ota.FAQ

People have been asking me general questions through email and in the comment section after each blog post. In response to this I am making an FAQ post. So, if you ask a question in the comment area, check here to find the answer. You can always find this blog post if you look under the "TOPICS" section to the right, and click on FAQ. I hope you find this helpful!

Feel free to leave comments and questions on this post too, and I will also answer those.

Thanks guys!

  1. What form of payment will you accept? If you live in and around Charlotte you can pick up your order to save the shipping cost and pay in cash. If you find me at the farmer's market, cash will be accepted. For paying online, as of now, I am going to set up a "small business" PayPal account that will take credit card payment.
  2. Are there any plans to have the packages of 8, 12 and 24 bars be a variety pack instead of just one type? As of now, no, there will not be variety packs. The recipe was somewhat difficult to size down to make a batch of 8. 8 is as low as I can go without getting extremely small and odd measurements for the ingredients. If you wanted 12 bars in 4 varieties, I would have to make 4 batches of 8 and would be left with 20 extra bars that I might not be able to sell. One suggestion is to put in an order with 2+ people and you can split all the bars up for more variety.
  3. How do you figure out the nutrition info that goes on the label? Legally, I do not need to provide a nutrition label. Apparently, (who knows where this rule comes from) I only need a nutrition label if I have more than 100 employees. I'm not sure that will be happening anytime soon. However, I do have to provide a list of ALL ingredients on the label, for each bar. Also, I will have basic nutrition information posted on the menu, or on the blog even though I don't have to. It is important to me, and I know a lot of people will want to know. Basically to do this, I just add up all the calories/fat/carbs/fiber/protein according to the amount I am using for each ingredient in 1 batch. Then, I divide by how many bars I get out of the batch, and voila, nutrition information!
  4. Can you suggest a new variety or specifiy the exact nuts and fruit you want in your bars? Yes, I am always looking for any suggestions. You can specifiy the nuts and fruit you want in your bars, or if there is an ingredient you want left out. It is very flexible. If you want extra nuts or fruit added, there will be a small charge for this.
  5. Will the menu expand? YES! I also want to do seasonal bars.... think, fall = pumpkin = mmmm

3 comments:

Laura said...

good stuff ash! exciting progress!

Berto at PricePlow said...

Great progress! PayPal fees will definitely eat up your profits, so you might want to shop around for other online payment gateways (like authorize.net and Google Checkout). Authorize.net might involve setting up an eCommerce website thought, but something to keep in mind if you want to shave a percent or two.

Good luck! When you launch, buy all the domains you can that are related to your name (otabar.com/net/org/us, otabars.com/net/org/us, ota-bar.com/net/org/us, etc etc), and don't forget to copyright your business name!

Kelsey Locke said...

Love the photos!! Esp the one of the rainbow chard!! What are duck eggs like??!!

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