How to Create a Nutritional Product for Voice Users in Five Steps ⏱ 2 mins

July 24, 2023

Are you an entrepreneurial singing teacher looking for a side hustle? Why not take create a nutritional product for voice users?

Many savvy singing teachers have stepped outside the boundaries of their studio and created an interesting (and sometimes lucrative) side hustle for themselves.

Some write books, while others devise training courses or create apps as a way of sharing their knowledge of voice with a broader audience. But here’s a side hustle you may not have considered – creating a nutritional product for voice users.

To get an idea of what’s involved BAST Training spoke to Carrie Garrett, a vocal coach and speech and language therapist who helped create the brand VitaVoice. The first product in the VitaVoice range (more are in the pipeline) is a supplement packed with vitamins, minerals and botanicals to help maintain a healthy, balanced voice.

So how do you turn an idea for a consumable product, such as a supplement, lozenge or tea, into a reality?

Carrie discusses her two-year entrepreneurial journey on the Singing Teachers Talk podcast and explains that it was a vast – but rewarding – learning curve. “It’s been such an exciting project,” she says. “It’s something new, and we all need new projects.”

Wondering where would you start if you wanted to create a nutritional product? Here’s Carrie’s guide.

1 Define your mission

“Think about your mission and your aims for the project,” Carrie says. Be clear about your goals, be they financial, creative or altruistic and how you will achieve them.

2 Do your research

While Carrie had never created a supplement before, she had experience reading scientific studies due to her academic background, which helped when researching the formula for the supplement. It’s also essential to research what’s already on the market (is there an unexplored niche?) and the regulatory standards you’ll have to meet.

“If you’re creating a consumable product, you must get really savvy with the standards and regulations. It’s all open access, so you can find it out for yourself. But there’s a lot to go through in terms of legalities.”

3 Get your finances in place

You’ll need to set funds aside to get your product off the ground. “However much you think it’s going to cost, it’s going to cost four times or five times more. It is a ridiculously money hungry process.”

4 Talk to specialists

While the team behind VitaVoice had expertise in vocal health, design and marketing, they needed to draw on the knowledge of nutritionists and manufacturers to formulate their product.

“You need to talk to people who know what they’re doing,” Carrie says. “You get to a point where you can’t take it any further without collaborating with people who know what they’re talking about.”

5 Build a team

“I would say don’t try it as an individual, but that’s my personal view,” she says. “There’s no way that VitaVoice would ever have come about if it had been just one person. There are so many different tasks involved in bringing a product to market, and different people bring different skills. Enjoy the process. Keep smiling and keep finding the fun in it.”