocolate store/cafe in Mexico. Those are stone mills (the kind Taza uses) to the right of the guy with his back to you in the blue shirt and notice that they are selling beans. The stone mills suggest that this store is located in Oaxaca.

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Comment by Victor Yao Apeletey on April 28, 2011 at 9:46am: Hello chocolate friends around the world.I have a special need.I come from Ghana,West Africa.We produce the world's best cocoa.Unfortunately, Ghana has not been able to put any strong value on our cocoa.90% of Ghana's cocoa and sold raw to foreign markets mostly Europe and North America. I want to establish a chocolate factory that can produce specialized dark chocolate and add some more value by embedding in it toys just like the surprise egg chocolates to serve the West African market of 350 million people.

I have already secured the structure(warehouse) for the business.Also available is the cocoa itself.Now,I need a consultant or someone knowledgable in the chocolate business to tell me a-z the kind of machinery i need to help produce the chocolates.I have made arrangement with a toy manufacturer in China to produce the plastic toys and ship to Ghana.

I have done research about the market potentials and the results are fantastic.80% of my target market would be kids and young people between age 3 and 16. The rest are adults that have interest in toy collections.

Please if you are out there and knows which machinery I would need from start to finish,kindly help me out.This concept would be very successful here in West Africa especially with the finest dark cocoa which we have in abundance. My email address is victor@3glegacy.com and skype is legacy3g

Comment by Danyle Johansson on April 26, 2011 at 9:51am: Welcome Stacy,

I also took Ecole Chocolat's online class and enjoyed it completely. The best part about working with chocolate is that all of your mistakes still taste great. lol.

Best of luck to you.

Danyle

Comment by Arun Bhargava on April 26, 2011 at 2:48am: Hello Stacy,

Welcome to wonderful world of chocolate, and sure you must be really enjoying.

Can't stop telling you, but you can check our website www.ipfco.com for quite a few stuff, that you can use for making chocolate. We welcome small orders, and our turn around time is not too bad.

(hi Clay, I am not sure, if I am voileting any posting rules by publishing our company website. Please feel free to remove my post, if it is so.)

Comment by Stacy Narrow on April 25, 2011 at 7:06pm: Hi Everyone!

I am new to blogs, startup central and the chocolate life....hope to get the hang of it soon! Just started at Ecole Chocolat's professional chocolatier's program and having a blast. After 20 years of designing office space and selling furniture, I am now doing something fun, creative and tastes great!

Looking to source products, possibly equipment, working on business name, branding....so much to do! Really excited we found this site and blog!

Comment by Ricardo Trillos on April 22, 2011 at 10:38pm: Hello Group,

My Name is Ricardo, from Miami, FL USA. I've been making chocolates for a while but as a business since 2.5 years ago I founded Cao Chocolates and specialize in gourmet chocolate truffles. We are an online business trying to open our shop soon and our goal is to learn as much as possible and also share the knowledge we have with others. (I have an accounting background before started this business). If anybody need help here I am.

Comment by Danyle Johansson on April 20, 2011 at 7:49pm: Welcome Sharron,

What a wonderful place to live. I wish you lots of success in your new business.

Comment by Sharron Harper on April 20, 2011 at 6:09pm: Hello all. I am living in Costa Rica and have recently started working with a friend here who has been making chocolate bars and confections as a home based hobby for a couple of years. We are now starting our small business in which we plan to sell to tourist shops, restaurants and grocery stores here. I had no idea there was so much interest in chocolate. I am glad to have found this site. I look forward to sharing my experiences and learning from all of you.

Comment by Susan Van Horn on March 31, 2011 at 6:44pm: Hello to you, too Sharon!

Comment by Susan Van Horn on March 31, 2011 at 6:44pm: Hi, Stacy! Welcome aboard fellow Ecole person. You'll find lots of information here - and help.