# Just Peanuts #Entrepreneurship #Ali_Originals #Business #Marketing >[!idea] Current Status > **Inception**: 2015 > **Business**: Retired | **Brand**: Hibernated **Just Peanuts** is one of my favorite own brands. It started with me making my own peanut butter[^1]. One day I made a jar for a friend of mine, Ali Chedid, and he loved it. The entrepreneur in me instantly asked Ali: "Would you pay for this?". He said yes. And this is how it started! If you ever wondered how natural peanut butter is made, well, it's just peanuts. This is where the name "Just Peanuts" came from. I am especially proud of the brand's tag line which I placed below the ingredients list: "**Really, it's just peanuts!**" ![[Just Peanuts Sticker.png]] Just Peanuts remained a personal small business, mostly aimed at selling friends and friends of friends. In addition to promoting it though my personal social media, I got the support of the gym where I worked out (Platinum Fitness Club), and the coworking and community space AltCity. I sold a few hundred jars over a few years after which I decided to pull the plug. ![[Just Peanuts post.png]] When I first started selling, peanut butter was not as common in the market, especially natural or locally made peanut butter. This allowed me to sell at a very high profit margin of around 2.5x. A 380g jar sold for $10. As peanut butter got more popular, and more people in Lebanon realized how easy it is to make, lower prices and equivalent quality started to appear in the market. This is when I decided to stop. ## Expansions that never happened: #### Flavored peanut butter (Nutella, Honey, Cinnamon) I tested a few different flavors. I sold some of those flavors as special orders, but never officially included them as part of the brand. #### Just Cashews, Just Almonds The same with flavors. I made a few special orders of Almond Butter, however, I chose not to add it to the brand, as the price of any nut butter that is not peanut butter was very high, and the market was too niche for my liking. #### Peanut Skins Peanut skin is a little bitter, so I used to manually remove all skin from the peanuts to achieve a better tasting peanut butter. This resulted in a decent amount of peanut skin getting thrown away. I did some research and learned that peanut skin is actually quite nutritious[^2], as it is rich in highly active antioxidants including catechins and procyanidins. So I considered packaging and selling the by-product as a nutritious booster to be added to shakes, salads, stews. This would have given me the opportunity to introduce an innovative product to the market AND increase my profit margins. However, the idea never came to fruition. #### Make Your Own Nut Butter Station People like customizing their food. So one major expansion idea was to join street food markets and local food festivals and street fairs with a Nut Butter Station. Given that nut butter can be made in a few minutes, the idea was to offer people the opportunity to create their own nut butter on the spot. They could use a single ingredient, or multiple types of nuts to create an original mix. They could also add in extra ingredients such as chocolate, cinnamon, honey, and crushed nuts. > [!grid] > ![[Just Peanuts.png]] > ![[Just Peanuts label.png]] > >![[Just Peanuts flavors.png]] > ![[Just Peanuts bag.png]] [^1]: [Instagram: My first attempt at making peanut butter. Looks successful to me.](https://www.instagram.com/p/womJHPxCXo/) [^2]: [Peanut skin procyanidins: Composition and antioxidant activities as affected by processing - ScienceDirect](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0889157505001080)