Plan
Shape it before you spend on it.
You don’t need 100 acres or a storefront to be in the food business in Connecticut. You need a plan that matches your product. Start with the checklist — twenty minutes, no signup, yours to keep.
The start-here checklist
Twenty minutes, before you spend a dollar.
- 1
Name your product, plainly.
What exactly are you selling, and to whom? One sentence a stranger understands.
- 2
Find your category.
Cottage food or commercial? It changes everything downstream — the decision guide below sorts it in two minutes.
- 3
Price it like it has to last.
Ingredients, packaging, your time, and a margin. A product that only works for free isn’t a business yet.
- 4
Know who regulates you.
Your health district and the state depend on where you sell and how it’s made. We map it on the Launch page.
- 5
Decide where it gets made.
Home kitchen, a licensed commercial kitchen, or shared space — each has a cost and a rule set.
- 6
Make one real sale.
A market, a pop-up, a single order. Proof beats a plan; a plan gets you to the proof.
The first fork
Is my product cottage food, or commercial?
Likely cottage food
- Shelf-stable and non-hazardous — baked goods, jams, granola, dry mixes
- Made in your home kitchen
- Sold direct to the customer
- Under Connecticut’s cottage-food sales limits
Likely commercial
- Refrigeration, canning, or anything time/temperature-controlled
- Selling wholesale or to retailers
- Higher volume than a home kitchen supports
- Needs a licensed commercial kitchen — the space we’re building toward
This is a starting guide, not a ruling. Cottage-food rules and limits change, and your exact product decides the answer — always confirm your category with your local health district before you sell.
Business basics
The paperwork nobody loves, done once.
A business structure, an EIN, a Connecticut sales-and-use permit, and the right insurance. It’s an afternoon of forms, not a wall — and it’s the same short list whether you’re a baker or a hot-sauce maker. We point you to the free advisors who do this every day.
See funding & advising →Events & training
Learn it beside people doing the same thing.
Workshops and short trainings, built around what we heard people need first — food-safety readiness, pricing, and getting to your first market. Tell us where you are and you’ll be first to hear when a session near you opens.
Join the pipelineHave the plan? The next step is making it legal.
Go to Launch →