Very interesting notes and insights on reading your blog.

For me, having moved from corporate to entreprenuer life style in last 2 years, it’s an interesting dialogue/retrospection on gains and losses (assets and liabilities) of both the world. Apart from the rewards and challenges in both, the difference is wheather you are driven your own dreams & goals; or driven by the dreams/goals of others.

Cheers
Sanjay

Sir Laurence Olivier

Jerri

very good. Many people (men and women) can take a valuable lesson from what you’ve said.

Andy

Crystal Williams
Owner/Founder at BambuSky

Hi Jerri!

I have written several business plans for beverage-related start-ups (energy drink and home brewed beer). First it’s important to mention that barriers to entry largely depend of the market you are seeking to enter (i.e. North America, Asia, London, Maine and so on). However, here are some of the barriers you will find when it comes to the soft drink industry:

1) Existing players, particularly those with well-established distribution channels and brand awareness (Pepsico, Coca-Cola, etc).
2) Production costs which are substantial.
3) Access to distribution channels.
4) Creating brand awareness and achieving market acceptance (local tastes and preferences).
5) Government regulations and licensing (if required).

Hope this helps!

Hamlet Azarian
Senior Buyer

Hamlet Azarian suggests this expert on this topic:
Stephanie Holland
I would contact Steph, she might be able to help you out.

Todd Comins
Founder and CTO, FluidVoice Inc.

You might find the Venture Voice podcast with Sharelle Klaus of Dry Soda interesting.
Links:
http://www.venturevoice.com/2006/06/vv_show_35_sharelle_klaus_of_d.html
http://www.venturevoice.com/2006/04/steve_hindy-brooklyn_brewery.html
Clarification added 25 days ago:
While not a soda, this was an interesting podcast with Steve Hindy of the Brooklyn Brewery. He goes into interesting detail about how what it took to get into distribution. Parallel industry experience might apply…

See the new link I added…

Can you tell I am a fan of Venture Voice?

Good luck!

Lalit Saraswat – lalit@sancoale.net
Management Consulting, Design, Marketing, Real Estate

from a newcomers perspective:
the strength of the distribution channel of the giants will easily be your single biggest barrier. the next big barriers are marketing budgets and investments in production facilities. the large retailers have significant leverage.

if you are an existing player, and want to expand your product line, then there will be different challenges. say from soft drinks to health drinks. then the key challenge will be in communicating the shift to your consumers, and realigning your distribution to focus.

if you are a new entrant, you may as well want to study the recent trends in soft drink consumption and its contribution to profitability for the market where you plan to enter, before deciding whether its worth entering that market. this data is publicly available in different forms, including annual reports of the giants like pepsi, coca cola, etc.

spot the niche. the opportunity that a product designed for a niche market, say a particular age group, or cultural type, or specific location may be tremendous, and tougher for a giant to spot.

Blessings,
Yvonne

thanks for the mention. Things are going well, I hope to meet up with you soon to talk about what’s up.

If you get a chance, check out my blog. From an entrepreneurship point of view, blogs may be more important than websites.

Andy
http://alignmentinquiries.blogspot.com/

– e. e. cummings