Entrepreneur, Yiorgos Samios, prepares batches of his GoGo Garlic Dip at the QEDC’s commercial kitchen in Long Island City. The group rents the space to small businesses and individuals to assist with food-based endeavors. Photo courtesy of the Queens Economic Development Corporation (QEDC).
Ever dreamed of someone enjoying your homemade cupcakes as much as you do, or stared longingly at the person behind the counter at Greek restaurant whipping up the batches of their mother’s recipe for tzatziki dip on your lunch break?
The Queens Economic Development Corporation (QEDC), a nonprofit that provides services to hundreds of local small businesses, says it has the recipe for success for aspiring food-based business owners.
The organization is once again offering its five-week, low-cost training course that provides hands on exercises and networking for those wanting to start or expand as food entrepreneurs.
“You learn the food business in and out,” said Rob Mackay. Director of Public Relations at the QEDC. “It has a broad appeal to anyone at any level. It appeals to different people for different reasons. Some are tired of the rat race. Some are immigrants [looking to learn the business]. Some are stay-at-home moms.”
The course runs on consecutive Monday nights from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. staring July 30 at QEDC’s Entrepreneur Space at 36-46 37th Street in Long Island City. For $150 dollars, participants are schooled in business basics like legal and insurance requirements, pricing, producing and packaging a product, and a business marketing plan to target customers. Participants will also be able to showcase products at a graduation ceremony at the end, attended by local sponsors.
According to Mackay, Queens is home to 45,000 small businesses, and a lot of those are food related.
“Queens is very much about food right now,” said Mackay. “It’s hard to get people to cross the East River [to come to Queens], but food is the most enticing way. There are always niches here.”
Some of the most unique niches that past participants of the work- shop have found include, a gluten- free, baby teething biscuit company; designer marshmallow products; and bite-size, “diet” cheesecakes.
One aspiring French baker, Francois Danielo, attended the workshop last year and now owns a bustling bakery in Forest Hills called La Boulangerie.
Danielo credits the QEDC as his “helpline” in establishing his small business that prepares all baked goods on-site everyday.
“They helped me through the whole process. [They] taught me how to set up a corporation, do the financing, the pricing. I had no idea,” said Danielo in a thick, French accent you would hope to find in a bakery carrying delicacies like pan au chocolat and pate de camagne.
Danielo hopes that specialty, high-quality food businesses coninue to spread in Queens as they have in other boroughs.
“You see it more happening in Brooklyn. I don’t know why Queens hasn’t been more prone to it yet, “ said Danielo. “People will go to the city to find something French, but now they can stop here.”
For more information or to sign up for the food entrepreneur course, call 718-392-0025 or go to www. queensny.org
By Katie Riordan
