The version of your product that sells direct to a customer is rarely the version a buyer can put on a shelf. Same recipe, same craft, different pack, different label, different price. Deciding that before you pitch is what stops you winning an order you lose money on.

This is the most common way a first wholesale deal goes wrong. The product was priced for one channel and sold into another, and nobody noticed until the invoice. Writing down what each channel actually buys takes an afternoon and prevents a year of that.

You need your true cost to make one unit, including your own labour at a real hourly figure. If your time is free in the maths, every channel looks profitable and none of them are.

You also need the channel you chose in your distribution strategy. This step defines the product for that channel, so the channel has to be settled first.